New resident-facing dashboards enhance City’s transparency

The City of Fort Worth has released three new dashboards designed to give residents improved access to information. The dashboards are now publicly available online and provide regularly updated data on budgeting, employment trends and building permitting functions.

The new dashboards aim to:

Provide transparent, easy-to-understand information

Help residents stay informed about City programs, services and outcomes

Support data-driven decision-making for both the public and City staff

Track progress toward goals, strategic plans and initiatives

Additional dashboards are scheduled to be published on a regular basis throughout the year.

Here are brief descriptions of the recently released dashboards:

Budget vs. actual dashboard

This dashboard allows users to explore how the City’s actual revenues and expenses compare to the adopted budget over time. It provides a clear view of financial performance and highlights differences between planned and actual results.

Users can view:

Budgeted and actual revenues

Budgeted and actual expenses

Variance between budgeted and actual amounts

Data are available for Fiscal Years 2020 through 2026 and may be updated as financial information is finalized. The data can be filtered by fiscal year, by fund and by department. The data are updated daily.

This dashboard supports financial transparency and informed public understanding of City finances.

Employment statistics dashboard

This dashboard presents current and historical workforce data for the City of Fort Worth, including employee demographics, compensation, tenure and hiring and turnover trends.

The dashboard provides insight into the City’s workforce over time. It includes both current and historical employment statistics to help users understand staffing levels, workforce composition and employment trends.

Key metrics include:

Number of employees

Average years of service

Average annual salary

Employee demographics, including age, gender, race and ethnicity, and county of residence

Trends for new hires, promotions, retirements and separations per year

Data can be filtered by full-time or part-time employment, by department and by employee type (Police, Fire or General employees). The data are updated daily.

Data are aggregated to protect employee privacy and are intended to support workforce planning, transparency and public understanding of City employment trends

Building permits: Time to first city comment dashboard

This dashboard measures the number of days between permit submittal and the City’s first review comment. It helps applicants and the public understand review timelines and monitor performance across different permit types.

The dashboard allows users to explore review times by:

Permit type (residential or commercial)

Permit category (new, remodel, addition, change of use)

Data are available for January 2024 to present and are updated weekly.

This information supports transparency in the permitting process and helps identify trends and opportunities for process improvement. The Development Services Department has a target of seven business days for this metric.

In addition, the City recently launched a public-facing Council priorities dashboard site. The website highlights the action items and performance metrics that City departments are actively working on in support of the Council priorities adopted in 2024. It is designed to provide transparency into how departmental work aligns with Council direction and to create a shared understanding of progress being made across the organization.

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