This month I want to feature its application at the local level - within the city of Azusa, California. This is a city of 46,000 in Los Angeles County, with a city workforce of 250 - and an anticipated 10% gap between expected FY 2005 general fund revenues of $28.4 million and likely expenses. Given California's larger budget problem and no relief in sight, Azusa leadership sought ideas that went beyond business as usual. As City Manager Rick Cole said, "We don't need a new way of budgeting. We need a new way of doing business."
Like most governments in deficit situations, Azusa would have traditionally started with last year's budget and then asked each department to propose cuts. In contrast, Budgeting for Outcomes asked Azusa to start not with costs and cuts, but with keeps. It asked them to focus first on the results the City wanted to accomplish for its citizens.
Determining the outcomes that matter most.
Consider this. If you are asked to budget for results that citizens value, how do you determine those results in the first place? Azusa's story about ascertaining those results is praiseworthy.
First, Azusa asked its internal leaders to name the key results they believed citizens expected from their city government. This brainstorming was important to do - and resulted in over one hundred answers ranging from 'clean streets' to 'timely emergency response' to 'a peaceful community'.
It is unusual for public leaders to try to articulate what results citizens expect. Most talk activities they manage. They talk costs and revenues. They might talk about results of programs, but most do not talk citywide results. Azusa was already ahead of the game. But Azusa didn't stop there. They were interested in asking their citizens directly what they expected.
The task of identifying what results were valued most by citizens began with community meetings. A total of ten community meetings were held plus a special meeting for the Chamber of Commerce. Due to low attendance at some, this was supplemented with members of the city workforce asking citizens their opinion directly as, for example, they waited in line to pay their water or electric bill.
What were citizens asked?
Citizens were asked four open-ended questions including, "What results do you want for people or businesses from the City of Azusa?" Citizens were also asked to indicate the relative value the result held. Specifically, they were asked to allocate a fixed amount of funds - $100 - across eight outcomes that had resulted from the leaders list.
One story that I think is particularly wonderful involves the Mayor. Mayor Christina Madrid was leading one group of citizens through this forced choice or prioritization. This group happened to be non-English speaking and found the directions confusing. The Mayor quickly solved that by assembling 100 pennies and asking each participant to physically place the number of pennies that they wanted to spend on each result!
From answers to outcomes. Across all these efforts came a long list of answers - over 170 different items! In case you're curious, the city leaders' assessment of what residents expected and the residents' direct answers were fairly consistent. The one exception was that citizens more often mentioned improved schools.
All the answers were synthesized into outcomes that the City Council prioritized into a final list of six. In that conversation, the council also crystallized a statement of intention for each result chosen:
- Improved economic vitality ...to expand retail, retain manufacturing, and attract more business and jobs.
- Safer community ... to increase safety for people at home, work, school and play.
- Better recreational, cultural and learning opportunities... to enrich lives and raise student achievement.
- Healthier environment ... to make Azusa cleaner, greener and more beautiful.
- Improved neighborhoods ... to improve the livability of neighborhoods.
- Improved mobility ... to improve the safety and ease of traveling to, from, and throughout Azusa.
Later, a seventh result was added to improve the efficiency and customer focus of the City's support services.
Results, without measurable indicators, are just words.
The last aspect of Azusa's journey that I'll highlight now concerns the indicators they chose for each result. We define an indicator as "a report or signal, based on one or a combination of measures, that allows the observer to know whether performance is in line, ahead of, or behind expectations." In Azusa, city employees were asked to choose no more than three for each result. Here is their product -
| End Result |
Indicators of Success |
| Improved economic vitality |
- Net tax revenue
- Net jobs created
- Square footage of all construction activity
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| Safer communities |
- Part 1 (major) crime rates
- Truancy rates
- Resale home values
|
| Better recreational, cultural and learing opportunities |
- Participation rates
- A perception of being better off after participating
- Post graduate (HS) achievement
|
| Healthier environment |
- Sensory appeal
- Open space acreage
- Reduction in repeat municipal code offenders
|
| Improved neighborhoods |
- Increase in home values compared to the rest of the valley
- Established neighborhood networks
- Rate of residential turnover
|
| Improved mobility |
- Infrastructure condition improvement
- Travel time reduction
- Perception of safety and ease
|
| Improved support services |
- Customer satisfaction
- Financial health
- Progress on all the above city indicators
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While Azusa's budget is still a work in progress, I salute them and their journey thus far. They have worked hard to listen to what their citizens expect. They have chosen seven results to form the core of what they must do well. Adding indicators for each provides Azusa with a ready-made scorecard they can use to track and report back to their citizens about progress. They also included citizens on the team that guided the development of the budget. This work, and the citizen engagement involved, puts Azusa ahead of most governments.
Not true, you say? You also know what results citizens expect from your government?! Great - tell me what they are and how you know. Let's share your stories of citizen engagement in the development of a similarly results-based budget in a future Connie's Corner!
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