COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

Recently I had the great honor of participating in a weeklong class at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University titled “Driving Government Performance.” Public agency leaders from throughout the nation and eight foreign countries gathered to focus on strategies to improve service delivery and government performance (I was not there at city expense).

Using case studies ranging from Bill Bratton and Rudy Giuliani and the New York Police Department, to Paul O’Neill at Alcoa, along with strategies employed by the Coast Guard, Air Force and various welfare reform efforts, we all looked for ideas to help make our own public agencies more efficient and effective. This was particularly timely for me because the city of Newport Beach is currently engaged in a significant Benchmarking and Performance Measurement initiative designed to improve performance and service delivery in our city.

What did we learn that can help make Newport Beach better? First, these case studies were characterized by initial skepticism and resistance. O’Neill was told at Alcoa as he embarked on a major initiative to improve safety, “We have heard this all before, and it just gets in the way ... it’s time-consuming. It doesn’t help us do our job any better. We know our business.”

This is almost verbatim to the objections raised by some when we began our efforts in Newport Beach. O’Neill achieved a 50% reduction in workplace injuries in his first five years by overcoming these objections. As we have advanced in this process, it is very encouraging to see our employees step up to the challenges of benchmarking and seek to identify ways to measure and improve performance.

Second, benchmarking is an essential first step in improved performance. There is no way to gauge quality or measure improvement unless you can answer: “Compared to what?”

Our Citizen Satisfaction Survey demonstrates that residents are very pleased with the quality of services; but how do we compare with similar cities in how those services are delivered? And how can we measure progress without a benchmark? Perhaps more importantly, city services are funded by the taxpayers, and we must be able to ensure we are providing value for the people’s money. A team of city staff and our consultants have identified 30 critical services that reflect the council priorities.

In June, we will review data that provides the ability to set benchmarks for measuring results on these critical areas.

Third, ongoing measurement is required to manage performance. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Time and time again at Harvard, we saw how good managers used data to impact effectiveness.

Bill Bratton in New York focused data collection on the numbers and types of crimes by precinct and reallocated police resources for one of the most dramatic reductions in crime in U.S. history. The Coast Guard used improved data to refocus resources on towing, rather than fishing vessels, resulting in a 50% drop in tow-boat-related fatalities in three years.

Using the 30 critical service areas identified, our staff and consultants will develop a series of performance measures for each critical service. This will enable the city manager and our department heads to measure performance and target resources for maximum effectiveness. It will also provide the City Council and community with clear and objective data on how we are doing and whether we are improving.

Accountability is the key. Having benchmarks and performance measures allows the city to identify specific managers responsible for service delivery and enables our employees to have pride and understanding in how their individual performance impacts our community.

In Baltimore, former Mayor Martin O’Malley established a “CitiStat” program (patterned after Chief Bratton’s “CompStat” in New York).

The mayor and his staff lead a biweekly meeting with all department heads to review progress on pressing issues and the achievement of performance goals. We may not need this specific approach in Newport Beach, but imbuing accountability and responsibility throughout our organization will only enhance the high quality of services we currently enjoy.

Finally, it is important that we have a performance system that looks at city government from multiple perspectives. These include our residents, visitors, the “customers” of city services, employees and the traditional financial perspective. Success in performance improvement is often a function of where you sit. We are undertaking this exercise not because city government is broken or dysfunctional, indeed dysfunctional agencies struggle to provide basic services and often lack the organizational capacity to undertake this effort.

We are pursuing this initiative because our highly motivated and qualified workforce want do an even better job for the public.

Between 2006-10, we will see a significant majority of our department heads turn over due to retirements. Facing this loss of experience, we must begin to provide the framework for younger managers to emerge from both within and outside the organization to lead our city. A culture of performance, accountability and measurement will ensure we continue to be a great place to live.

KEITH CURRY is a councilman for District 7 in Newport Beach.