County to identify gaps in delivering and barriers to receiving services
Comprehensive audit part of effort to ‘becoming operationally efficient’
“Our entire leadership team has really been wanting to understand what are the metrics that we really need to use to make decisions.
This gives us an opportunity to take the same kind of approach we’re taking with economic development for the other departments and the services they provide.”
— Oakland County Executive David Coulter
Oakland County will soon be conducting a comprehensive audit to evaluate potential gaps in delivering government services and barriers residents are experiencing in receiving those services.
County Executive David Coulter emphasized in his Fiscal Year 2021 budget message the importance of “becoming more operationally efficient and developing scorecard metrics to yield a more operational efficient county government and maintain our AAA bond rating.” He also outlined the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in how the county operates and delivers services to its 1.2 million residents.
Information gleaned from the audit will be used to improve the efficiency of government operations and deliver government services in a more equitable and accessible way moving forward. The county has 45 departments and divisions in addition to the courts system.
Rudy Hobbs, deputy county executive, said the audit will help the county determine the efficiency of key services being delivered, where key service delivery needs to be, and what will it take to get the county to that next level.
“The audit process will share with us where are services are, particularly as it relates to where people want services to be,” he said. “That’s the really the big piece. It’s about understanding what our constituents need as it relates to the services we provide. I hoping that audit will share that with us. We really want to be intentional as to how we structure our services to reach all county residents.”
Hobbs said the way in which the county provides public health services, especially during the COVID-19, is important, adding there could be ways in which the delivery of those health services can be enhanced.
“We noticed there are relationships that need to be built with our community partners on the front end as trusted sources so that when we respond to a pandemic or any other issues, that trust is already built ,” he said. “Hopefully this process will also give us an opportunity to do some outreach and build some relationships where we don’t have them currently right now.”
The main objectives of the audit include:
• Evaluate the current availability of services to residents
• Identify populations who experience barriers to services
• Identify gaps in access and opportunity to services
• Identify factors that contribute to disparate outcomes in specific populations concerning access and opportunity to services
• Recommend strategies to address the identified gaps and barriers related to access and opportunity to services
Residents and other community stakeholders will be asked to provide input and participate in this audit process through the implementation of various virtual focus groups, says Hobbs.
“One thing about our vendor that really stood out is their knowledge about communities right here in Oakland County,” he said. “This includes knowledge about the influencers and some of the major nonprofits that are already doing work in the county. I feel very comfortable (that the vendor) will being together a really diverse group for the focus groups, but also implement a good outreach effort to get their opinions on the services we offer.”
According to county documents, the board of commissioners will consider allocating $1.33 million in general fund dollars to conduct the audit and develop key performance indicators to measure how well county departments are delivering services.
The development of key performance metrics is about letting the data drive decisions, said Hobbs. While he doesn’t want the metrics to “bog down” department heads, Hobbs sees performance metrics as a system by which information can flow into the executive’s office, helping Coulter’s administration make important decisions.
“Our entire leadership team has really been wanting to understand what are the metrics that we really need to use to make decisions,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity to take the same kind of approach we’re taking with economic development for the other departments and the services they provide.”
The audit is expected to be completed by April 2021 with the development of performance metrics to follow.