Okaloosa County BOCC — 2013 meeting #1123 (date undetermined) — Budget Policy Document FY14 — reading text

Fort Walton Beach Enterprise/Non-discretionary Dept Time Constitutional Offices/State Agencies Time Overview 6:00 p.m. Medical Examiner 1:00 p.m. 911 Coordinator 6:30 p.m. County Health Department 1:15 p.m. Road/Bridge Construction 6:45 p.m. Growth Management 1:30 p.m. Water & Sewer 7:00 p.m. Code Enforcement 1:45 p.m. Airports 7:15 p.m. Coordinated Transportation 2:00 p.m. Solid Waste 7:30 p.m. Clerk of Courts 2:15 p.m. Inspections 7:45 p.m. Property Appraiser 2:30 p.m. Tourist Development 8:00 p.m. Supervisor of Elections 2:45 p.m. Conference Center 8:15 p.m. Tax Collector 3:00 p.m. Sheriff 3:15 p.m. July 30, 2013 August 6, 2013 Tuesday Tuesday 8:30 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Fort Walton Beach Crestview Governmental Dept Time Governmental Dept Time Board of County Commissioners 8:30 a.m. Capital Improvement Program (CIP) 1:00 p.m. County Administrator 8:45 a.m. Capital Outlay Fund 1:15 p.m. Library Cooperative 9:00 a.m. Court Services/Judicial 1:30 p.m. Purchasing 9:15 a.m. State Attorney 1:45 p.m. Human Resources 9:30 a.m. Public Defender 2:00 p.m. Veterans Services 9:45 a.m. Emergency Medical Services 2:15 p.m. Risk Management 10:00 a.m. Emergency Management 2:30 p.m. Tentative Millage Discussion 10:15 a.m. County Warning Point 2:45 p.m. Beach Safety 3:00 p.m. Corrections 3:15 p.m. August 8, 2013 Thursday 6:00 p.m. Fort Walton Beach Governmental Dept Time Mosquito Control 6:00 p.m. County/Unincorporated Parks 6:15 p.m. Traffic Maintenance 6:30 p.m. Engineering 6:45 p.m. Road Department 7:00 p.m. Stormwater Management 7:15 p.m. Information Systems 7:30 p.m. Facilities Maintenance 7:45 p.m. Fleet Operations 8:00 p.m. Agriculture/Extension 8:15 p.m. Page 38  Performance Based Budget Q & A What is a Performance Based Budget? A Performance Based Budget enables decision makers and the public to isolate a particular service provided by the County and to measure whether the service is being provided efficiently and effectively. The program structure facilitates decision making by focusing on each service provided. With Performance Based Budgeting, decision makers are provided with performance measures that can be used as a gauge to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the service provided. The measures also indicate whether the service provided meets the customer’s demand as to the amount provided and the quality of the service. Emphasis is not only placed on the volume of services provided (outputs), but also the quality of that service and whether the customer is satisfied with the delivered service or product. What are Departments and Programs? A service area is an organizational unit which represents a group of closely related functions provided to the customers of the service. In the case of Okaloosa County, the service areas are comprised of various departments which provide similar services to the community. The departments are then broken down into programs which summarize the key statistics, expenditures and personnel needed to perform a given service. What is a Program Goal? Each program manager is required to establish a program goal that relates the overall purpose for which the program exists. This is similar to a mission statement for the program. For example, a program goal for a planning and zoning department might be: • To provide for planned and orderly community growth and for the enhancement of the quality of life for area residents through effective management and coordination of planning and development programs consistent with the Growth Management Plan, community needs and resources, and local codes and ordinances. What are Key Objectives? Key objectives were developed by the program managers in conjunction with the County Administrator to indicate how the program will achieve the program goal. Most objectives are aimed at effectively providing goods or services, or reliably safeguarding and accounting for assets. Often an important criterion for selecting an objective is that the results be measurable. The objectives of providing a service usually can be characterized by price to the customer, quality, timeliness, or delivery. What are Performance Measures? A key responsibility of government is to develop and manage effective and efficient citizen services and to communicate the results of those efforts to its citizens. Performance measures assist in this evaluation and communication process. Performance measures are quantifiable indicators of how effectively or efficiently a service is being provided. Effectively means the degree that results or accomplishments address service goals or objectives. Efficiently means that results are produced using the least amount of resources or cost. Service goals or objectives should relate to the overall reason or purpose that a service exists. An overall reason or purpose is often broadly stated in the form of a mission statement or, for Okaloosa County, as a “program goal” within a service area. The State of Florida specifies seven government service area Page 39 classifications: General Government, Public Safety, Physical Environment, Transportation, Economic Environment, Health and Human Services, and Culture and Recreation. The interpretation of performance measures is most often enhanced by comparison of measures over time or to service standards or benchmarks where they exist. Measures of quality also are often helpful indicators including service awards or customer satisfaction scores. Even so, it is often difficult to interpret performance measures. For example, the average response time to a rural call for County emergency medical service had improved XXXX% from XX.XX minutes in XXXX to XX.XX minutes in XXXX. Comparatively, the average cost per response increased from $XXX to $XXX during the same time or XX.XX%. Due to the effects of regulations, unions, labor markets, and general inflation, it is difficult to fully assess the efficiency of the service for this improvement. Government services vary substantially in their level of complexity. Thus, few uniform performance measures exist. However, four types of measures are commonly used: input, output, efficiency, and effectiveness. Input measures address the amount of resources (dollars, employee-hours, etc.) used in providing a particular service. Output measures describe activities undertaken in providing a service (i.e., the number of emergency service responses). Efficiency measures relate inputs to units of output (i.e., cost or input per unit of service or output). Effectiveness measures usually reveal the extent to which outputs have been achieved (i.e., the percentage or extent output goals are met or the average time to complete an output). Okaloosa County uses all four types of performance measures for its departments and programs. As Constitutional Officers are separate legal entities, the inclusion of performance measures for them, although encouraged by the County, is up to their discretion. On each “Department Budget” page in this budget document can be found a “Performance Measures” table. This table compares three years of performance measures. Input measures are designated “Input”, Output measures are designated “Output”, Efficiency Measures are designated “Efficiency”, Effectiveness measures are designated “Effective”. Although performance measures are reviewed and evaluated, currently they are not rigorously used in the County’s budgeting process to allocate resources. Regardless, they are considered a vital part of the budget document for communicating results to citizens. Page 40 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Potential Budget Reduction Strategies March 28, 2013 Kay Godwin, Human Resources Director Page 41 INTRODUCTION Florida counties may continue to be faced with budget shortfalls for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Over the past several years, Florida counties have faced revenue reductions due to decreasing property assessments, losses in sales taxes and development fees, and other declining revenue. Statewide counties have critically assessed programs and services in an effort to cut expenses instead of positions where possible, while maintaining acceptable levels of service. BACKGROUND As we move toward the 2014 fiscal year, the County will continue to face increased costs and continued demands for services with limited financial resources. All departments have been asked to review their budgets and expenses and find ways to cut costs and expenditures, ideally without sacrificing services to the community and loss of personnel. Reductions made over the past several years included major cost cutting measures and efficiencies whose goal was to minimize the impact on direct citizen services. Among these reductions were downsizing our fleet, implementing tighter controls on vehicle usage, reducing overtime, energy and water consumption strategies, negotiating reduced rates on contracts, materials and supplies, and reducing leased office space. These strategies will continue. In addition, county staff have reviewed organizational models of other Florida counties while assessing staffing priorities across county departments. In the 2012 fiscal year, the overall county structure was reorganized in an effort to streamline the number of department directors for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness. Significant cost savings were realized through the reassignment of duties and elimination of high level positions such as the Assistant County Administrator and Corrections Director as well as nearly the entire Administrative Services Department. In May 2008 and April 2010, the Board of County Commissioners approved Voluntary Separation Incentive Programs in an effort to