Becoming a data-driven organization: City of Peoria, Arizona.

• Author: Christensen, Peter
• Position: PM2 CONNECTIONS PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT & MANAGEMENT

The City of Peoria has been refining a useful tool for making budgetary decisions and promoting accountability throughout the organization.

The City of Peoria, Arizona, is no stranger to performance management. For years, the city has worked to refine a system that has become a useful tool for making budgetary decisions and promoting accountability throughout the organization. The city has received recognition for its efforts from the Government Finance Officers Association's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Program and from International City/ County Management Association (ICMA) Center for Performance Measurement. Still, Peoria has a long way to go to connect all the dots of its strategic planning and performance measurement systems and become a truly data-driven organization.

PEORIA'S NEW REALITY

Stretching across 176 square miles in the northwest corner of the Phoenix metropolitan area, Peoria is a full-service municipality with a population of a little more than 150,000 and a general fund budget of more than $150 million. Peoria operates under the council-manager form of government, with a mayor elected at large and six council members elected from geographic districts. The city manager oversees more than 1,100 employees in 14 departments.

Peoria is known for quality schools and well-planned residential neighborhoods. The community also offers outstanding recreational amenities, including Lake Pleasant (Arizona's second largest lake), the Peoria Sports Complex (the spring training home of the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners), and the award-winning Rio Vista Community Park. The hotels, restaurants, and automobile dealerships surrounding the sports complex form an entertainment district that is a major source of revenue.

During the first decade of the new millennium, Peoria was one of the fastest-growing cities in Arizona and the United States. The city's growth spurt came to a screeching halt in 2008, however, with the onset of the housing crisis and recession, and growth-related revenues have all but dried up. Like other Arizona cities, Peoria is highly dependent on sales and income taxes (the state shares sales and income taxes with cities and counties), which have also fallen off dramatically over the last two years. Almost overnight, the growth focus that had dominated Peoria and its neighboring communities for so many years gave way to an entirely new reality that would require creative thinking and innovative...