San Francisco Performance Program

The Performance Program Team in the Controller's Office works collaboratively with City departments to collect and report performance results. These performance data help evaluate the effectiveness of the full range of public services provided by the City and County of San Francisco. In short, we work with City departments to:

• Track performance data using a centralized database
• Make performance data accessible to the public
• Promote the use of data to inform decision-making
• Develop meaningful performance measures
• Support their performance management efforts

Performance data help the City and its residents make efficient, effective, and thoughtful operational and resource decisions. As such our goal is to provide citizens and policy makers with actionable information that support informed decision making.

In November 2003, San Francisco voters passed Proposition C. It mandated the Controller's Office to monitor the level and effectiveness of services City provided. The Program was created to achieve this objective. 

The Program Team works with City departments to create reliable and easy-to-use performance data. We partner with staff in City departments to develop monitoring plans to track, measure, and report on the effectiveness of public services. We also help departments to analyze and use the data to drive operational improvements to enhance service-delivery. The information that departments generate through these reports is gathered, shared with City leadership, and made available to the public.

In addition to close collaboration with departments on enhancing public service-delivery, the Performance Management Program Team also publicly distributes performance data through three main data products:

• Annual Reports - The Annual Performance Report provides annual performance data for each of the City's departments. The report includes more than 800 performance measures that report on the effectiveness and efficiency of departments' major goals and activities. The report includes an accompanying viewer that visualizes the data. The performance data are also included in the City's Mayor Budget Books.
• Scorecards - Our Scorecards Portal provides timely information on the efficiency and effectiveness of San Francisco Government across eight highlighted service areas that are of greatest interests to the public.
• Benchmarking - Our Benchmarking Portal shows the performance and costs of services benchmarked against other cities, counties, and public agencies performing similar functions in order to compare the service levels and cost-effectiveness of various services.

Street, Sidewalk, and Park Maintenance Standards: Since 2004, the Controller's Office City Performance Unit has worked with the Recreation and Parks Department and the Department of Public Works to develop maintenance standards and inspect for compliance.

Data Academy: Controller's Office City Performance Unit has collaborated with the Chief Data Officer to provide data analytics, visualization,  project management, and lean training to analysts enterprise-wide since 2014. The training platform annually trains 1,400+ analysts and managers via 70+ just-in-time micro workshops, generating up to $10M efficiency gain per year.

City Survey: The biennial City Survey assesses San Francisco residents' use of and satisfaction with various city services.

DataSF: DataSF's Mission is to empower the use of data in decision making and service delivery.

The Performance Management Program Team: 

• Project Manager - Sherman Luk
• Performance Analysts - Juliet Huang, Joanna Bell, Ketan Hazari, Jamila Wilson, and Reyna McKinnon

Email: performance.con@sfgov.org