SiliconBeachUSA.com - Voters' Voice and Choice

If you want to answer Leon's request to give him your "honest, unbiased, thoughts" about his performance as Mayor, you can do so with the form that follows on this page. When you hit the SUBMIT TO LEON Button, the message goes directly to Leon with a copy to SiliconBeachUSA.com for compilation recap.

YOU CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED BY SENDING THIS FORM, UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO BE IDENTIFIED BY ENTERING YOUR NAME OR YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

Questions in the First Section of this form come from the primordial ether of voter curiosity. Questions in the Second Section of the form are taken from the February 2000 Governing.com publication article "Grading the Cities: a management report card". For complete information about this nationwide study, click the Governing.com link.POSTED 11/10/01

As Mayor Leon requested in his letter, please grade his leadership performance in providing essential city services by answering the following two sections of questions.
THIS FIRST SECTION ASKS QUALIFICATION QUESTIONS IN ORDER (1) TO ASSURE THAT YOU ARE ACCEPTABLE FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS SURVEY ACCORDING TO LEON'S STATED STANDARDS (SEE FIRST QUESTION), AND (2) TO CLASSIFY AND ANALYZE RESPONSES TO THIS SURVEY.
In accordance with Leon's demand in his letter that comments about his performance as mayor come ONLY from Treasure Islanders whom he describes as "the ones I trust & know will give me honest, unbiased, thoughts", I hereby certify that I am honest and can be trusted. Please answer:
Leon asserts he is a much better and different mayor than Walter Stubbs. Please indicate your opinion here:
I believe Leon when he says he wants to hear people's opinions about ways to improve government in Treasure Island.
I believe Leon when he says the City of Treasure Island is doing everything it can to control spending.
I believe Leon when he says he is doing everything he can to keep taxes as low as possible.
I believe Leon when he says he trusts citizens to act on their own, guided by their own capabilities and intelligence.
On the other hand, I believe Leon is a control-freak who wastes our City's time and money through unproductive discussion and time delays in Commission Workshops and Meetings in dealing with nit-picking items which a competent City Manager ought to be able to handle based on the common sense of the community instead of the lack of sense that infuses many Commission Workshops and Meetings.
I believe Leon expresses great pride in TI due ONLY to the improved appearance of buildings and landscaping, and not because he really understands what is meant by the quality delivery of services to a City's residents, taxpayers, voters, visitors and suppliers and the decent treatment of people.
I want to volunteer to be a member of Leon's 2003 Campaign Committee, as he has requested in his November letter.
Here's what I want to tell Leon in my own words: (Put your own comments here. No limit.)
OPTIONAL I want to provide my name and email address for the record, even though I know that Leon will look up my phone number and call me to, first, make sure I really submitted this survey form, and, second, ask if I really understood what I was submitting on this form. OPTIONAL My name: OPTIONAL OPTIONAL My email address: OPTIONAL
The next section asks you to grade Leon's leadership performance in guiding the delivery of essential city services, based on the February 2000 Governing.com publication article, "Grading the Cities: a management report card". Please use the Measurement Scale shown to the right of each Performance Description. Your identity will not be disclosed, UNLESS you enter your name and/or email address where shown above.
Performance Description Do you think Treasure Island is doing a good job managing these issues?	Measurement Scale Do you think Treasure Island is doing a good job managing these issues?
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF TREASURE ISLAND INCLUDES:	City Hall is doing a lousy job.	City Hall is doing a poor job.	City Hall is doing a fair job.	City Hall is doing a good job.	City Hall is doing a great job.
1. A multi-year perspective on budgeting that includes meaningful current and future revenue and expenditure forecasts, and an ability to gauge the future impact of fiscal decisions.
2. Mechanisms that preserve stability and fiscal health, including: a structural balance between ongoing revenues and expenditures; countercyclical or contingency planning devices; appropriate management of pension funds; appropriate use and management of debt, and sound investment and cash management practices.
3. Sufficient financial information available to policy makers, managers and citizens, including: accurate, reliable, thorough and timely financial reports; useful financial data for government managers; good communication of budgetary and financial data to citizens; timely budgets; and the capacity to gauge the cost of delivering programs or services.
4. Appropriate control over financial operations, including: control over expenditures; managerial flexibility; and effective management for procurement and contracts for delivery of goods and services.

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF TREASURE ISLAND INCLUDES:	City Hall is doing a lousy job.	City Hall is doing a poor job.	City Hall is doing a fair job.	City Hall is doing a good job.	City Hall is doing a great job.
1. Strategic analysis of present and future human resource needs, including: work force planning initiatives to examine the future needs of the work force; sufficient data about the work force to support analysis; and evidence of action to meet future needs.
2. Ability to obtain the needed employees, including: hiring in a timely manner; providing managers with appropriate discretion in the hiring process; conducting effective recruiting efforts.
3. Maintaining an appropriately skilled work force, including: appropriate training to develop and maintain employee skills; retention of skilled and experienced employees; effective discipline and termination policies.
4. A civil service structure that supports its ability to achieve its work force goals, including: a coherent and reasonably sized classification system; appropriate flexibility in the civil service and pay structure; communication of human resource goals and policies to employees.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF TREASURE ISLAND INCLUDES:	City Hall is doing a lousy job.	City Hall is doing a poor job.	City Hall is doing a fair job.	City Hall is doing a good job.	City Hall is doing a great job.
1. Government-wide and agency-level information technology systems that provide information to support managers’ needs and strategic goals, with a particular emphasis on financial management, human resources management, capital management and managing for results.
2. A coherent architecture for information technology systems.
3. Meaningful, multi-year information technology planning, including centralized technology planning, appropriate input from managers into the process and the existence of formal government-wide and agency IT plans.
4. Information technology training adequate for end-users and information technology specialists.
5. Capacity to evaluate the extent to which benefits of an information technology system justify investment.
6. Procurement of needed information technology systems in a timely manner, both for commodity-type items and those that are more complex.
7. Information technology systems that support the government’s ability to communicate with and provide services to its citizens.

CAPITAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF TREASURE ISLAND INCLUDES:	City Hall is doing a lousy job.	City Hall is doing a poor job.	City Hall is doing a fair job.	City Hall is doing a good job.	City Hall is doing a great job.
1. Thorough analysis of future needs, including: a formal capital plan that coordinates and prioritizes capital activities; a multi-year linkage between operating and capital budgeting; a multi-year linkage between strategic planning and capital budgeting; and sufficient data to support analysis.
2. Monitoring and evaluation of projects throughout their implementation.
3. Appropriate maintenance of capital assets (notably streets and facilities), including the generation of sufficient data to plan maintenance adequately, and the appropriate funding of maintenance.

MANAGING FOR RESULTS BY THE CITY OF TREASURE ISLAND INCLUDES:	City Hall is doing a lousy job.	City Hall is doing a poor job.	City Hall is doing a fair job.	City Hall is doing a good job.	City Hall is doing a great job.
1. Results-oriented strategic planning, including: effective communication of the strategic vision to all employees; responses to input from citizens and other stakeholders; and coordination of agency plans with central government plans.
2. Indicators and evaluative data that can measure progress toward results and accomplishments, with a focus on the following elements of a measurement system: linkage to strategic planning; establishment of baseline data; use of outcome measures; target setting and monitoring; a push toward continuous improvement; benchmarking; and training and validation.
3. Use of results data by leaders and managers for policy making, management and evaluation of progress.
4. Clear communication of the results of these activities to stakeholders.
Your identity will not be disclosed, UNLESS you entered your name and/or email address where shown above.