Grading the Cities introduction THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE PROJECT Report Card: Houston Revenue Rank: 11 Form of Government: Mayor-Council Mayor: Lee P. Brown (took office 1997) City Council: 14 members (9 elected by district, 5 at large) FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: B+ Well-established policies guide much of Houston’s financial management. Some strong points include the ability to gauge the future fiscal impact of financial decisions, the use of contingency planning to provide for an economic downturn, the appropriate use and management of debt, and reliable and thorough financial reports. Estimates on both the revenue and expenditure side are usually reliable, although it’s interesting that in two of the past three years, Houston has been one of the few cities to have revenues come in under, rather than over, projections. Contracting and purchasing are two areas in need of improvement. Contracting is slow, and better procedures are needed to track vendor performance. As for procurement, one budget official complains about the “numerous approval levels required within the various departments . . . the whole process — cradle to grave — has too many steps and begs for streamlining and automation.” One large city department actually requires 67 steps with 19 approval levels before a purchase can be made. HUMAN RESOURCES: C “The technology doesn’t give enough information,” admits Viveca Sonberg, Houston’s HR manager. “It doesn’t provide managers direct access to their own information.” She’s right. Managers would like to know, for example, why workers are leaving city employment. They would like to know the percentage of vacancies in the work force and the skills and educational credentials of those the city hires. Simple as that information might sound, it is hard to come by at Houston’s City Hall. The absence of modern data systems makes it difficult to hire anyone quickly. There’s still a necessity to transfer paper documents back and forth to complete a new hire. The data gap also limits the city’s ability to do work force planning. At the same time, departments have a reasonable amount of freedom to hire the best candidates for job openings. And recruiting is reasonably good. The health department recently held a job fair, which was a joint effort with the central personnel office. Library officials travel to recruit workers, as do the zoo and the aviation departments. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: C- Houston has a history of decentralized information technology. Police, fire, health, human services, parks and recreation all go their own way, without much effort at coordination. Consequently, there’s a fair amount of redundancy. The issue came to the fore as city officials moved to deal with Y2K, and realized they needed to do something to cut down on the proliferation of separate IT projects scattered about. “It’s a real headache,” says one. The picture is brighter in finance. Financial information systems are fully integrated, and the city would like to standardize much of its technology to be compatible with this network. The financial process is run by an Information Systems Advisory Committee, which develops standards, policies and procedures that are then approved by the director of finance and administration. Houston hasn’t filled a long-standing opening for a CIO. The city’s leaders have been waiting for outside consultants to develop a technology plan before they hire one. CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: B- Houston has a five-year capital management plan, reviewed annually. It’s a reasonably thorough plan, one that utilizes a fair amount of public input. However, it hasn’t been quite as realistic as it could be. The first two years generally come in as projected, but the last three have more of a “wish list” feeling. “It’s getting better,” says Chuck Settle, the water/sewer coordinator, “but it is a political process — especially on streets and bridges.” Adds Doug Bernard, coordinator of the capital improvement plan, “there are nine council districts and the tendency is to spread the money around, with some priorities compromised a bit in the process.” Both street and building maintenance would benefit from more data — and more money. But one notable accomplishment in Houston has been a program that targets neighborhoods for improvement. This started in the early 1990s, with a “fix the worst first” approach. When a neighborhood is selected, public works goes in and takes care of several infrastructure needs at the same time — repaving, street lights and storm drains, among others. About 70 neighborhoods have been targeted so far. MANAGING FOR RESULTS: B- Houston’s leaders have argued in the past that its size, coupled with its decentralized nature, makes strategic planning difficult. However, City Hall has developed individual long-range plans on economic development, neighborhood revitalization, transportation, education, open space and environment, health and public safety. They’ve been presented to and approved by the city council. These plans contain both individual and team goals, with a $5 million pot of cash to provide incentives when individuals or teams (or both) achieve their targets. “This was an extremely successful way of motivating our employees,” one official says. The citywide effort at measuring performance is less than one year old here. The measures being used are largely workload-oriented, and even these vary in quality. The city is publishing a monthly operations report for the council, and an annual report that will go out to other interested stakeholders. The new performance measures had little impact on the last budget, but officials are optimistic that they’ll become valuable tools in the future. AVERAGE GRADE: C+ Copyright © 2000, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Governing, City & State and Governing.com are trademarks of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.