CCMIN020414 - Laserfiche WebLink

With regards to economic development, office vacancies, jobs, hotel tax revenues and business license revenues are generally used to measure the performance and effectiveness of the city's staff and initiatives. Over the last years, office vacancy has decreased from approximately 18% to 13% where the metric is 12%; jobs have increased from approximately 52,400 to 53,500 where the metric is 55,000; hotel revenues have increased from $3 million to $3.9 million where the metric,is $3 million; and the number of business licenses issued has increased from roughly 8,530 to 9,100 where the goal is 9,200. He stated that community development in particular is a difficult category to measure and one that generates a lot of interest. Acknowledging the constant tension between the issuing of permits and managing community expectations, one metric is the average number of days required to issue permits for planning approvals whether they are issued over the counter or through the Planning.Commission or City Council. In every opportunity the city is beating the established metric, which is essentially the industry standard. The city does fall short on the more controversial projects that require considerable thought and process such as Staples Ranch and Oak Grove. These are therefore not factored into the analysis. The analysis also looks at the efficacy of the city's cost•.recovery model, :which currently recovers about 1.7% in revenue for all the activity that is processed. Staff would argue that a more aggressive revenue model could improve efficiency and move community development more towards an enterprise activity. Staff will be coming to the Council later this year to consider fee adjustments that support a more aggressive model. Library services are performing very well on every metric when compared to state averages, despite a modest decrease in staffing in recent years. Financial stability is measured largely by debt, specifically construction debt and unfunded pension obligations. Over the last 3 years, construction debt has decreased from $28 million to $2 million. In FY 2013-14, the city will have zero construction debt for the first time since the 1960s. Unfunded pension and retiree medical obligations have unfortunately grown by $4.2 million to $22 million, depending on whether you look to the actuarial or market wide liability. Staff will be having a more robust discussion regarding this liability when the Comprehensive.Annual Financial Report is submitted to the Council in March. Community services, which include human services, recreation, civic arts, paratransit and the golf course, are typically measured by the number of participants and level of General Fund.subsidy. Each program met their respective standards in each category. There is also the hope that the golf course, which is now paid off, will be able to sustain itself without.General Fund contributions moving forward. Mr. Fialho concluded the staff presentation, stating that staff at every level is very proud of the exception services that Pleasanton delivers to the community and is pleased to see both the metrics and survey reinforce that. Councilmember Brown asked how targets are selected and whether staff expects to modify them. Mr. Fialho explained that targets are a combination of internal and external benchmarks derived from the General Plan, master plans, and industry standards. He confirmed that staff has the ability to adjust those metrics on a year to year basis. Mayor Thorne opened the public hearing and, seeing no speakers, closed the public hearing. He thanked the Council for its support in moving forward with this as it provides a programmatic way to share measurable goals and objectives with the Council and the community. He noted that the best organizations are never satisfied with the status quo and said it is his professional opinion that Pleasanton has precisely the right leadership, community involvement and tools to become rather than simply to meet the industry standard. City Council Minutes Page 11 of 15 February 4,2014