1. Good Ideas that Work: The What Works Cities Experience
League of Arizona Cities and Towns, League Conference
Janet Woolum, Performance Administrator, City of Mesa

2. Good morning,
What Works Cities is an initiative of the Bloomberg Philanthropies out of New York. They support the idea that making better use of data is one of the best opportunities cites have to solve problems and deliver better results for their citizens.
In May, the City of Mesa was selected as one of the initial eight cities to participate in this program. Seattle, Denver, Louisville, Chattanooga, Jackson (MS), New Orleans, Kansas City. Now there are 21 total.

3. To and cities’ use of data and evidence to engage citizens, make government more effective (i.e., do what works), and improve people’s lives
The primary objectives of the initiatives are to increase the use of data and evidence for decision making and more specifically using the data and evidence about what works to solve economic and social problems. Focusing in on what works….. Hence What Works Cities….
And engaging citizens in the process.

4. Performance Management Results-Driven Contracting
Areas of Focus
Performance Management
Open Data
Low-Cost Evaluations
Results-Driven Contracting

5. Their business model is to secure partnerships with the most effective and highly respected non-profit organization and academic institutions with expertise in areas of analytics, open data, performance management, and innovation to provide technical assistance. As a participating city we had access to all of the these organizations’ expertise, experience, and tools (worth thousands of dollars) over the three-year period of the program and to the network of peer cities with which we can share best practices, innovations, and general knowledge.
Right now, the City of Mesa has been working with Johns Hopkins University Center for Performance Excellence, and the Sunlight Foundation in two key areas.

6. Performance Management
Elevate current performance management system
Apply more complex analytics to decision making
Open Data
Transparency
Unlock data for internal and public use
The Performance Excellence team has been working with Johns Hopkins to enhance our existing performance management system at the department level, and elevating and accelerating efforts to take on citywide collaborations on citywide issues. This includes identifying and tracking key performance indicators, reporting progress on a public dashboard, and holding regular at meetings with cross-functional departments. Part of that is uping our game when it comes to more complex data analytics. This is an emerging area for the city.

7. Strategic Priority: “Transforming Neighborhoods”
Reduce “blighted” areas
Create safe, active neighborhoods
Increase code compliance
Improve building (commercial and residential) occupancy rates
On the performance management arena, We began by convened citywide cross-functional groups to look at some citywide issues identified by the Mayor and City Manager. One of which was Transforming Neighborhoods:
With assistance from Johns Hopkins, department representatives from across the city have been working to better define the priorities, identify goals and key performance indicators, and provide any supporting operational metrics related to the priority area that we already are collecting.

8. One of the first products of the work, is this index and corresponding map, related to blighted areas in the city. The group with our GIS folks to create this overlay of multiple data sets from five different functional areas to help identify potentially distressed areas.
The benefit is that it started a discussion about the factors, these and others, that may be related to the distressed areas. The group has now gone back to work on identifying other key indicators, and will be conducting additional analysis and researching evidence from other cities about what has worked for them, and use that information to formulated recommendations for decision makers.

9. Open Data: making data available and accessible without restrictions

10. So in Mesa – we are building Open. MesaAZ
So in Mesa – we are building Open.MesaAZ.gov – and hope to go live sometime this Spring. We are focusing first around the data that drives the decision on key City strategic priorities named by our Mayor, Council and City Manager – such as Increasing prosperity, transforming neighborhoods and creating a vibrant downtown.
What we Learn was a whole lot about the data was collecting, who owned it, and where it was stored. What a hidden asset….
Followed the 10 most popular data sets
Just added new to the portal our vendor payment data set
Open.MesaAZ.gov

11. Impacts: We learned more about our data
Jumped started our analytics program
Fleet Services Vehicle Replacement Model
Police Response Staffing Model
Code Violations Predictive Model
The City of Mesa is just getting started on this. But through our work with Johns Hopkins and the What Works Cities folks we have learned a great deal about how to implement analytics and are learning from examples in other partner cities.

12. Benefits of Participation
Active network of participating cities across the country
Receive $$$$$$ worth technical assistance, and ongoing support
Free resource guides
Why other cities might be interested even if they can’t be an official member.
Jump start…
$100,000 in technical assistance…. That is on-going. A network of cities
Resources and toolkits that are free and accessible on line. For example