Many agencies today are faced with increasing pressure to justify expenditures and in many cases their very existence. Performance measurement is a tool that is currently being stressed by ICMA and other organizations, and limited information is available relative to transportation organizations. Agency leaders must take great care in developing these performance measures to ensure they are relating to areas that can actually be controlled, that they measure performance and not activities, that the methodology is sustainable, and that they truly lead to improvement of agency performance. Having a resource that provides examples of current practice (and in some cases how not to practice) will be very beneficial to agency leaders embarking on a performance improvement initiative or seeking to refine an existing program.
The purpose of the project is to develop an Informational Report to assist public agency personnel (particularly at the municipal level) seeking to improve agency performance. The project will consist of assembling current practices and the lessons learned in their implementation. The report will not be prescriptive in nature, but will provide a basis for the development/refinement of practices that can then be tailored to the individual agency.
The scope of this project will extend beyond the traditional traffic and transportation departments found in many cities. This will include engineering design, plan review, development review, and infrastructure maintenance. Many of the processes, such as development review, are multi-departmental in nature, and extend beyond the scope of traffic engineering. We can learn a great deal from related efforts, and in many cases lead a broader effort within our organizations. In addition, there is a trend in many cities to bring public works, engineering, and transportation elements under the same umbrella.
This project is being completed under the auspices of the Public Agency Council.
Point of Contact:
James C. Cline, Jr., P.E., Public Works Director, City of Irving, TX, USA
jcline@ci.irving.tx.us
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