BTVStat Performance Dashboard
BTVStat Bi-Monthly Update
BTVStat is the system the Mayor has implemented over the past two years to review operational and equity performance measures in detail for three or more City departments each month with all the City’s Department Heads. The discussions allow City leadership to collectively identify challenges, make operations more transparent, track progress, hold each other accountable, and find opportunities to collaborate around specific issues.
The Burlington effort is built on successful models in other communities. The Mayor has asked that we begin providing short, regular updates to the community detailing recent findings through BTVStat and related continuous improvement efforts of the Department of Innovation & Technology.
- Substantial decrease in noise complaints over time: The University of Vermont, Burlington Police Department, and Code Enforcement have worked together to reduce by 43 percent since 2012 the number of “quality of life” incidents such as noise, intoxication, and disorderly conduct across the Old North End, Hill Section, and campus area. The collaboration has increased the number of police patrols with support from UVM and kept track of data about incident type and location, allowing City officials to discuss chronic problems directly with property owners.
- DPW substantially reduced its accounts receivable, or money owed the City: Over the past three years, despite a substantial increase in the volume of construction projects underway across the City, the Department of Public Works has also focused on reducing the amount of money in its accounts receivable line. DPW leverages State and Federal grant dollars to fund capital projects, with the City often required to assume the expense up front and seek reimbursement from the funding agency later. The accounts receivable balance represents funds due to the City as a grant recipient, and reducing that amount improves the City’s cash position and the lessens the risk of losing a possible reimbursement. The progress DPW has made on this front is substantial both in the dollar amount and as a percent of total expenditures (falling from $568,000 in FY16 to about $205,000 in FY18, or a drop from about 8 percent 5.8 percent of all receivables).
- Parks, Waterfront, & Recreation focus on preventative maintenance beginning to pay off: Over the last several years, the Parks Department has emphasized preventative maintenance for City facilities to help reduce total costs to the City for maintaining these buildings. This emphasis includes targeted new investments, like hiring an HVAC technician to reduce substantially the high contractor costs for HVAC needs that were incurred across a sustained period of time. Over time, this and similar investments should reduce the costs incurred for corrective repairs within the Department, saving taxpayer dollars and providing better care for City facilities.
Beyond BTVStat, the I&T Department continues to focus on finding better, more efficient ways to do business and provide taxpayers better services for less cost. It also has responsibilities for maintaining and strengthening the City’s IT infrastructure, and supports the efforts of other City Departments to modernize their practices, particularly where there is an IT nexus.
Residents of Burlington may notice the impact of two new substantial IT integrations in recent weeks, thanks to the team at the Burlington Fire Department and the Burlington International Airport.
First, the Burlington Fire Department oversaw the implementation of a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system that went live on July 31. This complicated integration required the training and close coordination of many of the City’s outstanding dispatchers, fire fighters, I&T staff, representatives of the State of Vermont, and third party private companies to upgrade the City’s existing Fire dispatch system to a state-of-the-art system. The implementation was directed by Fire Chief Steven Locke and Deputy Chief Robert Plante. The CAD system provides clearer details about developing emergencies, enabling the Department to provide a more targeted response, more readily track the results and identify areas for improvement, and ultimately improve services for residents while reducing costs to taxpayers.
Second, the Burlington International Airport substantially upgraded the parking system used at the Airport garage. The new system, which came online August 2, allows for faster parking options for those in a hurry, improves the experience for everyone using the garage by making it easier to get in and get out, automates a number of existing processes, makes financial and operational data easier to measure and audit, and replaces an existing parking system that was obsolete by industry standards and suffered from equipment failures. The next phase of this project will focus on improving the parking and revenue control systems in the City’s downtown garages, which suffer from similar equipment failures and challenges. These changes should be implemented in the fall of this year.
Thank you. I look forward to providing additional updates in the coming months.
Brian Lowe
Interim Chief Innovation Officer
Background
The BTVStat Initiative was undertaken in 2016 at the request of the Mayor to track the achievement of the City’s strategic goals, to assist and then hold Department leadership and staff accountable for the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the services delivered to residents, and to provide the tools and resources needed to evaluate and improve the work City staff does to deliver those services.
The Performance Dashboard includes data about City operations and services, including financial performance, arts and recreation program participation, and street and sidewalk repair. With the Mayor’s focus on data and metrics to determine the City’s success in delivering on its goals, the Dashboard offers the public an opportunity to track the City’s progress, as well as to see new data illuminating the City’s work to provide efficient and effective services.
Visit the dashboard online: https://btvstat.burlingtonvt.gov.
