By Barbara Moore

The St. Louis suburb of Clayton, Missouri (16,000 residential population; 46,000 daytime population; $55 million operating budget), demonstrates how a smaller city can excel in performance management. Clayton has received a Certificate of Excellence in Performance Management from the ICMA Center for Performance Analytics each year since 2011. Excelling in several areas has allowed the community to earn that recognition.

Winning Ways

Organizational culture and leadership. Internally, Clayton fosters an organizational culture that embraces performance management. Orientation for new city staff includes a one-on-one meeting with City Manager Craig Owens, who describes the city’s philosophy and explains how the staff member’s job contributes to the overall performance management strategy. “We are indeed passionate about demonstrating value,” he says.

Owens also meets annually with all employees in small groups to review the three elements of the organization’s culture: team pride, quality services, and high value (Figure 1). The quality services element focuses heavily on benchmarking and emphasizes the city’s strong performance.

“We feel it is important to benchmark our citizen satisfaction,” says Owens. “The worst performing fire department is likely to have higher satisfaction than a top performing code enforcement department just because of the nature of the work. We need a relative scale to make sure we aren’t shooting for the wrong targets and can celebrate results achieved on a tougher grading curve.”

Internal processes. The city has formally collected performance data for more than eight years. At the start of the annual data collection cycle each January, an e-mail alerts staff members that the data collection period has begun. Staff responsible for data collection, entry, and approval are required to watch the applicable training courses provided on the ICMA website, taking special note of any definitions that may have changed.

George Ertle, assistant to the city manager, oversees internal data collection, and also serves as the primary coordinator with the ICMA Insights™ performance analytics program. He ensures that staff are trained on how to enter data correctly. Then he reviews the data for accuracy and consistency with past data, taking into account any changes in external circumstances or internal practices that might account for apparent aberrations.

At least quarterly, Owens reviews performance data with department heads, and performance results are discussed as part of performance evaluations for department heads and employees.

Resident feedback. The city conducts an annual community survey covering 45 measures that are surveyed across more than 30 cities in Kansas and Missouri. The 2014 survey showed that Clayton rated above the national and Kansas/Missouri averages on all 45 measures.

In addition to asking residents to rate services, the 2013 survey sought input on services that could be reduced if necessary. Results were used to evaluate the cost of providing several services and to identify opportunities to improve efficiency.

Public reporting. Clayton reports financial, operational, and survey data, including comparative data, on its website (www.claytonmo.gov). Here, residents can view:

• Operating and capital improvements budgets and two-year plans for the current and past fiscal years.
• The city’s annual reports from the past five years.
• The city’s strategic plan (“C the Future”), focusing on four key performance areas: 1) exceptional city services; 2) livable community; 3) strategic relationships; and 4) economic development and vibrant downtown.

The annual report shows performance measures for key service areas and, where data exist, shows how Clayton’s performance compares with the average performance of 15 peer cities, separated into two groups: St. Louis area peer cities and ICMA peer cities, which include cities from across the country that have reported data to ICMA.

The report also shows year-to-year comparisons for many key measures, including residents’ ratings on the community survey.

In addition to showing comparisons for measures collected regionally or nationally, Clayton reports on such measures of local interest as retail/office vacancy rates and average commercial rental rates per square foot.

The Exceptional City Services Scorecard

The first key performance area in the strategic plan, exceptional city services, includes a commitment to performance measurement and benchmarking, and thus lies at the heart of Clayton’s performance management initiatives. The city has developed an Exceptional City Services Scorecard showing resident satisfaction; cost and revenue measures; police, fire, and EMS response times; employee training hours; and facility use.

This scorecard is published in the budget book, summarizing historical and current performance data along with goals for the fiscal year. The scorecard also captures results from an internal employee engagement survey.

Networking

In 2014, City Manager Owens spearheaded a regional performance measurement initiative and persuaded more than a dozen municipalities in the St. Louis region to collect data that permitted comparisons among the cities while taking account of differences that can affect services.

The East-West Gateway, a regional council of governments, coordinated the data collection. The initiative was in response to queries from elected officials about how Clayton compares with other cities in the area.

A Good Assessment

In the final analysis, Clayton has embraced performance management by instilling it as a value throughout the organization; ensuring the accurate collection and verification of data from residents and local government operations; sharing results publicly; comparing performance with benchmark cities; and using the results to continuously improve services.