By Pepper Parr
July 30, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
As part of their efforts to keep Burlington one of the best places to live in Canada, the city is making major changes to the way it plans for, delivers and monitors the services provided to the community.
“Governments are increasingly being called upon to make difficult decisions among competing priorities and to deliver and demonstrate value in the services they provide.
Just what does the city provide in the way of services. There are 50 public and internal services that have been identified within the service portfolio.
Councillor Jack Dennison meets with people in his ward and brings staff from Finance in to go through the budget in some detail.
One of the changes is how the city will prepare and evaluate the annual budget. Instead of the existing method of allocating budgets to a broad basket of programs within each municipal department, the city is developing what’s called service-based budgeting.
Essentially, investments will be made to services such as Animal Control; Road and Sidewalk Maintenance; Winter Maintenance; Transit Service; Parks and Open Space Maintenance; Fire Protection; and Recreation. Each service will have a specific person, identified as the service owner, who is responsible for overseeing delivery of the service.
Each year citizens gather to have the budget explained to them. Vanessa Warren, founder of the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition, jumped up at last year’s session and asked why citizen’s weren’t meeting with the city BEFORE the budget was determined so that they could have input when it would matter. She didn’t get an answer.
Each year, Council, staff and the community will be able to see exactly how much money has been invested into each service and how much of that service has been delivered to the satisfaction of the tax payers.
The move into what the city is calling Egov is a corporate culture transformation initiative and was established, in part, through conversations with our customers and staff. The city maintains more than two-thirds of residents and 70 per cent of businesses surveyed said they prefer to carry out interactions and transactions with the city online.
The E-Government strategy will be delivered through 10 projects over three years . This will build the technology platform to power E-Government and online service programs for the future.
One of the more recent examples of this approach is the Online Pot Hole reporting feature. Each spring, Burlington streets are dimpled with pot-shaped holes that cause inconvenience and could be hazardous. And while the City’s roads and parks maintenance team helps keep roads safe for travel by filling potholes wherever they find them, motorists also have a role to play.
Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are encouraged to report potholes online. Click here to try it.
The framework for the new budgeting methodology was approved by City Council in May 2013. This new approach will be seen when the budget for 2015 is presented,
The Results Based accountability (RBA) tool aligns what needs to be accomplished within the city’s broad strategic directions of vibrant neighbourhoods, prosperity and excellence in government. Based on customers’ needs and wants.
City staff will measure specific results for each service area. These measures will address the questions: “How much did we do?,” “How well did we do it?” and “Is anyone better off?” These questions will get to the root of the amount of services provided, how efficiently they have been delivered, and the effectiveness and value of each service.
Customer satisfaction surveys will help provide answers to the questions. The new budget and accountability process will also allow for meaningful public input into the budget process and allow City Council to make informed decisions regarding whether specific services need to be enhanced, maintained at current levels, reduced or eliminated entirely. It will also identify any new services that might be needed.
Overall, the goal is to ensure citizens are getting good value for their municipal tax dollars. In addition to the investment into each service through the budget process, the new system will also be set up to evaluate the use of human resources, machinery and materials. Each service owner will be empowered and encouraged to determine if there are more efficient ways of delivering the service. As an example, transit routes and the frequency of bus service on particular routes can be altered, depending on the demand for services in each area of the city.
How do we keep getting better? The third tool supporting the changes Burlington is making to service delivery involves business process management. This tool will be used to identify opportunities for continuous improvement. The process, itself, involves a critical review of how services are being delivered, the steps in the process, what is and isn’t working, and how the service delivery can be improved or streamlined.
For example, a series of questions might be: Is it possible to make better use of technology to streamline both internal processes and to deliver services to the public? Are there gains that can be made that would benefit citizens? Can citizens be given the opportunity to have more interactions with the city online rather than waiting “in line” at city hall? If so, can city staff then be refocused elsewhere to offer services where personal attention is really needed?
The business process management tool also allows for collaboration between service owners in areas where interests overlap. This way, different service owners can work together on a continuous improvement initiative to review the processes used to deliver a service to the community.
Lori Jivan, Acting coordinator of budget and policy patiently leads people through an explanation of the budget and the workbook the city created.
As an example, the service owner responsible for the Recreation service can work with the service owner responsible for the Sport service to provide enhanced alignment between the city’s recreational facilities and the organized sports programs that wish to use those facilities. Burlington residents, city Council and staff want to be proud of their local government and the services that are delivered. All stakeholders want to be confident the city is well-managed, forward-looking and provides high-quality services that satisfy users. The changes to the service delivery process are designed to ensure that all of this happens in a planned and organized way.
That’s the theory. While there are very few council members around city hall these days – they are out knocking on doors – staff, particularly those in finance, are doing dry runs on the new approach while at the same time they prepare two versions of the budget using the same numbers.
Background links:
How does 16% more in the way of taxes in 2015 sound?
