Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has hired a former Pittsburgh Public Schools official and charged him with improving the efficiency of city services.

Chuck Half, 60, of the South Side, will start Aug. 6 as manager of the city's Management, Accountability, Performance and Strategy program. He worked as the school district's coordinator of program management and quality from 2002 through 2006, when he was let go in a round of budget cuts. Since then, he has worked as a consultant implementing business management software.

Mr. Half said he accepted the $56,541-a-year job "because of the challenge" of improving the 3,300-employee city's operations. "We spend too much time trying to make decisions without looking at the available information."

He said he'll first look to improve the flow of information in city departments, and then work on making performance measurements transparent to the public.

"Pittsburgh has already been labeled America's most livable city. Through performance- and outcome-based management, we can also become America's most efficient, effective, and accountable city," said Mr. Ravenstahl, in a statement. "PittMAPS is a new way of managing the City that will provide us with a map for Pittsburgh's future."

As an example of projects he may work on, Mr. Half cited the city's pavement program. He said better information management could help the city take into account the traffic, wear and tear, history, and even development nearby each street when deciding which get repaved.

The city's street repaving program has been criticized for a lack of objective criteria driving decision-making, and for decisions allegedly being made for political reasons.