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Public Safety. "I want to feel safe any time, anywhere in Mesa County." iiiiiiiiiiiiiii Public Health. "I want a healthy Mesa County." Public Resources. "I want Mesa County to have well-managed resources. 1) A strategic plan, vision, or mission statement can be the starting point for identifying the priority results. Grounding the priority results in these previous efforts can be helpful, as it respects the investment stakeholders might have in them and gives the priorities greater legitimacy Developing the priorities is a critical point of citizen involvement. The governing board must also be closely involved. Familiar tools such as citizen surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews work well, too. UT M-111 r0 • IT&M.T271M M @=' The jurisdictions that participated in the CF A's research offered two alternatives for funding support services. Some suggested creating a ii good governance" priority that addresses high-quality support services.This gives support services a clear place in PDB, and allows them to evaluate program relevance against the strategic results they are asl<ed to achieve. Here is how the City of Walnut Creel, California, defined its governance goals- lity and innovation in all city business. Provide superior customer service that is responsive and demystifi es city processes. IIIIIIIIIIIIIII Provide analysis and long-range thinl<ing that supports responsible decision mal<ing. IIIIIIIIIIIIIII Proactively protect and maintain city resources. IIIIIIIIIIIIIII Ensure regulatory and policy compliance. Other participants envisioned moving to a system that would fully distribute the cost of support services to operating pro- grams.Thus, the impact of any changes in the funding of these services would be tied to the prioritization of the operating services they support. Intended Result: A set of priorities that are expressed in terms of measurable results, are of value to citizens, and are widely agreed to be legitimate. 3. Define Your Priority Results More Precisely. The foundation of any prioritization effort is the results that define why an organization exists. Organizations must ask what makes them relevant to their citizens. Achieving relevance providing the programs that achieve relevant results — is the most profound outcome of a prioritization process. The challenge is that results can be broad, and what they mean for your community can be unclear. Take, for instance, a result such as "pro iding a safe community," which is shared by most local governments. Organizations talk about public safety, or the provision of a safe community, as if it were an obvious and specific concept. But is it In the City of Wa I nu t Crash, Cal i fo rn ia, c itize ns, together with city leadership, commonly identified issues of building safety specific to surviving earthquakes as an important influence on the safety of their community. In the City of Lakeland, Florida, however, not a single citizen or public official dis- cussed earthquakes in their work to help define the very same April 2010 1 Government Finance Review I I