HomeMy WebLinkAbout020323-04.1 Service Delivery Post Covid 19SERVICE DELIVERY - MOVING FORWARD
POST COVID 19
INTRODUCTION
Since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Town Council has spent time during
the Annual Planning and Goal Setting Workshops to consider necessary adjustments
to the Town's range of services provided as well as the methods of service delivery.
The early years of the pandemic were spent undertaking a series of operational
adjustments related to ensuring public and employee safety. These included
conducting online meetings and public hearings and staggering in-person work hours
to ensure adequate distances between employees. From a service delivery standpoint,
the Town reduced in-person services where demand was limited by either safety
concerns or staffing availability (such as Recreation) while investing more heavily in
technology infrastructure to enable greater ability to deliver online services (such as
permitting) and community engagement (e.g., Danville Town Talks).
DISCUSSION
As we conclude the third year of the pandemic, this paper seeks to evaluate the
operational experiments of the past several years and consider opportunities to
further refine innovations to continuously improve Town service delivery as a part of
the next "new normal".
Community Outreach and Engagement
One of the most notable shifts, accelerated by the pandemic, is the community's
embrace of online platforms as the dominant method of communicating, engaging,
and doing business with its local government.
This conclusion is derived from assessing recent efforts such as the January 2023 storm
response, where the Town's 108 social posts across Nextdoor, Instagram, and
Facebook have garnered nearly 128,000 cumulative views. During the same period,
the Town's website also experienced a 57% increase to page views, illustrating the
community's use of technology to seek information from the Town. Crucially, the
tenor of the storm -related commentary shifts from fear and anxiety -based to
expressions of gratitude with the frequency of appropriately timed content.
High profile projects that spark broad community interest also benefit from a strong
online presence. The Downtown Master Plan enabled the community to provide
nearly 1,500 survey responses and receive updates on the effort as evidenced by
approximately 5,300 visits to the project page on the Danville Town Talks platform.
Similarly, the Housing Element Update benefitted greatly from constructive feedback
provided through a series of online engagement activities and consistent factual
updates. The project page on the Danville Town Talks platform generated
approximately 7,700 site visits and approximately 1,690 document downloads. More
importantly, it has become a frequently referenced source of information on social
media platforms such as Nextdoor. Lastly, feedback indicates that a growing number
of community members follow key issues by watching livestreamed public hearings
in both real time or via recorded on line video after -the -fact.
Moving Forward: While the Town continues to maintain and promote opportunities
for in-person feedback and engagement (such as live public meetings and pop-up
events), continuing to grow and vary the Town's online presence will be a core piece
of the Town's future communications strategy. Expanding current efforts will require
rethinking past approaches that have been aimed at maximizing dissemination of
information, including retraining staffing and making additional technology
investments.
Hybrid Public Meetings
Much of the business conducted by public agencies occurs by virtue of meetings that
occur at all organizational levels, up to and including public hearings held by the
legislative bodies and the advisory commissions that support them.
The introduction of virtual public meetings, necessitated by the pandemic,
demonstrated benefits for meeting attendees who have technological access but are
constrained by time, distance, work and/ or family or mobility limitations. Feedback
from applicants (homeowners and developers) indicate a preference for virtual
Planning Commission and Design Review Board meetings given that members of
their consultant team - who may work in other parts of the state or country - could
provide technical support without the need to be physically present in Danville.
In early 2022, the Town initiated an effort to introduce "hybrid" meeting formats that
combine live and virtual participation. Unfortunately, the digital public hearing
platform (Granicus) at the Town Meeting Hall proved to be unreliable. Further
investigation of these technological issues was deferred due to a focus on completing
the technology infrastructure at the new Town Offices in mid to late 2022.
Moving Forward: Recommendation to reinitiate an exploration of providing a hybrid
meeting platform that is available at the Danville Town Meeting Hall.
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Town Staff and Staffing
The pandemic has also changed employee norms and expectations with respect to
their job sites. Factors such as proximity, physical separation, providing for adequate
separation between employees and public at areas of public interface all come into
play. While it was a challenge at the prior Town Offices (510 La Gonda), these spacing
issues have been resolved at the new Town Offices (500 La Gonda).
Another notable consequence of the pandemic, as it relates to staffing, is growing
inflation and the nationwide labor shortage. These have sparked increased
competition in the marketplace for certain categories of classifications, resulting in
higher than average staff turnover over the past year. Compensation is one
consideration, along with offers to work remotely. It is also worth noting that the
availability of remote work continues to be a question that is asked by potential
employment candidates. In their State of American Business 2023 report, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce cites a Gallop poll which found that "91 % of U.S. workers
hoped they could continue working some of their hours from home, and three in 10
workers signaled they would seek new employment if they were recalled to the
office."
The Town's current policy is to ensure that its workforce is present, in-person, to
interact with the community as well as to facilitate collaboration among a small group
of knowledge workers. The ability to consult with co-workers in-person and access
resources within the building was invaluable to the Town's recent storm responses.
However, as with employers in all other industries, the Town must still work to attract
and retain talent.
Moving Forward: While the Town is committed to maintaining an in-person work
environment, it may become necessary to consider greater work schedule flexibility
and/ or other workforce benefits as a way to maintain a small, highly skilled
workforce necessary to deliver services in the manner expected by our community.
SUMMARY
The Coronavirus has prompted adjustments to some methods of service delivery to
the community. Based upon the experience gained and lessons learned, these three
main areas of adjustments are expected to carry over into future post pandemic
models for service delivery. Town Council feedback and input is sought preparatory
to development of the draft 2023/24 Operating Budget.
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