It’s true that performance measurement and management involve a lot of activity “behind the scenes” in local government. But many managers are eager to let the public know how they’re doing by putting performance information “out there” on the city or county website.
Some of our most popular blog posts and articles have been the ones that provide examples of “citizen-friendly” performance information for the public. They’ve been so popular, in fact, that it seemed worthwhile to bring some of them back for an encore in case readers might have missed them.
First, here are a few tips we’ve provided to guide presentations for the public:
- Share your goals: The purpose of performance measurement is to see how you’re doing, find out what’s working well, and pinpoint areas where you can improve.
- Share your timeline: Clarify that the performance information establishes a baseline for improving both the measurement process itself and the quality of local services.
- Limit what you report: Don’t inundate the public with numbers. Your goal is to increase their understanding. So focus on your key messages and the strategic measures that you want them to remember—such as the length of time it takes to resolve a code violation complaint, or how residents rate solid waste services.
- Explain what you’re measuring and why: The selection of measures to track and report is based on something—the community vision, council goal-setting, feedback from a resident survey, specific complaints about a particular service.
- Include graphics: A chart or map can be worth a thousand words. Don’t skip the narrative, but use visuals to supplement it. Here are some examples:
A Solid Waste Analysis on the Bloomington, Illinois, website includes this graph showing street sweep miles, with a trend line showing improvement over time:
The performance report published by Bettendorf, Iowa, uses a color-coded graphic to show how citizens rated solid waste collection services: excellent (blue), good (orange), fair (gray), and poor (green). Bettendorf’s ratings are shown in the bar at the right. The graphic also includes comparative data from other jurisdictions in five population ranges:
Williamsburg, Virginia, published outcome measures developed by the city for eight goals, accompanied by graphics. Here’s an illustration showing the clearance rate for Part I crimes for the city and nationally (the data came from the Williamsburg Police Department and the FBI):
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, prepares a Vision Scorecard that appears in the strategic plan document. The scorecard shows baseline and target performance indicators tracking the components of “Fast Forward Fort Lauderdale: Vision 2035”: We are Connected; We are Ready; We are Community; We are Here; We are Prosperous; We are United. Here’s a portion of the scorecard, showing indicators, baselines, and targets for “We Are Connected” and “We Are Ready”:
Finally, Tamarac, Florida, publishes a color-coded scorecard to show at a glance how performance compares with established targets.
These and other examples appear in this article, How Are You Doing? Performance Information for the Public and this blog post: Citizen-Friendly Performance Measures.
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