Utilities Department
PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD
OVERVIEW
The Utilities Department at the City of North Port is comprised of five Divisions: Administration, Water Systems, Wastewater Systems, Field Operations, and Engineering.
This dashboard features both performance goals and output measures. Departments set performance goals that support their Core Service Areas. These goals are tracked and measured to ensure high quality service delivery to our residents. Output measures report on the level of service delivery (number of work orders completed, number of pipes cleaned, number of customers served).
To view Annual Output Measures, click HERE
The City of North Port Utilities is incorporating American Water Works Association (AWWA) Utility Benchmarking Program into our performance measures. This program tracks recognized utility performance indicators developed and applied by water industry professionals, and provides this information as tool for improving operational efficiency and managerial effectiveness. With this benchmarking data, the Utilities Department can determine areas where performance could be improved by making meaningful comparisons, first against our internal data and performance then against data from other utilities.
Administration
The mission of North Port Utilities - Administration is to achieve community outcomes by providing safe, high quality drinking water and environmentally sound wastewater services by:
- overseeing, directing and managing the provision of safe drinking water;
- overseeing, directing and managing the exploration of viable options to improve water quality;
- overseeing, directing and managing the treatment and disposition of wastewater in a sound and environmentally approved method;
- overseeing, directing and managing the processes of ensuring adequate water and wastewater treatments to enhance community sustainability; and
- overseeing, directing and managing the expansion of our system to accommodate the growth of our community through methodical project planning.
Goal:
Provide convenient, modern, and technologically advanced municipal services to both internal and external customers.
Measure:
Increase the percentage of Utilities ebill customers by 1% annually.
The e-bill option to receive billing statements improves efficiency by reducing the need for and cost associated with paper billing and provides convenient billing options for customers. Utility customers have been steadily increasing usage of e-bills and the City hopes to continue this trend.
Goal:
Provide new North Port Residents and Businesses with Welcome Packages to include utility information, City services offerings, Florida Friendly environmental practices, locations of City facilities and parks, contact information, etc.
Measure:
Maintain stock and track the number of Welcome Packets provided to residents, visitors, and businesses.
This is a new goal for the City. While the City has provided Welcome Packets to residents, visitors, and businesses through the Utilities Department and Communications Division, the distribution of these Packets has not been tracked.
The target for FY2023 is to distribute at least 100 Welcome Packets through the Utility office.
Goal:
Ensure fiscally sound operations ensuring capacity for future growth, sustainable community and good City governance.
Measure:
Debt-service coverage ratio-combined systems to maintain at or above AWWA Benchmarking.
The debt-service coverage ratio is the ratio of net operation income to total debt service. It is the amount of cash flow available to meet interest, principal, and sinking fund payments. This ratio is calculated by subtracting total operating and maintenance costs from total operating revenue, then dividing the sum by total debt service. A ratio of less than one indicates a negative cash flow.
The average debt-service coverage ratio of reporting utilities with both water and wastewater is 2.21.
Administration Output Measures
Phone Calls Received
Utilities Customer Service Representatives handle thousands of calls every month to assist our customers.
Outgoing Bills
Bills are sent via paper or electronically.
This output measure also includes bill correction, final bills, and off cycle bills sent.
Payments Received
Payments can be made through a variety of methods including online, recurring payments and bank drafts or in person via drive thru, night drop, and at the front counter.
Water Systems
The mission of North Port Utilities – Water Systems is to achieve community outcomes by providing safe, high quality drinking water and environmentally sound wastewater services by:
- providing safe drinking water;
- exploring viable options to improve water quality and quantity;
- ensuring adequate capacity of the water treatments to enhance community sustainability; and
- supporting the expansion of our system to accommodate the growth of our community through methodical project planning.
Goal:
Increase the percentage of water produced from the Myakkahatchee Creek Water Treatment Plant by 5% of total system demand.
Measure:
Percentage of North Port demand supplied by the Myakkahatchee Creek Water Treatment Plant.
The purpose of this goal is to utilize the plant to maximize efficiency and quality as well as make our system more self-reliant and less dependent to ensure resiliency. North Port's principle sources of raw water supply are surface water from the Myakkahatchee Creek that flows through the City of North Port and six intermediate ground water wells. The City also purchases treated surface water from the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority. Increasing the percentage of demand supplied by the plant reduces the amount that needs to be purchased.
Goal:
North Port’s programs, facilities, and operations should visibly encourage conservation, sustainability, water quality testing and recycling practices.
Measure:
Total per capita consumption above the 75th percentile per AWWA Benchmarking.
Per capita consumption is the daily amount of water used by the population served by the utility. This measure can be an indicator of water conservation efforts in the community, with a lower number indicating higher water conservation.
The top quarter of AWWA reporting utilities have a per capita water consumption of 86.8 gallons per person per day. North Port Utilities FY23 target is 60 gallons per person per day.
Wastewater Systems
The mission of North Port Utilities – Wastewater Systems is to achieve community outcomes by providing safe, high quality drinking water and environmentally sound wastewater services by:
- treatment and disposition of wastewater in a sound and environmentally approved method;
- ensuring adequate capacity of the wastewater treatments to enhance community sustainability; and
- supporting the expansion of our system to accommodate the growth of our community through methodical project planning.
Goal:
Proactively maintain the wastewater gravity collection system and lift station infrastructure in a planned manner.
Measure:
Number of non-capacity sewer overflow rate (non-capacity overflow events/100 miles of pipe) compared to AWWA Benchmarking.
Non-capacity overflow is a sewer overflow/discharge related to a maintenance issue.
The top quarter of AWWA reporting utilities have a non-capacity sewer overflow rate (non-capacity overflow events/100 miles of pipe) of 0.80.
North Port Utilities FY23 target is 0.00.
Field Operations
The mission of North Port Utilities – Field Operations is to achieve community outcomes by providing safe, high quality drinking water and environmentally sound wastewater services by:
- maintaining safe drinking water;
- maintaining water quality in the distribution system;
- maintaining the wastewater collection system in a sound and environmentally approved method; and
- supporting the expansion of our system to accommodate the growth of our community through methodical project planning.
Goal:
Proactively maintain the wastewater gravity collection system and lift station infrastructure in a planned manner.
Measure:
Clean and televise 10% of gravity sewer mains as part of Utility Preventative Inflow & Infiltration (I & I) Maintenance Program.
The collection system has many miles of pipe in service, which is aging infrastructure that requires maintenance. Cleaning and televising the collection system allows Utilities to identify areas that require inflow and infiltration reduction measures. This helps to mitigate cost increase and treatment of stormwater through effective maintenance of the system and analysis of potential operational efficiencies.
Goal:
Proactively maintain the wastewater gravity collection system and lift station infrastructure in a planned manner.
Measure:
Rehabilitate and bring seven (7) lift stations to current standard annually.
A wastewater lift station is a pumping station that moves wastewater from a lower elevation to a higher elevation. The benefit of using a lift station in a sewage collection system is that it saves a substantial amount of money in excavation costs. Sewer pipes live underground, and digging trenches is costly. Installing a wastewater lift station at certain points in a gravity pipeline system saves on front-end construction costs without sacrificing efficiency or functionality. They play an integral role in moving sewage to a wastewater treatment plant.
Field Operations Output Measures
Work Orders Completed
Engineering Division
The mission of North Port Utilities – Engineering is to achieve community outcomes by providing safe, high quality drinking water and environmentally sound wastewater services by:
- advising staff, providing technical review, engineering guidance and inspection of infrastructure for the provision of safe drinking water and the treatment and disposition of wastewater;
- exploring viable options to improve water quality and quantity;
- ensuring adequate capacity of the water and wastewater treatments through appropriate planning and designing to enhance community sustainability; and
- planning expansion of our system to accommodate the growth of the community in a methodical manner.
Goal:
Ensure the reliability and capacity of public water and water reclamation (wastewater) services and provide increased access to such as the community expands.
Measure:
The percentage of new homes being constructed on public water services to 35% versus on-site well year over year.
Increasing the percentage of new homes being constructed on public water services supports overall efforts to protect the environment and improve water quality.
Goal:
Ensure the reliability and capacity of public water and water reclamation (wastewater) services and provide increased access to such as the community expands.
Measure:
The percentage of new homes being constructed on water reclamation (wastewater) services to 22% versus on-site septic year over year.
Increasing the percentage of new homes being constructed on water reclamation (wastewater) services supports overall efforts to protect the environment and improve water quality in our waterways. As one of the largest cities within the state of Florida, as well as one of the top cities in the nation for growth and development, it is imperative that North Port address these environmental concerns.