A Public City Hall Scorecard
Updated: Oct 2
If Council makes a commitment to residents, residents should be able to see whether we're actually delivering it.
That's the basic idea behind a public City Hall scorecard.
I've spent much of my career working with budgets, forecasts and performance measures.
One lesson carries over pretty well to government: Setting the target is the easy part. You also need to know whether you're hitting it.
Keep It Simple
I wouldn't build a dashboard with hundreds of measures that nobody reads.
For the things Council has said matter most, show:
GREEN: On track.
AMBER: At risk.
RED: Off track.
And for anything amber or red, answer three more questions:
What happened?
What's being done about it?
What's the next milestone?
That's it.
What Would Go On It?
A few examples.
Housing and Approvals
Are housing approvals and completions keeping pace?
What kinds of homes are being delivered?
Are permits meeting their service standards?
How big is the backlog?
Street Safety
How many priority school-route locations have been addressed?
How many high-risk crossings?
Which quick-build projects were completed?
What's next?
Major Capital Projects
Original budget.
Current forecast.
Original completion date.
Current completion date.
Major risks.
Key Council Commitments
What did Council say it would do?
Is it happening?
And if the commitment has changed, why?
Show the Financial Story Too
When a major project moves off budget, residents should be able to see that clearly.
Original budget: X. Current forecast: Y. Variance: Z. Reason: here's what changed. Next step: here's what we're doing about it. A variance doesn't automatically mean something has gone wrong.
Costs change, projects hit unforeseen conditions, and schedules move. Sometimes spending is even delayed for a perfectly good reason. But those changes should be explained.
The City's current Financial Plan already separates operating, capital and utility budgets and lays out multi-year financial planning. A scorecard would make the performance against major commitments easier to follow between annual budget cycles.
Other Governments Already Track Performance Publicly
Boston's CityScore, for example, publicly tracks measures including response times, maintenance performance and on-time permit reviews.
North Vancouver doesn't need Boston's exact system.
I'd build something smaller and easier to understand.
Quarterly, Not Once a Year
Annual reports matter.
But by the time a problem appears in an annual report, it may have been a problem for months.
Quarterly reporting gives us enough time to see a trend while there's still time to do something about it.
Four times a year, residents should be able to answer: What did we say we'd do? Are we on track? If we're not, what happens next? If we make a promise, we should show the work.
Sources
