Our True Bottom Line

You’re going to see something a little different when we roll out our Op Plan in a few days.

We’ll still run through all the key numbers. They’ll still show a balanced budget, even as it goes up 6 percent from last year’s to $5.4 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. As part of the presentation, we like to have a video that gives an overview of how we operate and highlights our recent accomplishments.

This year, that video will include a few clips of customers talking about services they received from the County. They’re regular San Diegans, explaining what we did for them.

We wanted to give them a place in the presentation, because in the end, they’re what it’s all about.

A few of those you’ll hear from include a family we worked with to make sure they have medical coverage. A library user. A military veteran we helped get needed services. They’re real people, sharing their stories in their own words. And their stories are our story.

The Operational Plan is full of figures, tables and charts. It takes a phenomenal amount of work to put together, and my thanks to everyone who’s been busting their tails to get it done. I know not all of you may find it quite the page-turner that I do, but I encourage you to give it a look. It is our playbook for the year ahead, and if you want to know what’s coming in your department, you’ll find it spelled out there.   

But we need to always keep in mind that every line item in there leads in some way to real lives out there in the community. Having the customers in the presentation connects how we do business with who we’re doing it for.

That connection is easier to see for those of you working directly with the public each day. You’re literally looking the customer in the eye, or hearing their voice over the phone.

Sometimes it’s less direct. The crews that maintain a County road don’t meet every person who drives on it. But every driver who has a smooth ride and gets home safely is a customer. 

That driver is also the customer of the Purchasing and Contracting staff who helped us buy asphalt and the General Services’ fleet team that takes care of the grader. I could keep going, but you see what I’m getting at. It’s a whole network of employees who have pieces of taking care of the customer.

Giving customers great service has long been part of our culture here at the County. But one of my priorities since coming to this job was to see how we could push it forward. A big part of that is just keeping the customer in mind at all times. You now see the Positive Experiences section on InSite, giving us regular reminders of how we make a difference in people’s lives. The employees deserve the recognition, and we all get an example of the real people we’re serving.

So that’s why we want to see a few of them in our Op Plan presentation as well. We’ve crunched the numbers and our books are in order. But we want to show that customers are always part of the equation. Fiscal discipline means being able to help more people, offer more services, make lives that much better. On our balance sheet, people are our true bottom line.