City of Morgan Hill Public Safety Master Plan

TABLE 6-1: The Five GASB Performance Indicators 21

Category

Definition

Input Indicators

These are designed to report the amount of resources, either financial or other (especially personnel), that have been used for a specific service or program. These report the number of units produced or the services provided by a service or program. These are designed to report the results (including quality) of the service. These are defined as indicators that measure the cost (whether in dollars or employee hours) per unit of output or outcome. This includes a variety of information about the environment and other factors that might affect an organization’s performance.

Output Indicators

Outcome Indicators

Efficiency (and cost- effectiveness) Indicators

Explanatory Information

As CAL FIRE evolves it is critical that a series of measurements be established to track the performance of all operations. Currently, under the terms of the service agreement with Morgan Hill and Santa Clara County EMS, CAL FIRE is required to meet a series of performance measures. These involve response times, fire inspection and plans review turn-around times, dispatch services, and engine company inspection activities. Though these measures are viable their application to the full range of fire, EMS, fire prevention and public outreach efforts are currently limited. To be effective, a full range of performance measures should be utilized and these findings should be published and shared with all the affected stakeholders, including the City Council, the Mayor’s Office, the City Manager’s Office, the District, and CAL FIRE first responders. CAL FIRE does not provide similar performance monitoring efforts to SSCCFD officials, beyond the required EMS response time measures. Ongoing analysis and the monitoring of trends are most useful to justify program effectiveness, direct training efforts, and to measure service delivery levels. Establishing a performance management system within the framework of an overall strategic plan would help City and District management and elected officials to gain a better understanding of what CAL FIRE is trying to achieve. Building any successful performance management system that measures more than outputs requires a consistent model. Recommendation: CAL FIRE should undertake a concerted effort to expand its current performance measures in order to incorporate a comprehensive performance management system that monitors a full range of performance outcomes.

The process of developing these measures should utilize input from CAL FIRE members, the community, elected officials, and city administrators.

CPSM recommends that CAL FIRE undertake a concerted effort to develop a comprehensive listing of performance measures for both emergency and nonemergency activities. The following are a number of suggested measures that may be considered:

21 From Harry P. Hatry et al., eds. Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting: Its Time Has Come (Norwalk , CT: GASB, 1990).

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