Redmond finance team unveils refreshed outcome maps; council asks for clearer targets and meta‑metrics

City finance staff on Tuesday presented a refresh of Redmond's outcome maps — the framework that connects community outcomes to dashboard indicators, program measures and the biennial budget — and asked council for feedback on two priority areas: "Healthy and sustainable" and "Strategic and responsive."

Deputy Director Haritha Nara said the outcome maps were last updated in 2020 and staff proposed new and refined outcomes and indicators to reflect recently adopted strategic plans and changed community expectations. Financial Planning Manager Haley Zurcher explained the multi‑layer template (outcomes → dashboard indicators → objectives → program measures) and said targets and department‑level measures will be detailed during departmental budget presentations beginning March 24.

Councilmembers asked for clearer, measurable targets rather than unspecified labels (for example, ‘‘poor/adequate’’ for stormwater ponds), and requested additional environmental measures such as acres of restored habitat, tree‑canopy metrics and indicators tied to climate vulnerability. Several councilmembers urged that performance measures show both raw counts and percentages for equity‑focused programs so the public can see how many residents are served as the city grows.

Deputy Chief Jim Whitney and staff discussed a proposed indicator to reduce non‑emergent 911 utilization as part of a community health outcome. They said the intention is not to limit emergency response: the city will continue to respond to all 911 calls and will also invest in prevention and alternative crisis response teams; council asked staff to guard against perverse incentives when setting targets.

On fiscal measures, staff added indicators for community investment rate (previously called "price of government"), non‑tax revenue, spending with diverse vendors and environmental procurement. Council members asked for a small set of simplified 'meta‑metrics' or benchmarks that communicate progress on big goals (housing production pace, carbon neutrality trajectory, pavement condition projections) to the public alongside the detailed outcome maps.

Next steps: staff will gather council feedback into a matrix, return Feb. 10 to review remaining priorities, run community validation in late Feb/early March with EMC consulting, and present targets during the March departmental budget presentations.