1. Municipality of Amersfoort
In this essay there will be an analysis of the performance management system of the municipality of Amersfoort. This analysis will consist of a description of the goals which the municipality of Amersfoort has, the indicators they use to measure those goals and the instruments which they use to measure the goals.
The municipality of Amersfoort had 154.337 inhabitants on the first of January 2017 (cbs, n.d.). It is the second biggest city of the province of Utrecht and the fifteenth city of the Netherlands (Amersfoort in cijfers, n.d.). In the municipality of Amersfoort there are 49,4 crimes on each 1000 inhabitants, this is less than the half of the crimes in Amsterdam (102,5 on each 1000 inhabitants) (Amersfoort in cijfers, n.d.).
Because the Netherlands is a democracy there are elections in order to choose the government. In 2014 there were elections to choose the local city councils, in Amersfoort there were 39 seats to divide (Gemeente Amersfoort, 2018). After the elections in 2014 the coalition has made a ‘coalitie afspraak’, a coalition deal. In this deal the political parties made compromises to create common goals with a majority of the seats in the city council. The coalition decided they were going to work together with the complete council, the city and the region. They would keep holding conversations about the needs for a safe, careful and economical vital city (Huijdts et al., 2014).
The main goals of the coalition deal were:
– Governmental renewal and civilian initiatives – The coalition recognizes the power of the community to take responsibilities in their own hands, there are numerous civilian initiatives developed in the last years. Governmental renewal and civilian initiatives are part of modern-day society where people are respectful to each other and prepared to listen. Transferring these responsibilities is only possible when the municipality is prepared to let the responsibility go or only facilitate the responsibility.
– Social policy, social participation and care – In the recent time there have been preparations for the decentralization on the field of youth care, the participation law and the AWBZ (law for special medical expenses). Now it is starting to become clearer the coalition will involve the civil society in an early stage for the policy development. There is also attention for the people which can’t fully participate in the working process and the chronical ill and disabled people. Vulnerable people in Amersfoort keep freedom of choice for healthcare, guidance and daytime activities.
– Economic agenda – The city has suffered from the crisis in recent years. People lost their job and buildings were empty. The coalition has the ambition to realize employment opportunities on a creative way with the use of all the available resources. The coalition wants to change the settlement opportunity at the industrial areas and give empty buildings different functions. Every year there is one million euro available to stimulate the economic development. This leads to a better economic vitality which has direct effects like more places for internships, increased house sales and more financial support for culture and sport facilities. The tourist tax will be dismissed and there will be 150.000 euro each year to promote the city.
– Deregulation – The coalition wants a reduction and less strict rules, too much rules can produce unnecessary red tape.
– Youth, education and talent development – At schools, cultural organizations and sport clubs lie a big responsibility to find and develop talent of the youth, the city council will consult these organizations to find out how they can help. In this way they will also give attention to fitting education. The coalition will work on improvement within the connection between education and the labor market.
– Elderly – Most of the elderly are capable of taking care for them self, to make sure they stay involved in society as long as possible the municipality will talk with the involved parties for elderly homes.
– Cultural sector – There won’t be any new budget cuts for the cultural sector, there is 100.000 euro available for events and festivals with a regional or national appearance.
– Sports and healthy lifestyle – The health economy is well represented in Amersfoort, there is a big regional hospital and there are research and education institutions. The college will be asked to develop policy which facilitates the health economy and create a healthier Amersfoort. The waiting lists at sport clubs should be reduced, these lists create the situation where not every child is able to sport at a sport club. This requires investments in facilities. There will be new sport routes in the public space to use this space for sports. For organizing sport activities and tournaments there will be 150.000 euro available. Because the city is growing the coalition will try to develop a swimming pool for the northern part of Amersfoort and Nijkerk.
– Accessibility and traffic safety – The economical success of Amersfoort is partly thanks to the central position in the Netherlands. That is the reason why accessibility has high priority for the coalition. There are some accessibility projects which will be tested again. There will be 200.000 euro to increase the traffic safety near schools. The traffic streams inside the neighborhood Vathorst will be investigated.
– Safe, green and livable neighborhoods – The coalition wants to have a dialogue with the inhabitants and organizations in the neighborhoods to find out how the safety and livability can be improved. The college will be asked to develop a proposal which allows the inhabitants to manage the ‘green’ in their neighborhoods. The coalition has a cooperative attitude towards civilian initiatives. There will be 100.000 euro extra to increase the number of trees in the public places. To improve the safety in the neighborhoods the coalition askes for civilian initiatives, there is 100.000 euro available to finance this.
– Future of the townhall – the townhall has reached the situation where there is a renovation necessary. This should be a renovation which reduce the energy used and increased the flexibility at the workplace.
2. Goal ambiguity
All the goals as mentioned above can be seen as ambiguous. The reason these goals can be seen as ambiguous is because of the political situation in the Netherlands. Every four years there are elections for the city council (Kieswet, 1989). After these elections the city council has to make a new coalition agreement, and this will lead to an agreement with new goals. Most of the goals as formulated in the coalition agreement (2014) are too broad formulated to be useful. The goals as formulated contain points which they are willing to develop without specific plans how to do this. All the goals are there to support the political agenda for the parties involved in the coalition agreement.
3. Safety and law enforcement
In this essay there is the focus on the performance management of the safety and law enforcement by the municipality of Amersfoort. This subject can be placed under the goal ‘Safe, green and livable neighborhoods’. In the coalition agreement the only thing which is mentioned for this program that the municipality askes for civilian initiatives.
In the year report (College B&W, 2018) are more specific goals mentioned. The municipality wants a safe and livable Amersfoort. In order do this they make a separation between social safety, physical safety and supervision and enforcement. This essay will focus on the social safety goal.
There have been some activities in the municipality to increase the social safety within the municipality. The most important programs which has been started in 2017 are mentioned below:
– Undermining: investigation criminal networks / families – In order to get a view of the undermining activities in the municipality there has been an investigation done by the Regional Information and Expertise Centrum Midden Nederland (RIEC MN). The major has asked for an additional research about the criminal networks within the municipality. Both researches conclude the biggest threat to undermining is the drugs criminality. This is why there has been started with a program to increase the resilience capability of the city and his government.
– Youth nuisance – In the year 2017 there have been investments to fight youth nuisance. The focus was on the nuisance experienced by the inhabitants of the neighborhoods Vathorst, Nieuwland, Kattenbroek, de Koppel and the area around the Eemplein. One measure was to deploy law enforcers with the focus on youth. Since august there is a program where the police and law enforcers are having conversations with the youth and their parents. This is called the persoonsgericht aanpak jeugd (PGA). This program led to 51 persons between the age of 12 and 23 which are monitored by different partners.
– Approach High Impact Crimes – Burglary has decreased by 9%. To do this there have been a lot spreading of information and creating awareness. There have been 300 free ‘house scans’ to check whether the houses are secure. The civilians are very active within whatssapp groups and they are sharing the ‘burgernet’ notifications, all those activities contribute to the decrease in burglary.
– Prevention of radicalization – Early signalizing radicalization is one of the steps the municipality has taken to prevent radicalization. Professionals which are in contact with the civilians have an important role, 132 of these professionals have had training to signalize radicalization in an early stage.
4. Indicators
In order to measure the outcome of the programs to stimulate the social safety the municipality uses indicators. The following indicators has been used to measure the social safety in the municipality of Amersfoort (College B&W, 2018):
– Percentage of civilians which feel sometimes unsafe in their own neighborhood – The number of civilians between the age of eighteen and 84 which answered ‘yes’ on the question ‘Do you sometimes feel unsafe in your own neighborhood?’. Measured by making use of a sample.
– Percentage of civilians which regularly experiences nuisance of youth – The percentage of civilians between the age of eighteen and 84 which experience nuisance of youth in their own neighborhood. The percentage is the number of the answer ‘regular’ within the answer categories ‘regular’, ‘sometimes’, ‘(almost)never’ and ‘don’t know/no opinion’. The outcome of this indicator is based on a sample.
– Scale score social nuisance – This score has been calculated based on the rate in which civilians experienced: people who get bothered on street, nuisance by the neighbors, nuisance by youth, drunk people on the street, drugs nuisance and nuisance through noise. The score is based on a scale between 0 (never happens) and 10 (happens a lot). This outcome is based on a sample.
– Participants ‘Burgernet’ – The number of civilians which are registered for ‘Burgernet’, the number of downloads from the ‘Burgernetapp’ is not included.
– Total crimes – The total of registered crimes, this are the police reports for citizens and the crimes registered by the police itself. This are the numbers till 1st of January. Data from the police
– Total crimes for each 1000 citizens – The number of crimes for each 1000 citizens (police reports and own registration). Data from the police.
– Total number of common crimes – Registered number of bike theft, car theft and vandalism. Data from the police.
– Total number of burglaries in houses – The number of registered burglaries in houses.
– Total number of burglaries in houses for each 1000 citizens – The number of registered burglaries in houses for each 1000 citizens.
– Home burglary: attempt percentage – The percentage of registered home burglary where there are traces of burglary, but nothing was stolen.
– Home burglary: success percentage – The percentage of registered home burglary where something was stolen.
5. Instruments used to measure the indicators
In order to measure the indicators, the municipality makes use of data (College B&W, 2018). For the indicators ‘Percentage of civilians which feel sometimes unsafe in their own neighborhood’, ‘Percentage of civilians which regularly experiences nuisance of youth’ and ‘Scale score social nuisance’ the municipality used secondary data which was collected by a city poll and the central bureau of statistics (CBS).
For the indicator ‘Participants Burgernet’ the municipality used primary data which is collected within the municipality itself.
The indicators ‘Total crimes’, ‘Total crimes for each 1000 citizens’, ‘Total number of common crimes’, ‘Total number of burglaries’, ‘Total number of burglaries in houses for each 1000 citizens’, ‘Home burglary: attempt percentage’ and ‘Home burglary: success percentage’ are measured by using data collected from the police and their system basisvoorziening handhaving (BVH).