(media release Sept. 21, 2010)
Transparency means that something can be seen through. when we talk about transparency at city Hall, we mean that residents in Brandon must be able to "see through" its workings, to know exactly what goes on when public officials transact public business.
Like goo business decisions, good policy decisions are data driven. The public needs to be confident that their tax dollars are being spent effectively. Without that confidence, there is no trust.
Residents are shareholders in the City. As such, they are entitled to regular performance reports. Reporting needs to be public and accessible, based on a framework of agreed upon goals and measures. There are three types of reporting that lay a foundation of trust between residents and the people elected to represent them.
Published benchmarks- updated on a regular basis (quarterly, annually)
Citizens in Brandon need a series of quantitative benchmarks that can track economic development and community well being. The insights garnered from the data would help policy makers, the business community, practitioners, researchers, and external users such as business location recruiters and government funders build a stronger foundation for the future.
Data could be gathered, analyzed, and disseminated on (ideally) a quarterly, or annual basis. It would be comparable year over year. As community identified priorities change, benchmarks would be adjusted to show progress against those priorities. Benchmarks address tow critical questions:
Do we have efficient and effective services?
Internal: Internal performance measure enable City Hall to continually monitor and improve on service delivery to Brandonites, and most importantly, explain exactly how your tax dollars are working for you. Some examples of tangible services that could be benchmarked include:
- Adequacy of roads- percentage of paved kilometers where the condition is rated as good to very good.
- Wastewater main backups- number of wastewater main backups per 100 kilometers of wastewater mains in a year.
- Green space- hectares of open city-owned green space per 1,000 persons.
- Participant hours for recreation programs- total participant hours for recreation programs per 1,000 persons.
- Building permits issued
- Taxable assessment per capita
How are we growing and are we more prosperous?
External: based on survey or census data
- Tracking shifts in population: numbers and demographics
- Average household income
- Home ownership levels\
- Employment rates
- Immigration
- Job creation
- Small business start-ups
Why does Brandon need to incorporate benchmarks in its public reporting?
Benchmarks would allow the City to:
- Assess the areas where Brandon is strong and doing well.
- Identify areas where there may be opportunities to improve services that could result in cost savings or service improvements.
- Integrate benchmarking into strategies for continuous improvement of operations.
- Provide a foundation for more detailed analysis of selected services.
Report Card- annually, available online and distributed to all households
The Brandon Report Card would be a one-pager and a way to share important information regarding the delivery of municipal services and to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of those services. These measures focus primarily on service quality, benefits to citizens, and the impacts on the quality of life in Brandon. They would be based on broad themes and be the roll-up of individual benchmarks. Themes could be Quality of Life, Prosperity, Leadership, Community Engagement, Safety.
Annual Report- available online and upon request
Residents are shareholders in the City, and should have access to an Annual Report on performance and annual reporting on the progress of the Strategic Plan. the plan would unite the focus of Council and the community. It would provide clarity about Brandon's future, and would outline the concrete actions that we would take to get us there. It's a blueprint for success, serving as Brandon's roadmap- in good times and bad. It would align day-to-day work at city Hall with the priorities of the City. It enables Brandon to be transparent about the vision for the future and how we would get there.
The Annual Report would not be just a review of the past years accomplishments, but also forward looking toward the upcoming year's priorities and goals. The Report could include reporting on:
- Prudent management of the city's finances
- Innovative use of information technology
- Accessible customer service
- Proactive communications with Brandon residents
- Safety and security practices within the City
No comments:
Post a Comment