2004 Performance Based Budget - Laserfiche WebLink

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1996-97 Customer Satisfaction Benchmark and Tracking Survey-A scientific survey was conducted of our customers during late 1996/early 1997 by an independent consultant hired by the City. More than 2,000 responses to a six- page, 111 question survey were completed, received and evaluated. The consultant's work included focus groups and a survey pretest. The survey product resulted in a 99 percent confidence level and 2.81 confidence interval. This survey establishes the benchmark for many of our growth objectives ranging from customer service satisfaction, customer trust measures, service importance, specific project and program measurements, etc. This information will be tracked on a biannual basis (by survey) to help us determine progress toward our individual growth objectives, broad goals and our mission of becoming a recognized model city. - 1998 Budget Improvements-Additional training for the City Management Team in program budget development was conducted. Additional work in regards to growth objectives and goal setting at the Department Head level took place during the year. A commitment was made to begin program budget logic model training to enhance the budget document for future years. • 1999 Budget-During 1998, the City took a giant step forward in making a commitment to revamp the performance based budget format that had been utilized in the budget years 1996 through 1998. Anew format was developed and implemented for the 1999 Program Budgets. This new format included the development of logic models for each departmental program with the intent to more effectively measure each program's intended outcomes. Our goal was to focus more on measuring the "results" of our efforts instead of just focusing on our activities and the outputs that resulted from the activities we perform on a regular basis. We determined that the logic model format would help us more effectively identify the benefits or changes that we intended our customer (clients) to experience as a result of our efforts. In the Fall of 1998, the City's Management Team began intensive training with staff members from the United Way of St. Joseph County. The training facilitators had implemented this program with various community agencies that receive funding from the United Way. When measuring performance outcomes through the use of logic models, emphasis is placed upon inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and indicators that effectively measure outcomes. Amore complete description of this methodology can be found in the introduction to Section C of this document. It is important to point out that we were in the first year of a multi-year process in implementing the logic model format for 1999 and future years' budget documents. We identified indicators that we believed would effectively measure our intended outcomes; however, we did not (in the 1999 Budget document) established targets and benchmarks that would be necessary in determining how successful we were in achieving our outcomes. This next step was deferred to the second year of utilizing the logic model format. After six months of training, drafting, writing and rewriting (and often rewriting for a third or fourth time), we ended up with a product of which we were proud; and we felt confident that we had created a very effective management tool. A-8