HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem A: Eugene Counts Update
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Work Session: Eugene Counts Dashboard
Meeting Date: June 13, 2011 Agenda Item Number: A
Department: Central Services/City Manager’s Office Staff Contact: Terrie Monroe
www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: (541) 682-5412
ISSUE STATEMENT
This work session provides the council a first look at the Eugene Counts dashboard, which debuts this
week.
BACKGROUND
At the February 2009 Mayor and City Council Retreat, the council adopted a method of goal setting and
accomplishment now known as Eugene Counts. This approach features a foundation of council goals
that are activated by concrete community-informed outcomes, strengthened by rigorous and transparent
monitoring of progress toward achieving those results, and kept relevant by an ongoing commitment to
listen broadly to the community.
Using information from the Eugene Counts public engagement effort as well as varied sources such as
the community survey, neighborhood survey, and downtown safety and development discussions, the
council developed a set of concrete outcomes reflecting current community priorities for each of the five
council goals. The council approved those outcomes at the April 26, 2010, work session, setting in
motion the next phase of work on Eugene Counts, including the development of strategies to achieve the
outcomes, measures to track progress, and an online dashboard to engage the community in ongoing
dialogue about the City’s performance.
Eugene Counts was conceived as a partnership between the council, community and City staff to
identify and agree on a set of results for the City to focus on achieving, to track progress toward those
results in a transparent and accessible way, and to keep the voice and the interests of the community at
the center of the ongoing discussion about performance, goals and where to focus effort.
The dashboard was designed to facilitate that ongoing connection by remaining closely tied to the
interests community members expressed, using language that doesn’t require insider knowledge to
understand, and displaying data in a colorful and inviting way that encourages people to explore and
even to localize or customize information based on their own interests.
In addition to several measures for each goal that serve as indicators of progress toward achieving the
outcomes, the dashboard offers context (grounded in what community members said during the public
engagement phase) for why the particular outcomes and measures were chosen, information about
strategies undertaken to achieve those outcomes, and an assessment of the current conditions for each
goal.
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The dashboard, reflecting the Eugene Counts approach to council goal-setting overall, is meant to be
dynamic and evolving, responding to current community needs and interests, and adapting to changing
conditions over time.
The initial “soft” launch of the dashboard invites users to meaningfully participate in enhancing its
effectiveness. Integrated into the dashboard are feedback tools devised to inform ongoing refinement of
both the content and the manner in which it is presented with the goal of making the dashboard as easy
to use, understandable and relevant as possible to community members. This type of real-time user
feedback offers different and in some ways richer information than traditional structured user testing,
because it captures what people found useful and what they found wanting while they are in the act of
using the dashboard on their own under normal circumstances.
Information gleaned in the initial release period will be used to inform any substantive enhancements to
the dashboard; even after that phase, user feedback will continue to be used to refine it.
COUNCIL OPTIONS
This work session is informational, presenting to the council a preview of the Eugene Counts dashboard
on the eve of its release.
CITY MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager has no recommendation at this time.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Staff Contact: Terrie Monroe
Telephone: (541) 682-5412
Staff E-Mail: terrie.e.monroe@ci.eugene.or.us
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