Establish Priorities and Measure Results – address issues I applaud Vice Mayor Zollman’s effort to seek accountability from each city department. The proposal on the consent calendar is to have each department publish a review of their “activities” every two weeks. First it needs to be removed from the consent calendar. The success of this effort depends on the city council agreeing on what is important and what they want to measure.
The background section describes metrics which is better than “activities” but still not meaningful unless the metrics are meaningful. Meaningful are metrics tied to critical goals and objectives. The fiscal impact is stated as none, however this ignores the fact that staff time is our most expensive line item! We need to make sure their time is well spent.
Activities and metrics are worth the time if they measure progress on obtaining goals and objectives. Ask people to report activity and they will dutifully show how busy they are. The bigger question is are they motivated to work on the right priorities. Metrics can be quite motivating.
Step one is to establish priorities, goals and objectives for the coming year. The approach can be top down or bottom up. Realistically the City Council should first agree on some priorities.
For example:
- Priorities for the city might include:
o Establish and maintain a budget that achieves policy levels of reserves or better
o Get a downtown hotel project underway with goal to open in 2 years or less o Repair and improve the following streets which are in the worst condition based on constituent feedback:
▪ Specify street priorities
o Ensure emergency response times for fire and police meet X (standard response)
o Partner Council, Public Works, local business leaders and the Chamber to conduct a quarterly downtown inspection and identify specific issues that need to be addressed (appearance, safety, vacancies...) o Ensure a significant downtown activity is scheduled and publicized each week during the summer and on holiday weekends the rest of the year. Events attract local residents and or tourists and encourage retail shopping and eating in restaurants or other food establishments
o Reduce the amount of money that Citizens/City spend on homeless clean up, homeless services (such as the Homeless Outreach Coordinator) and homeless related police activities. Encourage partnership with the Sheriff's Department and other Countywide resources such as County organized mental health services that are funded by Measure O."
o Reduce operating expense costs/ capita to a regional average for similar sized cities
o Establish a minimum staffing plan for each department and report status of vacancies and recruitment monthly
o Enforce laws regarding homeless encampments and limit the number of homeless services within City limits to reduce the number of transients who come to Sebastopol for free meals and showers
- Priorities for Water and Wastewater Enterprises might include:
o Realize revenue increases projected in the 2024 water and wastewater study based on the approved rates
o Complete an infrastructure study that provides objective measure of our “dilapidated” water and sewer infrastructure and develop a plan to address the deficiencies within 5 years.
o Establish a Water and Sewer Enterprise oversight group made up of staff and citizens for the purpose of ensuring the Water and Wastewater operations are properly spending rate payer revenue on appropriate priorities.
Once you have agreed upon goals and objectives and a budget to achieve them then metrics flow naturally and need to be monitored at appropriate intervals.
Examples:
- Quarterly budget review including revenues and expenses with updated estimates for the remainder of the year
- Based on milestones: Downtown Hotel project – identify critical milestones that must be achieved to finish a hotel in 2 years. (ie. Archaeology study complete, Approved loan funding, groundbreaking, PGE connections complete) and ask for a report as each milestone approaches. If one or more milestones are not achieved, then put the project on the CC agenda for full review
- Monthly: Police and Fire response times – monthly report on #calls, response times, purpose (include homeless), locations (establish defined regions, downtown, Gravenstein station, Barlow, Fircrest, etc.… single out problem areas such as Morris, Gravenstein Commons, etc.); report on trends, i.e. current month, ytd, vs last year, arrests (with trends),
- Monthly: Each department to provide a summary of homeless related activities and estimated expenses; number of camping citations; arrests - Monthly for new issues: milestones for CIP projects (i.e. initiation, completion etc.) Street repairs and improvements – status of planned projects achieving milestones, new issues that required urgent repairs.
- Monthly: List of Summer & holiday activities; how were they publicized, estimates for number of people attending the events
- Quarterly walk around report on downtown appearance and safety from the business/city council ad hoc group.
- Monthly: Status report on grant requests planned, submitted, approval status - Monthly: Staff vacancies, how long vacant, # candidates interviewed, # offers made; additional $ costs for contract work to be done
- Quarterly: Report operating costs/capita – goal, current, projected for the year - Quarterly: Homeless count – number of homeless housed/unhoused; number of newly arrived; number contacted; number that qualify for housing; number in the cue for housing; number of citations for public camping.
Water and Wastewater
- Bimonthly report on planned revenue compared to actual revenue, water use by customer category, water use by residential rate tiers, applications for payment plan; requests for information about subsidies
- Quarterly report on planned CIP project milestones and any unanticipated issues requiring immediate repairs
- Bimonthly report on water and sewer leaks
- Quarterly report from Water and Wastewater Oversight Group on any issues identified and recommended actions