City Council Agenda - November 26, 2012 - City of Guelph

In an effort to demonstrate efficient and effective management of resources andmeet their budget challenges, municipalities have been conducting a plethora ofaudits and reviews to prioritize programs, determining core services, andchallenging the status quo. The conflicting demands of continued or increasingservices, holding the line on taxes or increasing the revenue stream is forcingmunicipalities to systematically evaluate what they do.Some examples of municipalities that have undergone these core service reviewsand/or organizational assessments and achieved tangible results include:1. The Region of Peel used their service delivery review as a means to developannual budget processes, a corporate performance measurement framework,a corporate re-organization, architecture for Information Technology and astandard methodology for conducting future in-depth service reviews.2. The City of St. John, NB faced with declining revenues, used serviceinventories to identify and prioritize opportunities for service improvementsand cost reductions.3. The City of Windsor started in 2008 with service inventories, and thenreviewed all services as a means to address significant budget shortfalls. Aseries of service improvement opportunities were identified – including theexploration of delivering services differently. Windsor has had a 0.6% taxdecrease over the last 3 years – the lowest increase in Ontario. Millions ofdollars have been saved annually as a result of their service delivery reviewprocess.4. The City of Toronto has used a core service review as a means to movetowards a long-term, multi-year budgeting process based on services and toreport service performance as part of the annual budget process.5. The City of Summerside, PEI used service inventories as an input into thestrategic planning process in order to do a core services review and set-up acorporate performance measurement system.6. The City of Moncton, NB with a taxation report showing that the city neededto manage its finances carefully is using its service delivery review to identifyopportunities to decrease the cost of delivering service.7. The City of Prince George, BC is currently in the process of completing a coreservice review and expects to publish reports by the end of this year.Historically, an ad hoc approach to service delivery reviews has been based onaudit findings, Council and management direction or technology solutions. Whilethis approach may be effective over a short period of time, it is incremental innature and does not achieve a wholesale review of the organization.Page 3 of 14CITY OF GUELPH COMMITTEE REPORT