Acknowledgments

This report relies on data provided by the Valley Benchmark Communities and their respective Community Representatives, who ensured the accuracy and completeness of the data presented.  All photos used in this report were provided by the Valley Benchmark Communities. Data and insights were sourced from the communities' publicly available reports, internal documents, and contributions from various City and Town Managers. The information included in this report reflects the most current data as provided by each community, and any discrepancies or updates have been noted as appropriate. Sources of external data, where utilized, are cited within the report.

Report Timeline

Annually, since FY 2013-14, the Valley Benchmark Cities initiative publishes a report to share Valley-wide measures with city leadership and the public. This report includes measures in the following service categories: Demographics, Fire Services, Police Services, Library Services, Parks and Recreation Services, Water, Sewer, and Trash Services, and Finance and Administrative Services.

The report moved away from individual community trends to a report based upon regional trends using the maximum, minimum, median, and average of the 11 cities’ data. The definition of each metric is listed beneath the chart title. Notes detailing the regional trends identify explanations of what caused any changes and are included beneath the chart for each measure. Each city’s individual data can be found in the Appendix.

The report added three new Library measures per the recommendation of the Valley City Managers: Physical Item Turnover Rate, Operating & Maintenance per Square Foot, and Operating & Maintenance per Visitor.

The report began adding notes to the "Appendix" to record any changes in individual cities that affect this year's data collection but do not necessarily affect trends throughout the region. Additionally, the data definitions for Water, Sewer, and Trash measures were refined to replace the term "typical monthly bill" with "standardized monthly bill" to describe water and sewer rates in the Valley.

Significant efforts were made to clarify definitions and measure titles to ensure consistency in data reporting across all cities. Among the measures adjusted were: [Fire/Medical] Top Priority Fire Response, [Police] Top Priority Police Response, Police Calls - Officer Initiated, [Parks & Recreation] Miles of Trails, [Finance & Administration] FTE Positions for Fiscal Year, FTE Positions Authorized, Part Time FTEs Authorized for Fiscal Year, Seasonal (Temp) FTEs Authorized for Fiscal Year, [Water, Sewer, & Trash] Percent of Waste Diverted through Recycling, Total Waste (Landfill) in Tons, Total Recycled in Tons.
With these clarification efforts, several measures were identified as having been reported inconsistently across cities in past fiscal years. The historical data for these measures has been recollected and updated in the report, and the affected measures are noted in the Appendix.

The report moves from the GovBenchmark software to Envisio Performance Analytics. This allows for a far more convenient and visually interesting representation of the report. 
Buckeye and Queen Creek officially join in Spring and Summer 2021, respectively. Their community's data points are first made available in the 2020-2021 Trend Report. 
Valley Benchmark Cities officially becomes Valley Benchmark Communities, with Maricopa County officially joining the organization in Spring 2022.

The report introduces a new section titled "Development Services," which encompasses three new metrics implemented during FY 2020-2021. These metrics include "Total Full Time Equivalents Dedicated to Processing Permits," "Number of Permits Issued for Single Family Standard Plan," and "Average Turnaround Time of Permits for Single Family Standard Plan (Business Days)."

The Valley Benchmark Communities saw the departure of the City of Buckeye, and their community's data will not be included in any metrics provided in the report for this fiscal year. Past reports and data sets will continue to include previously provided data from the City of Buckeye, and their data from prior years will remain available.
All Finance and Administration data has been consolidated into the Master Appendix of the report. This includes various metrics such as FTEs by Major Service Areas, Vacancy Rate, Organization Turnover Rate, and Large Contracts for Service Delivery in Place of Full-Time Equivalents.