Performance Measures Report

As a local taxing jurisdiction, property taxes are the principal funding source for the City and its operations. For some real property, a portion of its market value may be excluded from taxation, such as the homestead Market Value Exclusion. Once a taxing jurisdiction applies those exclusions, the market value becomes the Taxable Market Value (TMV).

The City uses the TMV to help determine the tax liability for each property within its jurisdiction. Usually, when the TMV for the City increases, the property tax rate decreases, and a property pays less in City property taxes. In other words, when the City grows there are more properties to pay taxes, and they can all pay a little less.

The City must preserve and protect the general welfare of its residents, including the abatement and prevention of public nuisances. Minnesota Statute §561.01 states "Anything which is injurious to health, or indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, is a nuisance."

Public nuisance ordinances are designed to preserve the peace, quality of life and public health of the community. The Fridley City Code regulates a number of activities to prevent the creation of public nuisance, including compost, garbage and yard waste storage, exterior storage, fences, housing and lawn maintenance, home occupations, noise, vehicle parking, vehicle sale, vehicle storage and vision safety. These efforts make the City a safe, vibrant, friendly and stable home for families and businesses.

On occasion, the City issues debt, known as bonds, to support capital improvements (e.g., road rehabilitation). The process tends to be similar to a mortgage used for a home – a financial institution lends money to the City and the City agrees to repay it with interest over many years. To verify the City’s ability to make those payments, it receives a bond rating from an independent agency, Moody’s Investor Services (Moody’s). The agency evaluates the City on several factors, such as economic stability, management practices and financial performance.

A bond rating may be thought of as a measure of risk or the likelihood that the City would not be able to make debt service payment, also known as default. Therefore, a financial institution uses the bond rating to determine the cost to the City to borrow money – expressed as a higher or lower interest rate. The higher the bond rating, the lower the interest rate and vice versa. In some situations, a lower bond rating (higher interest rate) could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional interest costs.

According to the Office of the Secretary of State, “Minnesota Statute § 206.89 states that after every state general election, Minnesota counties perform a post–election review of election results returned by the optical scan ballot counters used in the state. The review is a hand count of the ballots for each eligible election (US President, US Senator, US Representative and Governor) in the selected precincts compared with the results from the voting system used in those precincts.”

For Anoka County (County), the County Canvassing Board must conduct a review of at least four precincts, or 3% of the total number of precincts in the County, whichever is greater. The precincts must be selected randomly.

Post–election audits allow the City, other levels of government and the public to verify election results, deter voter fraud, discover errors and promote confidence in the election(s) process. In turn, the review helps the City improve internal processes and service delivery.

Crimes committed by perpetrators are classified as either Part I or Part II crimes. Part I crimes include homicide, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft (shoplifting or pickpockets), motor vehicle theft and arson. Part II crimes include other assaults, forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property (buying, receiving or possessing), prostitution, sex offenses, drug abuse violations, offenses against family and children, driving under the influence, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and all other offenses.

This data reported by the Department of Public Safety reflects the City's commitment to promoting public safety. Partnering with the community through engagement, leadership and education, assists in keeping Part I and Part II crime rates low.

Clearance rates measure the number of calls for service involving Part I and Part II crimes leading to various resolutions including warning, citations or even arrests. The clearance rate is calculated by dividing the number of crimes that are cleared by the total number of crimes recorded.

The Police Division promotes the safety of the community and the feeling of security through the maintenance of law and order. This includes following through and applying legal penalties for violations.

The average police response time details calls for service through the Anoka County Dispatch Center. The times do not reflect calls for service initiated by staff in the field. The measurement analyzes the amount of time from when an officer was sent on a call, to when the officer indicated they arrived on scene.

The Police Division promotes the safety of the community and the feeling of security through the maintenance of law and order, crime prevention, timely response to requests for police service and positive contacts with the public.

A company called Insurance Services Office (ISO) creates ratings for fire departments and their surrounding communities. An ISO fire insurance rating, also referred to as a fire score or Public Protection Classification (PPC), is a score from one to 10 (one is the best, 10 is the worst) that indicates how well-protected your community is by the fire service. Insurers then use it to help set business and homeowner insurance rates. The more well-equipped a fire service is to put out a fire, the less likely houses will be lost to a structure fire. There is less risk to the home, and therefore it is less expensive to ensure.

In order to maintain a good ISO rating, a city must demonstrate their ability to provide fire protection through many different areas, such as the ability to deliver a minimum amount of water to a fire through well-maintained fire hydrants, having fire engines that deliver a minimum amount of water in gallons per minute (GPM), maintaining enough fire engines for the city's size, and staffing fire stations with the minimum amount of trained firefighters.

The Fire Division responded to 2,984 emergency calls in 2022. Based on the number of calls and total residents, there were 99 emergency responses per 1,000 Fridley residents.

The Fire Division projects an increase of more than 14% in emergency response calls over the next few years. This is based on the planned future residential housing and multi-story developments that lead to an estimated increase of 4,000 residents. The increase will determine future growth, staffing, equipment and supply needs of the division.

When fire services analyze their response times, they are really analyzing seconds in time. For example, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1710 standard states "The fire department's fire suppression resources shall be deployed to provide for the arrival of an engine company within a 240-second travel time (four minutes) to 90% of the incidents." That means every second counts, including answering time (15 seconds), call processing time (60 seconds), and turnout time (80 seconds). For the City's paid-on-call firefighters, response time from home is approximately 6-10 minutes.

When measuring the effectiveness of fire protection services, response times are the key indicator. It determines if more resources are needed to effectively serve and protect communities. Therefore, it is crucial that local governments take these statistics seriously and allocate resources according to the specific needs of their local fire departments.

U.S. fire departments have reported an estimated 358,500 residential home fires each year. On average, there were about 2,695 deaths, 12,000 injuries and property damage averaging $7 billion throughout the U.S. per year. Residential home fires usually start from open flames, accidents and cooking, among other causes.

Documenting fires that resulted in investigation and financial losses as a result of the fires is a crucial tool in decision-making and helping to reduce loss to life/property due to fires. Estimating financial loss and property value are important pieces of data when assessing fire response at local, state and national levels.

Public Works employees inspect City streets each year. Each street is given a rating on the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) scale based on cracks, utility cuts and imperfections on the roadway. On the scale, zero is the worst and 10 is the best.

Regular roadway minor maintenance methods such as roadway and crack sealing and micro surfacing are cost-effective approaches to maintaining pavement in relatively good condition. if a roadway has too low of a rating, minor maintenance is ineffective, and it will need to be reconstructed entirely - which is much more expensive. Continued maintenance helps slow the aging of pavement. However, once the pavement is 50-60 years old, too much minor maintenance is needed, and a full rehabilitation is often the most efficient method of maintaining pavement quality.

This data is measuring the cost per mile for major reconstruction of roadways. The amount it influenced by the roadway characteristics and the length of roadway segments completed in a given year.

This data shows how cost-effective the rehabilitation methods are, illustrates increases in cost of construction, and if improvements need to be made in the manner in which roads are reconstructed. This number also reflects the numerous factors influencing the complexity of construction and rehabilitation of roadways.

The data reflects how many lane miles out of the total miles within the City are being rehabilitated every year. The goal is to average 2% per year.

If mileage is lower and streets are not being rehabilitated the average age of the pavement gets older and the quality of streets are reduced. To provide for a stable budget and yet be cost-effective and provide the best service to residents via streets, the number of miles rehabilitated should be relatively consistent each year and meet the percentage goal on average.

The amount of time, in hours, it takes for City plows to clear City streets. The Public Works department clears 87 miles of streets, 29 miles of trails and 12 miles of sidewalks. In total, the City clears 180 street lane miles. Street lane miles account for both sides of the roadway being cleared.

Winter road safety is extremely important to the community. Average hours of a plow route affect ability and safety of travel, which can influence work commutes, reduce school closures, keep businesses open and the ability to use recreation amenities.

The treatment, storage and distribution operating costs for every million gallons of drinking water produced and delivered. The cost includes labor, supplies, maintenance, equipment and repairs, among other items.

The data is illustrative of the decline in water use due to effective conservation methods. The data also reflects increased costs of water treatment due to improved regulations and annual inflation costs of supplies, labor and equipment.

The amount of times that Public Works responds to an emergency sewer main blockage per 100 connections in a year. Blockages can be caused by improper disposal of non-flushable materials including grease and non-flushable wipes, tree root intrusion into sewers and lack of coordination of service cleaning by contractors.

Frequency of blockages is very low and demonstrates the City's effective maintenance program for cleaning the sewer mains. The program reduces incidents of sewage backups that impact customers. When a blockage affecting a home does occur, residents are encouraged to contact the City to have the Public Works Department check to verify whether there is a blockage in the main or sewer service. This may save the resident from having to pay a contractor to clean the service.