City’s Mid-Year Performance Update Shows Progress Amid Pandemic

Press release from the City of Grand Rapids:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The City of Grand Rapids is making strong progress in meeting the second year goals of its four-year strategic plan, according to a report from City Manager Mark Washington and City staff.

“As we navigate through unprecedented times and strategize economic recovery in the wake of the eventual close of this pandemic, we continue to use the strategic plan as our guide in decision-making,” Washington said. “This has uniquely positioned us to lean in on these challenges while still making progress on the issues we prioritized in 2020 and plan for in 2021 and beyond.”

With respect to the first half of fiscal year 2021 (July through December 2020), the City is 76 percent on track with performance and the Grand Rapids Police Department is 90 percent on track with its own strategic plan, despite the significant and unanticipated challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession and nationwide calls for immediate and significant policing reform.

“The progress we have made so far shows that when we direct our focus on bettering our community in times of hardship, our City is still capable of achieving our goals,” said Mayor Rosalynn Bliss. “I look forward to what we can all accomplish as we navigate out of the pandemic and into our city’s recovery.”

During morning and afternoon meetings, City staff and community partners updated the City Commission on the economic outlook and recovery, FY2021 strategic plan highlights and detailed updates on key initiatives including the police department’s strategic plan, status of the new master planning process and housing and homelessness.

“The successes in our midyear report show that our City staff and community organizations are committed to achieving the goals we laid out regardless of the setbacks we have experienced over the last year,” said Alison Waske Sutter, Sustainability and Performance Management Officer.

City staff outlined the progress the City has made responding to these events while working steadily to elevate quality of life in Grand Rapids by providing excellent City services throughout FY2021 (June 30, 2020 to date). The City’s FY2021 Mid-year Performance Management Update includes four components:

• CFO Molly Clarin’s Financial Update (Feb. 9)
• Economic Outlook and Recovery Update and FY21 Overview of Strategic Plan Progress
• Detailed Updates on FY2021 Initiatives (Police Strategic Plan Update including Parking Enforcement Transition and Evidence-Based Violence Reduction RFP; Master Plan Update and Facilitator Results; Housing and Homelessness Update)
• FY2021 Mid-year Performance Management Update Supporting Report (coming soon)

Collectively, these reports illustrate the progress made over the last 18 months and the key accomplishments achieved under the first year and a half of the City’s four-year strategic plan. All performance management materials (presentations, videos, reports) are available HERE.

Washington told the Commission that the updates identify key accomplishments and commitments for the remainder of the fiscal year by COVID-19 response and recovery, essential City services and strategic plan priorities and objectives.

COVID-19 relief and recovery

As the City faced unexpected and unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, City staff prioritized response and recovery efforts to alleviate the social, economic and health-related impacts on the community. By cooperating with the Kent County Health Department (KCHD) and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), the City has made available COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites for community members. It also supported economic relief for local businesses by collaborating with business owners and organizations to create social zones to encourage commerce in a safe way as well as supported business recovery with small business grants.

Through the end of FY2021, the City is committed to supporting testing and vaccination efforts, expanding economic recovery investments and monitoring MDHHS epidemic orders and how they will affect the city.

Governmental excellence

As residents experienced financial and social challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City continued to provide essential City services such as ensuring outdoor spaces are safe and available, street construction and maintenance, suspending water shutoffs and adapting public safety, police and fire services to changing needs.

The City’s past work and future commitments also focus on improving internal functions and offerings to better address residents’ and businesses’ needs. This includes:

• Revising micro-local business enterprise (MLBE) policy, construction guidelines and economic development incentives to increase access and use
• Collaborating with Our Community's Children to administer GRow 1000 youth employment program
• Implementing staff equity trainings such as Equity Champions and Undoing Racism
• Upgrading the 311 Customer Relationship Management system to add chat, an online 311 knowledge base and more intuitive workflow to streamline processes

Engaged and connected community

The City’s communications efforts emphasized online communications in order to adapt to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes community engagement efforts such as City Commission meetings streamed live online, revisions to e-newsletter updates, the creation of The Bridge activities and several Neighborhood Match Fund grants that empowered and uplifted community programs. City staff also worked to improve Census self-responses and voter outreach and education.

The City is committed through the end of the fiscal year to improving engagement efforts by completing surveys with media partners as well as directly with residents to strengthen relationships and build trust. It is also encouraging resident participation in future engagements regarding the budget process, strategic plan revisions and more.

Health, environment and mobility

Since the beginning of FY2021, the City has implemented and improved policies that contribute to the health of its residents, creating a more sustainable environment and improving mobility throughout the city. Some examples include improvements to City parks facilities, lead service line replacement and a 25% reduction in recycling contamination. It also plans to reduce the City’s carbon footprint through measures such as replacing street lights with an LED system, bringing the biodigester online with gas production and utilizing solar energy for the Lake Michigan Filtration Plant.

The City has also improved mobility throughout the community through the scooter pilot program launched in September, plans for a pilot transportation program in neighborhoods of focus and plans to shift parking enforcement from the GRPD to Mobile GR.

Safe Community

This past year, the City and the GRPD experienced calls for police reform and greater transparency in the City’s plans to foster a safe community. The GRPD has implemented and provided updates on its strategic plan, which was created in collaboration with the community. Additionally, the GRPD, the Office of Public Accountability, the City Attorney and the City Manager’s Office worked in partnership with other City departments to lead the City’s police reform efforts and revised GRPD policies and procedures on multiple policies including, but not limited to, use of force policies.

In an effort to improve the safety of the community, the City and the GRPD has also implemented the following:

• Hosted two gun buyback programs that resulted in over 200 firearms.
• Held listening sessions with the community regarding leveraging technology in police operations such as gunshot detection technology.
• Expanded the Homeless Outreach Team to include another officer and a supervisor.
• Launched the Victim Services Unit to assist victims and families experiencing unexpected death.

The City’s efforts are paying off as demonstrated by an 86 percent reduction in murders – with one murder this calendar year as of Feb. 23 compared to seven murders by the same date in 2020.

The report is the City’s third formal performance management update for its strategic plan FY2020-FY2023. It comes following a FY2021 Commission prioritization workshop, a FY2020 performance management report and passage of the FY2021 budget, which aligns with the strategic plan.

To view the full FY2021 Overview of Strategic Plan Progress presentation, CLICK HERE.

###

This press release was produced by the City of Grand Rapids. The views expressed are the author's own.