Making Government Work With Citistat

One subject I’m increasingly interested in is the need for progressives to think more about ways to make government work better. The right likes to portray public sector institutions as intrinsically inept, but that’s clearly not the case. Some agencies across the country and around the world do much better than other agencies and institutions. Understanding that is key to making the case for public services, and making it the case that we have more and more agencies that function better and better is key to actually delivering those services. Along those lines, I was very interested to read Rob Goodspeed’s post about CitiStat, a management tool/process that Martin O’Malley brought to Baltimore and that since has spread elsewhere.

Facing a declining population, limited financial resources, and rampant absenteeism and inefficiency in city government when he took office, former Mayor Martin O’Malley told a conference he didn’t create CitiStat to win awards, but simply “to survive.” Adapting a system called CompStat invented by the New York City Police department, the city create a special office and hearing room (right). Every two weeks, participating city agencies submit data on predetermined metrics, such as days employees were absent or potholes fixed. City analysts write a 8 to 12 page memo for the mayor and cabinet, using the reported data, field research, and interviews of key staff. At the hearing (above) photos, charts, and data illustrating problem areas are displayed and discussed with the agency head responsible. In the program’s parlance, the tenants are:

• Accurate and Timely Intelligence Shared by All
• Rapid Deployment of Resources
• Effective Tactics and Strategies
• Relentless Follow-up and Assessment

Clearly, there are some limits to this. Statistics and record-keeping can’t substitute for good-faith, good-will, and effort from the top. We see that in The Wire‘s portrayal of Baltimore CompStat and we see it in the behavior of financial services firms who found accounting gimmicks and formulae designed to reduce the appearance of risk exposure rather than to actually reduce exposure to risk.

But the flipside of that is that today oftentimes it’s very difficult for a well-intentioned mayor, governor, or legislator to actually make a difference. The government of a city or a state or a county is a fairly large and complicated endeavor. It’s not a simple thing to keep track of what’s happening or to establish mechanisms for delivering feedback or monitoring as to whether or not new initiatives are actually helping. These kind of tools can make that happen. And it turns out that CAP actually published a report on CitiStat back in April of 2007 where you can learn more details if you’re interested.