Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/04/2014

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Strategies to Improve Communities incorporating resident opinions into performance systems. Survey Results Fit Well into Performance Measures Westminster, Colorado Westminster, Colorado has been on the front line of measuring and reporting performance for many years. City leaders view transparency about the efficiency and effectiveness of their work as a basic condition of local government. In its most recent report about its performance, "Take a Closer Look," staff wrote this: "Performance measurement in the City of Westminster is continuously refined to ensure that the City is "measuring what matters." Through constant reinforcement, the City's performance measurement program works to improve the delivery of City services and the management of resources. Ultimately, performance measurement helps determine the progress made towards achieving the City's Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives." You can see on page i of that report (http://www.ci.westminster.co.us/Portals/o/Reposi tory/Documents/CityGovernment/CMO%20 - 2oTake%2oA%2oCloser%2oLook%2oReport%20- %202013.pdf) that staff are keenly aware that measuring outputs and efficiencies are important only as they serve creation of a high quality of community. Therefore the report starts with resident perspectives about the quality of life in Westminster as reported in the most recent Citizen Survey, conducted by --- 7 National Research Center, Inc. DELIV re,C, EXCEPTIONAL VALUE AND DUALITY OF LIFE e...AI 0.14 1.. n w.n na,r. (m.z ciWrn Survey) „,aVs M o..+IINIIllrc compared by year (3413 alb. Survey) Beyond resident perspectives on overall quality of life, Westminster as a place to live, raise children and retire, the performance report includes resident © 2014, National Research Center, Inc. Measures Performance Measures • Increase Community Engagement • Increase volunteerism for community beautification • Hire/recruit a volunteer coordinator for city • Develop volunteer recruitment plan • Work with faith -based communities to launch "Beautify" Campaign • Provide incentives, support and management of program (including data tracking), • Number of organizations • Number of volunteers • Number of volunteer hours • % of residents reporting volunteerism • % of residents rating volunteer opportunities as "excellent" or "good" opinions about the quality of public works services. In place of cubic yards of snow plowed or linear miles of streets repaired or gallons of water treated, are resident sentiments about the quality of snow removal, street repair and water as you can see below: MAINTAIN A HIGH QUALITY OF SERVICES FOR THE COMMUNITY A major component of the Public Works and Utilities Department's operations is customer service. Reviewing the 2012 Citizen Survey, citizens continued to rank the importance of Public Works and Utilities key service areas as "essential" or "very important." Four of the top ten City services are within the Public Works and Utilities arena (drinking water quality, sewer services, snow removal, and street repair). 1. Drinking water quality: Citizens continued to rank the quality of drinking water highly in the 2012 Citizen Survey (81% in 2012 compared to 83% in 2010). Citizens also continue to value the importance of drinking water quality, with a slight reduction (94% in 2012 compared to 96% in 2010). Citizens continued to rate drinking water quality as "good" or "very good", maintaining an eight year trend. 2. Sewer services: This service has only been included on the survey since 2008 and citizens ranked it slightly higher in quality in 2012 over 2010 (up to 71% in 2012 from 70% in 2010). Citizens have ranked the importance of this service as increasingly "essential" or "very important" since its inclusion in the survey in 2008 (from 85% in 2008, 86% in 2010, to 87% in 2012). Staff strives to maintain the high quality of wastewater service to City residents while meeting all State and Federal regulations. 3. Snow removal: Citizens reduced their perception of this service's level of quality in 2012 (to 63% in 2012 from 69% in 2010), but have continued to rank snow removal as increasingly important in the 2012 survey (to 86% in 2012, up from 83% in 2010). Staff will analyze the changes from previous years and continue work to improve the quality of this service where possible. 4. Street repair: Quality rankings for street repair have continued to improve (53% in 2012 over 49% in 2010), with a slight reduction in the perceived importance of this service (84% in 2012, 86% in 2010). In "Take a Closer Look,"Westminster, CO. 2012 p.9 Page 23