All of the City's services contribute and support to the achievement of the City's four strategic directions - A City that Grows, A City that Moves, A Healthy and Greener City and An Engaged City.
The City focuses on efficient, effective and economical service delivery to keep Burlington one of the best places to live in Canada. This focus supports local government in making difficult decisions among competing priorities while delivering and demonstrating value in the services they provide.
With the resident, or customer, at the centre of the City's service delivery process, City staff work to ensure that Burlington residents get the services they need and want, as well as getting value for the tax dollars spent delivering those services.
How tax dollars are invested |
The City prepares an annual budget with the large part of the budget reflected in the specific services the City provides to its residents and customers; as well as identifying those revenues and expenditures that are corporate in nature. |
Ensuring that investment creates value |
The use of performance measures based on customers' needs and wants help city staff measure specific results for each service area. The Results-Based Accountability tool (developed by Mark Friedman at the U.S.-based Fiscal Policy Studies Institute) is used to help governments measurably improve the well-being of their citizens. |
Committee Reports |
Committee of the Whole May 28, 2013 - City of Burlington Service Management and the Service Portfolio Dec. 5, 2013 Articles City Changes How it Plans for, Delivers and Monitors City Services (City Talk, Spring 2014) Creating Value - Creating value through service-based budgeting and accountability (Community Report 2014) |
External Resources |
Results Based Accountability Business Process Management |
1. Why is Burlington refocusing on services? |
The City of Burlington is increasingly being asked to make tough choices among competing priorities and to deliver good service for good value. By refocusing on services, investing in services and ensuring their continuous improvement, the city can make important decisions in a timely, informed manner. |
2. What is the role of City Council? |
Clarity of roles and responsibilities is an important component of governance. City Council is responsible for making strategic decisions regarding the commissioning and decommissioning of services and increasing or decreasing levels of service. |
3. What is the role of city staff? |
Senior Management and the Service Owners are responsible for all of the operations required to deliver the services and for reporting on the performance of those services. |
4. What is a corporate management? |
Corporate management is a set of systems for leading, administering and directing an organization. In the City of Burlington, our corporate management systems include corporate planning, service management and people management to support the city's achievement of its strategic and operational objectives. |
5. What is corporate planning? |
Corporate planning involves setting the direction for the organization to ensure the service operations and initiatives, people management and daily business of the organization provide support for operational objectives and the directives of the city's strategic plan. |
6. What is service management? |
Service management is a framework that includes:
|
7. How is the city supporting service management? |
The city is using a number of tools to support Burlington's service management. They are:
|
8. What is a service portfolio? |
A service portfolio is a listing of public and internal services delivered by the city that include:
|
9. What is Results-Based Accountability? |
Results-Based Accountability™ ("RBA") is a disciplined way of thinking and taking action used by communities to improve the lives of children, families and the community as a whole. RBA is also used by agencies to improve the performance of their programs. Essentially, RBA is a method of building, documenting and reporting performance measures that answer the three questions: How much did we do? How well did we do it? Is anybody better off? Results-Based Accountability™ is based on concepts and materials developed by Mark Friedman, author of Trying Hard is Not Good Enough (Trafford 2005) and founder and director of the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute. |
10. What is Business Process Management? |
Business Process Management (BPM) is a methodology used for continuous improvement and represents the ongoing effort to improve city services and/or processes. |
11. What is a service-based budget? |
A service-based budget provides information about the financial and human resources needed to deliver a service at current service levels. |
12. What is enterprise risk management? |
Enterprise risk management is a continuous, proactive and systematic process to understand, manage and communicate risks from an organization-wide perspective. Risk management is an essential component of good management and decision-making. Decisions are informed ones when:
|
13. Why are employee performance evaluations included? |
There must be clear alignment of what people do every day with the strategic and service priorities of the organization. Using performance evaluations allows employees to link their own expected performance and targets with the goals of the service, corporation and the city's strategic plan. |