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Home My WebLink AboutCAO-18-006 - Compass Kitchener 2017 Citizen Report CardREPORT TO:Council DATE OF MEETING: March 19, 2018 SUBMITTED BY: Laurie Majcher, Manager Strategy & Business Planning, 519-741-2200 ext.7817 PREPARED BY: Laurie Majcher, Manager Strategy & Business Planning, 519-741-2200 ext.7817 WARD (S) INVOLVED: All DATE OF REPORT: March 7, 2018 REPORT NO.: CAO – 18 – 006 SUBJECT:Compass Kitchener - 2017 Citizen Report Card __________________________________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDATION:For Discussion BACKGROUND: The City of Kitchener actively involves citizens in the process of setting the future direction of the city and guiding progress on those plans. The first citizen report card was implemented in 2008, as a way of tracking progress towards the long-term vision for the city: "Together, we will build and innovative, caring and vibrant Kitchener." Told from the citizen perspective, the annual report card identifies signs of positive progress over the course of the year, and highlights areas that citizens feel require attention to keep them on track to deliver expected results. The evaluation process is a valuable opportunity to gain insights, spark dialogue, and to benchmark the City of Kitchener's progress toward strengthening the quality of life in the community. The evaluation of the city's progress is not intended to be exhaustive or complete, but it does ensure that the voice of community is included and taken into account as the city moves forward with plans for the future. Compass Kitchener, a citizen committee appointed by Council, is responsible for leading a public process to determine community concerns, identify priorities for action and monitor progress towards achieving the community vision. The responsibilities of the committee include: 1) developing performance measures reflective of the community’s goals and monitoring the City’s performance against goals as included in the Strategic Plan for the City of Kitchener and 2) reporting on performance to Council and the community on an annual (Report Card) and term-by-term basis. *** This information is available in accessible formats upon request. *** Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance. 6 - 1 REPORT: In August of 2015, Council approved Kitchener’s Strategic Plan 2015-2018 to establish goals for the next four years and guide the work of the organization to make Kitchener a more innovative, caring and vibrant community. The 2017 Citizen Report Card, prepared by Compass Kitchener, represents an evaluation of the progress made by the City at the end of the third year of this four-year plan. Compass Kitchener began working on the evaluation framework for the Citizen Report Card in June of 2017. Building on the strengths and lessons learned from previous report card processes, the committee has adopted a review process and evaluation framework based on the following three components: Step 1: Monthly Status Updates on Strategic Actions Feedback on the process used for the 2015 Citizen Report Card indicated that members of Compass Kitchener were overwhelmed by the vast amount of information that needed to be reviewed and evaluated to provide informed comments on the city’s progress from year-to- year. Given the limited time available for committee discussion, it was decided that Staff would give a brief 20 min presentation to Compass Kitchener on a monthly basis on major accomplishments and progress on business plan projects throughout the year, starting in January 2017. Step 2: Gather Input from All Advisory Committees As representatives of the general community, Compass Kitchener felt that it was important to reach out to more people for input to the evaluation process to incorporate a wider variety of citizen perspectives than was possible with just the 12 member committee. On October 24, 2017, Compass Kitchener hosted the annual All Committees Meeting for all members of the City’s 14 citizen committees. The meeting was dedicated to discussion groups on the City’s progress in each of the five strategic priority areas included in the strategic plan. Twenty five citizens participated in the conversations, including representatives from all of the City’s advisory committees. The vast majority of participants in these discussions felt that the City was on the right track to make Kitchener a more innovative, caring and vibrant community. Results from this meeting included the identifications of the city’s current strengths and areas for improvement and a number of ideas for future work in each area. Step 3: Review and Evaluation of the City’s Progress The evaluation process started in October 2017 and continued into February 2018, with seven separate meetings focussed primarily on the Report Card evaluation during this time. For each of the five strategic priorities included in the Strategic Plan, city staff provided each member of Compass Kitchener with a summary of the related community priorities, a summary of the input from the all committees meeting, a summary of all business plan projects completed since the last Citizen Report Card, a status updates for all active projects on the 2017 Business Plan, and a summary of notable achievements based on the monthly status updates as the basis for the evaluation process. Committee members reviewed the documentation provided and identified 2-3 strengths/accomplishmentsand 1-2 areas that need attention/improvement for each of the five strategic priorities.The results of the review were discussed by the full committee and grades were assigned based on that evaluation. 6 - 2 The evaluation scale that was used to grade the City’s progress in each of the five strategic priority areas is as follows: GradeDescription The City is making better than expected progress in all areas The City has a strong foundation for success and there is momentum around A positive actions. Projects and plans are expected to be very effective in creating outcomes that address citizen expectations. There are no major concerns or lingering issues that could undermine the City’s progress in key areas. “Wow!! I’m excited about the future of this city!” The City is making good progress in most areas The city has a clear plan for the future to address citizen expectations in an B effective way. Projects and plans are in place and moving forward that will have a positive impact on the community. Success may not be guaranteed because some difficult issues still need to be figured out but the City is moving in the right direction. “I’m pleased with what’s going on and look forward to seeing the results.” The City is making some progress but outcomes are uncertain The City is headed in the right direction but has a long way to go to meet C citizen expectations. The path is not clear and key decisions still need to be made to guide future work in this area. Projects and plans will address some things, but big issues and concerns remain that could undermine positive outcomes for the community. “I see some good things happening but I’m not sure it’s going to be enough.” The City is making little to no progress The City appears to be struggling to understand the issues. Commitments to D projects and plans fall significantly short of what would be required to meet citizen expectations. A lot of work still needs to be done to determine the future direction of the City in this area. “I’m not confident that we will see any results in this area anytime soon.” The 2017 Citizen Report Card is an evaluation of the City’s progress at the end of the third year of a four year strategic plan. For those strategies still in the planning phase, the evaluation was based on the anticipated outcomes. Compass Kitchener will be presenting the results of the evaluation to City Council on Monday th March 19. The information collected for this evaluation builds on the baseline that was set for 2015 and will provide the foundation for the end-of-term evaluation in 2019. Notice of the 2017 Citizen Report Card will be published in the Kitchener Post and on the City of Kitchener th website on March 20. 6 - 3 ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN: The recommendation of this report supports the achievement of the city’s strategic vision through the delivery of core service. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The cost to place the advertisement for the 2017 Citizen Report Card in the Kitchener Post is approximately $700 plus HST.This expense is funded through existing resources in the Compass Kitchener capital account. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: ENTRUST – The members of Compass Kitchener are entrusted by Council to develop performance measures reflective of the community’s goals, monitor the City’s performance against those goals, and report to Council and the community on the results. ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Dan Chapman, CAO 6 - 4