Agenda - Council - 08/11/1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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looking for support alad assistance in this area. As we know from our own communities and hear repeatedly from the media, local government customers are looking for responsive and effective government. By regularly collecting data on performance among the various service areas, jurisdictions w/il be better able to show their citizens how their government works, and how they are trying to continually improve operations. The Consortium was developed with the intent df giving all participants a chance to help develop and analyze performance measurements that would assure comparability among local governments and thus encourage improvement. Usefulness is one of the key considerations of Consortium members; fund~nentally our effort is 'about identifying best practices and identifying areas for improvement. Forty-two cities and counties have joined together in this Comparative Performance Measurement Consortium. They share several common.characteristics: Each jurisdiction has at least 200,000 people; each has dedicated some of their staffs time to participate in this effort; each has made a financial contribution to become a Consortium member; and each jurisdicfion's chief administrative officer or a deputy is involved with this project in an advisory capacity via the consortium's Policy Board. A Steering Committee comprising IcMA project staff, Urban Institute staff, Deloitte & Touche advisors, and each of the Tectmi. 'cal Advisory Committee Chairs is responsible for developing the instruments, gathering data from the jurisdictions, and making recommendations to the Policy Board. Because the Consortium is a participatory project goyemed by its members, the Policy Board sets policy and makes the major decisions. Its first task was to decide on which services the consortium should focus. Four areas were chosen: · Police · Fire · Neighborhood Se.rvices, which includes parks and recreation, libraries, highways' and road maintenance, refase collection, street lighting, code enforcement, and housing · Support Services, which includes purchasing, fleet management, risk management, data pro~essing, human resources, and facility management Technical Advisory Committees (TACs) were formed for each 6£the four areas. The TAC members are local government staff with expertise in the four service areas. After an initial training session focusing on the various types of performance indicators, each' TAC met and determined the initial in,.d~cators. Each TAC began by assessing the respective service and developing appropriate performance indicators. During the current phase, the TACs are collecting data on these indicators and analyzing the data for comparability and value. After the performance indicators are tested, best practices among jurisdictions will be examined. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I