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Issaquah reports improved performance metrics but several targets still unmet
Summary
The city’s 2024 citywide performance measures show improvement across most strategic-goal areas; the administration recommends continued emphasis on mobility, landfill diversion, equitable hiring and resident perceptions, and will begin adding updated measures from the strategic‑plan revision in 2025.
Dale Markey Crimp, assistant to the city administrator, presented the City of Issaquah’s 2024 citywide performance measures to the council on May 13 and said the dashboard now reports 2024 data and some 2025 survey data.
The performance-measurement program (adopted in 2020) tracks outputs, program outcomes and community perception measures across six strategic goal areas. Crimp said 75% of measures that have targets were “approaching, meeting or exceeding those targets in 2024.” He described that as the strongest overall performance since the program began but noted 14 targets were still not met in 2024.
Why it matters: The dashboard is used for transparency and to guide budget and policy decisions. The administration and council will use the measures, together with the community survey, to prioritize resources at the July retreat.
Crimp summarized trends by goal area. Mobility: 67% of mobility measures with targets were approaching or meeting goals; the city met its service standard on pothole response and saw small year-over-year increases in transit and vanpool usage, but resident perception of car travel dropped 9% from 2023. Growth and development: the city met target review times for several permit types but still missed targets for first review on single-family and short plats and for new affordable housing units created (54 new affordable units in the past six years, none reported in the last two years).
Environmental stewardship: the city met or approached 80% of targets; energy use per capita showed a favorable decline for the first time in several years. Materials diverted from landfill increased (residential +4%, commercial +3%, multifamily +1%) but remained below the 70% diversion goal. City leadership and services: volunteer hours rose but unique volunteer numbers slipped; resident perception of overall city services remains high compared with regional and national benchmarks, but it continues to fall short of the city’s 80% internal target.
Crimp reviewed measures that have routinely missed targets: resident perception of mobility; first permit review times; percent of materials diverted from landfill; total hours of racial‑equity/anti‑bias training; demographic representation of applicants, staff and boards/commissions; resident perception of city services; and perception of stormwater infrastructure. He outlined three potential responses for persistently missed targets: continued emphasis (more staff time/programs), additional financial investment or reconsideration of the target’s appropriateness.
Next steps and changes: the administration said data collection for measures added or revised in the 2024 strategic-plan update will begin in 2025 and be integrated into the dashboard and annual reporting in 2026. Crimp asked council members to review the dashboard and submit suggestions for additional measures; Councilmember Zhang suggested tracking affordability at multiple AMI thresholds and adding explicit climate/emissions metrics rather than electricity use per capita alone.
Ending: Councilmembers thanked staff, urged more analysis of questions that persistently miss targets, and asked administration to share the forthcoming external social‑and‑economic data that is due in June. Crimp said staff will continue to monitor performance and bring recommended target adjustments or investment priorities to council.
