Mayor Levar Stoney and representatives from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs on Thursday unveiled the mayor's highly anticipated performance review of City Hall.
Stoney, who is approaching the six-month mark in his tenure, promised the review as a candidate. He set it in motion during his first 100 days in office with significant financial backing from Dominion and Altria, as well as an in-kind contribution from VCU, which conducted the review.
“Today is the day of a long-needed and honest reckoning regarding the performance of our local government,” Stoney said.
The review consisted of an electronic survey circulated among 35 city departments that yielded a 25 percent response rate (about 1,200 people), interviews with leaders in 19 departments, as well as focus groups conducted over about three weeks with employees who chose to participate from 11 departments.
What was discovered?
"Excessive bureaucracy, micromanagement, unnecessary delays and sometimes poor leadership have led to a system that is often not as agile, responsible internally or externally, or as skillful as it should be for Richmond to become the city it could be," states the 110-page report containing the review's findings.
James Burke and Linda Pierce, of the Wilder School’s Performance Management Group, presented an overview of the report’s recommendations, which fell under five categories: processes and procedures; systems and technology; culture and communication; change; and people and relationships. Each category states problems the consultants identified across departments, either through the survey or focus groups, as well as fixes.
For example, under processes and procedures, the consultants note that "many formal processes for important functions are lacking" at City Hall, and as a result this is causing "simple business transactions getting lost in bureaucracy without communications on progress." They recommend the city "document core processes and communicate them to users to ensure consistency and efficiency."
The report also contains department-specific recommendations.
To start, Stoney said he plans to assemble a “cross-functional team,” of employees from various city departments. The team will be responsible for setting a timeline for accomplishing each of the review’s recommendations and monitoring progress toward doing so.
“Some needs and actions were anticipated, and are now already underway,” Stoney said. “Some will begin almost immediately, and others will be more long-term and ongoing.”
Read the full report here.
