Clinton, Gore Hail Sunnyvale’s City Efficiency

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, on the fourth day of a road show to promote their government reform proposals, lauded this Silicon Valley city Friday for its municipal government and a job training program that have been cited as models of efficiency.

Seated beneath sycamore trees at a community center, Clinton chatted about job retraining with workers who have been assisted by the Northern Valley Job Training Consortium and praised city officials who helped organize it.

“I have been overwhelmed by the work that’s been done here in Sunnyvale,” said Clinton. The Administration formally announced its “reinventing government” program on Tuesday.

The 900-employee Sunnyvale government has won plaudits from Clinton aides and others for its effort to organize government around meeting specific objectives. Officials monitor about 300 measures of services; they give bonuses to employees who exceed their performance goals and cut the pay of the small number who do not.

The city government promises that it will answer 90% of 911 emergency calls within six minutes. It also assures taxpayers that it will wipe out graffiti within two days and process building permit applications within a single day.

This “performance based” system has enabled the city to focus on improving performance and lowering costs, city officials said. The municipal staff has 30% to 40% fewer employees than it might have otherwise, officials said, and it has avoided tax increases and layoffs.

The 10-year-old retraining program, commonly referred to as NOVA, has been held out as a model for two reasons: It is organized around the way it reaches specified goals, and it ties together diverse government programs as a “one-stop” agency for job seekers.

The program handles 6,000 workers a year and has a waiting list of 4,000 workers. Officials claim about 75% of its clients find jobs within three months.

Clinton and Gore visited a Cleveland urban redevelopment program earlier Friday and will stop in Houston today.