Public Safety, Core Services, and Fiscal Excellence

Outcome Statement: Collaborate to prioritize and enhance public safety services while building resiliency and trust within our community.

I. Adequately staff public safety departments to address community safety. 

• A meeting was held at the Kyle Fire Department, Station 1, on July 7, to discuss collaborative programs with agencies in order to increase the pool of qualified Fire/EMS applicants within the central Texas region.
• Recent changes were incorporated into the Meet & Confer Agreement to allow allow for this opportunity to be explored further.
• Four new firefighters started in April 2023. We currently have 10 vacant positions to fill with only 11 candidates on the eligibility list with numerous steps in the hiring process to complete.

II. Complete construction and open Fire Station 6 and Phase I of the Fire Training Facility.

• Fire Station 6 received its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy on June 26, 2023, and the Grand Opening Ceremony was held on Friday, June 30, 2023.
• Construction on Phase I of the Fire Training Facility is on-going and we anticipate completion late summer/early fall of 2023.

III. Optimize the use of technology to improve community safety.

• Fire Administration continues to work closely with GIS and identify new ways to utilize GIS and data to improve our Fire/EMS responses.
• GIS was instrumental in redrawing the fire response districts and determining the response sequence for the opening of Fire Station 6.
• Downtown cameras will be operationalized (9 in total) to assist with the identification of crime victims and suspects.

IV. Expand programs and partnerships that engage the community and strengthen community trust, including employing strategies for reaching diverse populations.

• St. David’s Foundation grant has been used to fund many programs that support mental health. During June, programs included: art therapy, music therapy, caregiving connections support group, Eng-Aging programs to improve quality of life as you age, yoga, meditation, sound therapy, retirement readiness, adult time out crafting, and a mental health program about self-care, coping and relaxing.

V. Increase all-hazards and disaster preparedness, response and recovery through coordination and local partnerships and intergovernmental cooperation.

• The Office of Emergency Management continues to work on the Hazard Mitigation Plan. 
• As part of September’s National Preparedness month, a public outreach campaign will be completed to include communication information, how to build a kit, STEAR sign up, and how to create a plan for individuals and their family. This information will be shared with staff and reiterated on social media through communications each week. 
• Continuity planning is taking place with local stakeholders to increase future sheltering coordination in our community. Two public information and FEMA Crowd Management Special Event courses will be conducted by NCS4 and is open to staff and public stakeholders throughout the state to learn how to create safe well-organized events for our community.

Outcome statement: Ensure operations are funded for the delivery of high-quality customer experiences and community-focused programs and services.

I. Responsibly plan for and deploy resources and staff using best practices, needs assessments, and fiscal modeling.

• Fire Administration continues to work closely with GIS and identify new ways to utilize GIS and data to improve our Fire/EMS responses.
• GIS was instrumental in redrawing the fire response districts and determining the response sequence for the opening of Fire Station 6.
• Downtown cameras will be operationalized (9 in total) to assist with the identification of crime victims and suspects.

II.  Identify and pursue process improvements and opportunities for increased efficiency, effectiveness, and cost savings.

• St. David’s Foundation grant has been used to fund many programs that support mental health. During June, programs included: art therapy, music therapy, caregiving connections support group, Eng-Aging programs to improve quality of life as you age, yoga, meditation, sound therapy, retirement readiness, adult time out crafting, and a mental health program about self-care, coping and relaxing.
• Collaborated with Parks & Recreation’s Park Ambassadors to apply the City Marshal’s Community Contacts approach to track their activities in parks.  An ArcGIS Quick Capture form was established for the Ambassadors to track their interactions and a Dashboard was created for leadership to monitor and report on their engagement with the community.  This improved the Ambassadors processes by moving them away from tracking their activities via paper and pencil to digital data collection which enables them to focus on their primary mission while in the field. 
• Collaborated with Main Street to develop a work tracking system that supports capturing data regarding funds received for temporary positions. The goal of the project was to track the amount of time spent in key delivery areas and how often they perform specific types of work.  Keeping downtown San Marcos beautiful is a large job, the ability to capture the data behind the effort is important to show how much work it does take to keep our City looking good. 
•  Working with Contracts Process Improvement Committee to create an intake form to simplify Contract requests. Next steps: build automations, workflows and notifications into Purchasing Contract intake process and create a dashboard for end user transparency. 
• Assisting CDBG with setting up foundation Smartsheet and automations to assist in managing their Housing Rehab Program. 
• Collaborating with Human Resources on creating transparency by building a Hiring dashboard to streamline internal hiring process requests.
• Created a Neighborhood Application with Neighborhood Enhancement that brings multiple datasets together into one simple to user interface for residents.  With this application, citizens and residents can find information about who their utility provider is, what City resources are in their neighborhood, and explore our excellent recreational assets.  Visit it here: https://myneighborhood.sanmarcostx.gov  

III.  Develop a comprehensive community resource guide and assure its availability to citizens.

• Working with Hays County to Implement a guide that will serve as a countywide resource booklet.

Outcome statement: Use strategic financial decision making to meet our community’s existing and future needs.

I. Create a fiscal tool based on the Comprehensive Plan to evaluate fiscal sustainability associated with growth.

• The comprehensive plan adoption was postponed by the Planning and Zoning Commission – on its current schedule City Council will see the plan in September with final adoption in November. This task will follow adoption. 

II.  Continue debt management in a financially prudent and strategic manner and take advantage of market conditions when present.

• Debt models were reviewed as part of the debt sale presentation giving to City Council on June 6th.  
• The models will be updated and reviewed in September once the FY 2024 budget is approved so that we can formalize our debt plan strategy.  

III. Pursue grant funding opportunities for applicable projects, including CIP.

• Staff submitted applications for Step 2 of the TXDOT 2023 Transportation alternatives project in June.  We should know the results in Fall of 2023 
• The Uhland Quad Gates project was not selected for the UPRR grant we applied for. 
• We are waiting to hear back on the Texas Water Development Board application for the Highway 80 Utilities project.  We should know the results in Fall of 2023 
• Staff is working on an application the FM 110 Driveway at the Airport.  The current plan is to submit the application in the Fall of 2023.    
• Staff submitted an application for the Reclaimed Water master plan earlier this year.  We should know the results in Summer of 2023

Outcome statement: Invest in the recruitment and retention of an adequately staffed, skilled, and professional workforce.

I. Complete and begin to implement the compensation plan.

• The Classification and Compensation is underway and we are currently awaiting data that reflects our position with the market to guide our next steps.

II. Improve our competitiveness as an employer to attract, hire and retain a diverse and highly skilled workforce. 

• Communications, in partnership with Human Resources, is implementing a marketing plan to increase our ability to attract talent.

III. Develop employees' skills through education and training.

• In partnership with Texas State University, the City was able to secure two scholarships for our Director of Communications & Intergovernmental Relations and our City Marshal to participate in the Certified Public Manager Program (CPM) beginning fall 2023.

IV. Design strategies for succession planning at various levels of the organization to maintain direction and management. 

• A subcommittee of Assistant Directors is brainstorming an employee academy that is based upon succession planning across all departments within our organization.

Outcome statement: Provide necessary resources to internal service departments to support reliable, consistent, and effective city operations.

I. Establish and employ streamlined policy and governance processes that align support services with customer expectations and mission requirements.

• The Cyber Security Strategic Plan was signed by the City Manager in January 2023.
• Developed the Payment Card Industry Security Plan  
• Developed the Health Records Security Plan  
• The Multi-Factor Authentication project is 74% complete for all city user accounts. 
• Implemented an Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).  
• Deploying Bitdefender Antivirus software 5% complete for all city managed devices.  

II. Ensure efficient and effective performance of core business functions, enterprise services and data management.

• Improve data quality and reliability of enterprise spatial data by implementing attribute rules which automatically populate attributes based on business rules, restrict invalid edits during edit operations, and perform quality assurance checks on existing features during data editing activities. 

• Enhance data management procedures by implementing ArcGIS Workflow Manager which enables the GIS teams to optimize and automate procedures that involve many departments.  The team is hoping to improve the quality of source data, timeliness of reviews, and quality of data entering the system by moving management of the process out of excel and outlook and into an information system which will automate notifications, assignments, and advancement through defined workflows. 

Outcome Statement: Dedicate the financial and staffing resources necessary for capital improvement project planning, construction, operations, and maintenance.

I. Develop and implement the CIP.

• Staff has started meeting with Department to discuss the FY2025 CIP and make a concentrated effort to ensure project shown the CIP are warranted.  The goal is to submit a CIP that aligns with our financial capabilities.  
• Work with city departments to update the city’s development code to require communication conduit installation in new developments to meet the needs of the city and to enhance broadband access. 

II. Invest necessary resources, including in the use of technology and equipment, to maintain and extend the life of the City's infrastructure. 

• Public Works completed a citywide Pavement Condition Index (PCI) assessment of all City maintained streets. 
• Public Works has implemented Stormwater infrastructure inspection through use of mobile technology levering GIS for analysis and improved maintenance. 450 linear feet of inspections completed this quarter.   
• Public Works has initiated a comprehensive traffic signal inspection and preventive maintenance program to proactively assess and identify issues to avoid emergency repairs and identify needed improvements. 10 inspections completed.