In addition to the proposed budget documents, are there resources available that report on the performance and outcomes of individual city programs, similar to the "Ready to Work" breakdown you highlighted previously? For example, beyond appropriations and spending, I'm interested in understanding how programs are evaluated, what metrics are used, and whether they achieved their intended objectives. Is there a central place where those results are published?
The SA media is sure treating the Bonham closing to install required safety equipment as some sort of earth-shattering development.
Philip,
In addition to the proposed budget documents, are there resources available that report on the performance and outcomes of individual city programs, similar to the "Ready to Work" breakdown you highlighted previously? For example, beyond appropriations and spending, I'm interested in understanding how programs are evaluated, what metrics are used, and whether they achieved their intended objectives. Is there a central place where those results are published?
Clint
Hi Clint,
The auditor publishes a few program audits every year but they seem to focus on administrative concerns more than financial breakdowns. An upcoming column of ours is going to argue for a comprehensive program audit, similar to the nonprofit contract audit Austin just completed. The larger programs usually have some kind of public facing info. The Ready to Work information came from a public-facing data dashboard. Other programs have their own, like Pre-K 4 SA (https://prek4sa.com/about-pre-k-4-sa/program-overview/program-results/), Affordable Housing (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/750626feef9142ae83eb4f1e1ccc80ce?item=3), DHS (https://stories.opengov.com/sanantoniotx/published/K3xmSOPlL), and a few others. On the city side, VIA has a dashboard (https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiZjcyOWY5NjgtMjMwMy00NmQyLThkZmYtMGVjMGFjOWY1MDI4IiwidCI6IjJhMzAzM2MyLWFkNzYtNDI2Yy05YzVhLTIzMjMzY2RlNGNkZSJ9&pageName=ReportSectionb1f06c217c1424112240) But there is certainly no central place. Anything with a forcing mechanism behind it or metrics that it must attempt to meet usually reports them, somewhere.