TO: COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC FROM: Chris Burton
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: February 14, 2023
Approved Date
SUBJECT: DEVELOPMENT SERVICES PROCESS IMPROVEMENT AND
DASHBOARD REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
Accept an update on metrics and dashboard data that detail bottlenecks in the development process, as well as actions for short- and long-term improvements.
BACKGROUND
Pursuant to City Council direction in 2022, the Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement (PBCE) provides updates to the Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee on the development services process along with actions for improvements. These updates are provided bi-annually.
The introductory update was presented to the CED Committee on February 28, 2022, and most recently on August 22, 2022. Both presentations featured a static dashboard including 18 unique metrics across three phases of the permitting process: (1) intake, (2) plan review, and (3) issuance/inspection. Each metric presented a snapshot of the most recent monthly data available and a historical reference of the metric information from the past five to twelve months.
In addition to the dashboard overview, staff provided a deeper dive into specific operations of the permitting process. Previous highlights included the building intake processes and the ADU permitting process. Each highlight process was intended to give a better understanding of the process for obtaining permits.
The original measures as part of the Development Services Dashboard update were composed of readily available data and were always intended to be an initial draft of the dashboard. Further, the dashboard was unsophisticated, manually pulling information from a variety of data sources that were not always maintained adequately. The dashboards were created not based on the measures that told the most complete story of the department, but rather which could quickly be assembled into a presentation. The initial creation of these dashboards coincided with the CED AGENDA: 2/27/23
FILE: CC 22-041
ITEM: (d)2
2/15/23
COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
February 14, 2023
Subject: Development Services Dashboard Update
department's realization that a new approach and commitment to customer service was required.
An initial version of what was to become the Planning, Building and Code Enforcement (PBCE) Customer Service Charter (CSC) was unveiled at a department-wide meeting of all supervisors in June 2022 that started the process of identifying the critical measures that would eventually become the CSC Dashboard Measures and replace the Development Services Dashboard previously presented at the CED Committee.
ANALYSIS
The CSC was envisioned out of the main PBCE strategy document, the PBCE Management Framework (figure 1). The Management Framework is built around four key areas: (1) Informed Management Decisions, (2) Telling Our Story, (3) Workforce, and (4) Budget. Each of these areas is critical for improving the management and operations of PBCE which will produce excellent customer outcomes. A critical component to all of these core areas is the recognition that a new paradigm around customer service was required that aligned the front-line customerfacing activities with the high-level outcomes desired for PBCE customers. To help accomplish this, two foundational elements were added to the Management Framework: (i) the Policy & Procedure Hub and (ii) the Customer Service Charter.
Figure 1: PBCE Management Framework
The PBCE Customer Service Charter is a department-wide written commitment to provide excellent customer service. The CSC is a public entryway into the current services, metrics, resources, and future improvements in the department's ongoing pursuit to provide excellent
COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
February 14, 2023
Subject: Development Services Dashboard Update
customer service. As a foundational element of the Management Framework, the CSC should enable managers in PBCE to make informed management decisions that capitalized on the strengths of our workforce that produce excellent customer outcomes.
The CSC makes specific commitments of PBCE regarding customer service including (1) response to customers, (2) benchmark performance & improvement, (3) action in the application/review process that results in quality outcomes, and (4) transparency. The launch of the Customer Service Dashboards is a major step toward the (2) benchmark & improvement and (4) transparency commitments.
A core commitment of the CSC is the adherence to maintaining public dashboards that benchmark and record improvements to our core operations. These dashboards are an improvement from the previous ones for many reasons, the first being that the dashboards are built through Microsoft Power BI and are always therefore publicly available. The data is updated on a more frequent basis (depending on the specific measure) that is updated publicly in real-time as opposed to a bi-annual update to the CED Committee. The dashboards are interactive so customers can see specific data and in some cases filter dashboards to see results for certain criteria.
The second improvement is how the dashboards were created. The original CED dashboards were created based on which data was available. The new CSC dashboards were created based on which metrics showcased the operations of PBCE best. The measures were selected by the managers of each team in PBCE and are updated on at least a monthly basis. The updated measures are reviewed every other week with the entire senior management team of PBCE to gain better insights and inform management decisions to improve department services.
The collective effort of PBCE managers has resulted in a preliminary list of 43 individual metric dashboards. An example of the dashboard is shown in Figure 2 below. The purpose of the dashboard is to provide a summary of what the measure shows as well as provide context for the value, general impacts, and historical disruptions that have disrupted the performance of the individual operation. Each dashboard includes 12 components that provide this insight. A brief description of the dashboard components is available in Attachment C.
COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
February 14, 2023
Subject: Development Services Dashboard Update
Figure 2: Example Individual Measure Dashboard: Next Available Building Inspection PBCE was deliberate in making sure every team had the representation of at least two of the three measure types (Activity, Productivity, and Outcome) for each team. Activity measures are sometimes known as output which records the immediate production of staff where Outcome measures record the actual impact recognized by customers. This was to further the goal of the CSC which was able to connect the individual activity of the team to the eventual outcome for the customer. Both measures are valuable as activity measures are more valuable for managers to use to understand and improve the performance of their team. While outcome measures are often the most important measure type, they usually have a variety of inputs that are sometimes outside the control of the manager or team. Productivity measures were included less frequently but records the outcome given the level of staffing. The productivity measure is often a bridge between the activity and the outcome measures that help provide deeper insights into how outcomes came to be. The department aims to increase the number of productivity measures as the department improves the analysis of existing measures and operations more broadly.
Relating to the commitment to transparency, the individual measure dashboards are designed to provide the public with a better understanding of how information is used by managers to track the progress of their teams and why those measures are valuable. The individual measure dashboard can stand alone to provide background on the operations of the team. Also, the individual measures can be aggregated into other dashboards (for example PBCE-wide dashboard) and linked back to the individual dashboards so the public can get the details of each measure and how it’s connected to the bigger picture.
COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
February 14, 2023
Subject: Development Services Dashboard Update
While the more robust benefits of the CSC have yet to be realized, there are a few early indications of how the introduction of the charts that have better-informed management decisions in the department. First, with Planning Development Review, the goal of sending 30-day and 45- day letters has previously been overlooked in favor of the entire project timeline. Now that the team reviews and reports on this measure, there has been a renewed effort to complete the letters on time as staff is aware of this team goal. Second, regarding the days to the next available building inspection, this measure has dropped significantly since November 2022. Reviewing the data helped the managers realize the impact that weather was having on the construction industry slowing down inspection demand. This allowed the inspection managers to reduce the inspector utilization which had regularly reached 130% as all inspectors were working overtime and Saturdays. Finally, for Code Enforcement’s General Code program, the slowdown of new cases was revealed to be a seasonal pattern that allowed the team to close older cases and reduce the total active caseload.
The Customer Service Dashboards are available from the PBCE public website. The single preview of most of the dashboards is available on the main PBCE Customer Service Charter dashboard which provides links to each of the individual dashboards. Dashboard viewers can hover over the individual measures to see the weekly/monthly results or can click on “Focus Mode” to see a larger version of each line chart.
Finally, one more dashboard was created that outlines the various improvement initiatives as part of PBCE’s commitment to improvement and public transparency. Each improvement initiative includes a status, the division(s) that is impacted, the estimated completion date, the estimated impact of the initiative, and the effort to implement the initiative. Viewers of the dashboard can filter the dashboard based on the status, division, impact, and effort by clicking on the status checkbox or by clicking on the individual bar charts on the dashboard.
Each division within PBCE manages a variety of processes that the Customer Service measures attempt to describe. An overview of the PBCE processes and related measures are outlined in Attachment A. Generally, each division includes an initial intake phase where the customers or complaining parties' submission to the city has an initial review or inspection before entering the main review process. Following the full review and working with the customer through the process, the application/case reaches the end process that includes either a public hearing, inspection, or general closeout. The diagram in the attachment shows the high-level process for each group (each identifying which generic process is depicted) and how the current measures relate to those different points of the process.
The department is proud to launch the CSC with unprecedented levels of transparency to our operations, goals, metrics, and improvement initiatives. However, there is more work and improvements to be done. This milestone marks the start of a paradigm shift in how the department analyzes and makes decisions to improve services. This paradigm shift is much more than the public information provided to customers but also the fundamental transition of how department leadership approaches daily management and operations.
COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
February 14, 2023
Subject: Development Services Dashboard Update
As mentioned above, there are several improvements the department hopes to make to the CSC measures including upgrading the analysis of operations, deepening the existing measures to tell a fuller story for managers and customers, developing new reports, and creating advanced interteam measures that attempt to identify the full scope of inputs that results in the final customer outcomes. Other user interface improvements are planned for the dashboards to make them approachable and insightful for the public. Finally, the department is committed to improving the service level outlined in the 43 measures by implementing the many initiatives identified.
Vacancy
PBCE continues to struggle with vacant positions despite the concerted effort around hiring including the introduction of a new hiring tracking system. Currently, there is a 25% overall vacancy rate with the Planning Division (31%) and Administrative Services (29%) experiencing even higher rates of vacant positions.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Staff will continue to update the CSC measures biweekly which will automatically update the public dashboards. PBCE leadership will review these measures frequently and the improvement initiatives that impact them. Additional measures and improvements to existing dashboards will be made and presented in the next report to the CED Committee in August 2023.
COORDINATION
The report was coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office. /s/
CHRIS BURTON
Director, Planning, Building
and Code Enforcement
For questions, please contact Alex Powell, Chief of Staff, Planning, Building and Code Enforcement, at (408) 535-1258 or at [email protected].
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A – PBCE Processes Overview and Measures
Attachment B – PBCE Customer Service Dashboard Measures Attachment C – Customer Service Charter Dashboard Components