Improving Performance
In the City of Southlake, results matter. During the past several years, city staff has been working to improve organizational performance in some very specific ways.

Transition Plan
March 2005, the City Council adopted a transition plan recommended by the City Manager to guide the organization through needed changes to address organizational challenges. The initiatives were designed to improve management systems and workforce competency, as well as promote greater accountability for all employees.

Strategic Management System
Since then, the City Council and staff have worked together to develop a strategic management system to align decision-making and resource allocation. Feeding the master plan are departmental business plans, executive team performance contracts that outline expectations and levels of performance and constantly evolving performance measures that are known internally as key accountability indicators or k.a.i.s to assess the quality and quantity of the work performed.

Financial Stewardship
Proper financial stewardship is important. The city's target budget system (a modified, zero based budgeting technique) provides the means for controlling incremental growth in budget line items without proper justification. It improves the rigor of the budget review process.

Structural Balance
The city is also committed to structural balance with the budget to prevent drawing down fund balances to balance the operating budget. If excess revenue accumulates, the cash is used for non-recurring, one-time expenses like capital projects. One of the benefits of this approach is that it can minimize city borrowing for important projects. For financial year 2008, almost half of the capital improvement program will be funded with cash rather than debt.

Bond Ratings
An important measure of the city's financial health is the rating given to the city by bond rating agencies. February 2009, Standard and Poor's elevated the city's rating to AAA. Spring 2011, Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor's rated the city AAA. Their analysis determines the city's credit worthiness for potential investors including the areas of management, environmental, financial systems and performance.

Best Practices
The quest for high-quality performance requires the city to manage its resources in a way that will utilize best industry practices to ensure Southlake residents receive best-in-class city services. The city has conducted management studies of the Department of Public Safety, Public Works, and Community Services and has fully implemented the noted recommendations. The city has also sought to improve the way we conduct businesses by improving processes through lean work sessions.

Measuring Performance
Measuring performance requires data, and efficient operations require good systems. To that end, the city has invested in and is currently implementing new foundational software to guide our decision making and reduce work flows.

Understanding What Citizens Need
The city is also using a biannual citizen survey to help understand key community issues. The 2009 results have been thoroughly reviewed by the executive team and are included in departmental work plans.

Core Values
One of the most important parts of the transition plan includes the adoption of five key values: integrity, innovation, accountability, commitment to excellence and Teamwork (I2ACT). The idea was to take a strategic approach to how work is accomplished each day. In order to keep these values at the forefront, each value has been assigned a staff team to help city employees implement I2ACT.