B&G REPORT.

We really want to have our voices heard when it comes to matters of concern to us, and we suspect that most people feel much the same way. But over the last few years, as the flow of surveys that come our way has turned into a deluge, our inclination to reply to many of them has decreased.   And we’re far from alone. So-called “survey fatigue”, like the kind we’re experiencing, isn’t a new phenomenon, and there were articles being written about it several years ago. But we’d

For well over 30 years, we’ve been researching, analyzing and writing about state and local government for a whole variety of publications and organizations. Our most significant foray into this field began when we were covering management issues for Governing Magazine from 1997 to 2019. We left Governing at a time when it briefly appeared that it was going to cease publication, to do similar coverage for Route Fifty. We held onto that gig until 2024, at which point it cut ba

When we think about timeliness in police, fire and EMS, we often think of response times. And even though it’s recently been pointed out to us that there are other important measures, like timely evidence processing and timely release of information on high-profile events, ultimately response times are the metric you’re most likely to hear about – and the ones that are primarily the difference between safety and tragedy. For emergency services, particularly, every moment can

In January 2022, a little more than a year before his death at the age of 92, we had the honor of working with Harry Hatry on an Urban Institute report titled “ Dos and Don’ts Tips for Strengthening Your Performance Management Systems. ” While we’d been writing about this broad topic for years, what made this special was that we were working once again with one of the giants in the realm of performance management. Contributions to this report were also made by well-known figu

Much of the coverage about the concerns that beset states and localities tends to focus on specific areas like budgetary shortfalls, the need for better technology and a shortage of people to fill many vital positions (where have all the accountants gone?) But, increasingly, in conversations we’re having about all these topics and more, the problem that seem to keep our sources awake at night can be expressed in a single word: “Uncertainty.” “ Uncertainty is not generally wel

We do an awful lot of reading of press releases in which various states or localities (or frequently an outside public relations firm) refers to some initiative as a “best practice.” Typically, if we write about the topic, we substitute in other phrasing, like a “practice that works,” or an “evidence-based approach,” (if it is). Of course, when we’re quoting from a study or a report we’re stuck with the phrase “best practice,” as we don’t change direct quotes to suit ourselve

Many years ago, when we were involved in evaluating the management capacity of the nation’s largest cities, one of the areas of inquiry was performance management (which we then were calling “management for results”). This early exercise – one of the first in a line of work that ultimately led to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Government Performance Project– was largely reliant on journalistic-style interviews, supplemented with a survey instrument. When we interviewed the people

For some time, we’ve been fascinated by the relationship between executive branch managers and their legislatures or city councils. Not...

Many states, counties and city leaders are regularly raging against “fraud, waste and abuse.” This is hardly a new issue but inspired by...

We’re looking forward to participating in a panel at the upcoming annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration...

As we approach the last several weeks of December, our plan is to take a full vacation starting on December 14, continuing through New...

A couple of weeks ago, our B&G Report published a series of answers to the question: “What should members of the press know in order to...

Last week’s B&G Report included the second in a series of lists, compiled by experts, about managing performance. The first such list,...

We received a tremendous response a few weeks ago when we published “A Reader’s Guide to Government Performance”  by John Kamensky, a...

We recently came across an online report by a local NPR station that began with a headline that stated that, “Philadelphia and Wilmington...

Several decades ago, when we first developed a passion for performance management, we leaned upon a cadre of people who were pioneering...

When we were attending the most recent Southeastern Conference for Public Administration in Memphis (SECOPA), we sat in on a number of...

Just the other day, we were editing a Guest Column for this website (we won’t bother to mention the name of the author) and discovered...

Over the course of time, we’ve written repeatedly about the confusion many Americans have about which level of government provides which...

A little over a year ago, we wrote a column for Route Fifty  about the remarkably ambitious host of efforts that Fort Worth, Texas was...