Search Results

Back in 1871, Lewis Carroll began to use the term “portmanteau” as a description of words (which he made up) that blended two meanings into one. One of those that has lasted over the years includes  “chortle,’ which  was originally coined, in the poem Jabberwocky by Carroll, as a combination of “chuckle” and “snort.” Others that followed included “brunch” for breakfast and lunch; “motel” for a motor hotel; “smog for smoke and fog,” and “infomercial” for the combo of “information and a commercial.” It struck us that there are ample opportunities for us to come up with our own portmanteau words to apply to state and local government. We don’t expect them to become part of the English language, but it was sure a pleasant game coming up with them. And we invite our readers to try to think of more and send them our way. Try it. It’s fun. Procurementality – For the careful thought that should go through the minds of agency heads when they consider the kind of goods and services that they’re going to need in order to carry out the missions of a program. Artificial-Intelligentsia  – This is the group of people, who believe that they really understand a great deal about the future of AI (whether they’re right or wrong) Medicadence  – The hoped for future in which the Medicaid program ceases to be a hugely contentious area, but settles down into something that’s far more predictable. Appropriateation – The state in which in which dollars spent by a government (appropriations) are used for the programs and efforts that are proven to be essential or have the chance of providing a reasonable return on investment, as opposed to the cash that goes out, for example, to benefit political donors. Referendummy  – When something comes up for voter approval, and is passed, despite the fact that it really doesn’t have the remotest chance of helping the people who supported it or even those who didn’t. Jurisdictionary – A guide to all the jargon and acronyms that are commonly used in cities, counties and states, but which nobody outside the field really understands. Having come up with these first seven of our own, we decided to see the results we’d get if we asked an artificial intelligence program to help come up with more.  Following is a list of more public sector portmanteau words, courtesy of AI (and sadly, for us, we like some of these better than the ones we came up with ourselves): Bureaucra-chat : The lengthy, circular conversation that occurs during a public hearing where nothing is actually decided.   Zonarchy : A local government system where the zoning board holds more power than the actual mayor.   Potholery : The specific brand of wizardry or "creative accounting" used to explain why a road hasn’t been paved in a decade.   Taxasperation : The feeling of looking at your local property tax assessment and realizing your "shed" is being taxed as a luxury villa.   Munici-pals : The unique brand of midnight pizzas, and talk about the latest football game, that accompanies the kind of "pal-ship" shared between city council members during a late-night budget session.   Legis-late : The act of waiting until 11:59 PM on the final day of the session to pass a 400-page bill.   Ordin-ancestry : The ancient, outdated local laws that no one follows but everyone is too afraid to repeal (e.g., "no horses on Main Street after 8 PM").   Quorum-rumor : The frantic whispering in the hallway when it’s unclear if enough board members will show up for a meeting to be legal.   Votivation : The sudden, intense surge of energy a local official gets to fix your sidewalk exactly two weeks before an election.   Gover-natter : The polite, non-committal small talk a governor engages in while touring a county fair.   Permit-igation : The grueling, multi-month process of trying to mitigate the headache caused by a simple building permit application. #StateandocalGovernmentWordPlay #PortmanteauWordsForStateandLocalGovernment #PortmanteauWordsForCityGovernment #PortmanteauWordsForCountyGovernment #PortmanteauWordsForBudgeting #PortmanteauWordsForStateandLocalTaxation #PortmanteauWordsForStateGovernment #StateandLocalGovernmentAndLewisCarroll #StateandLocalGovernmentAndJabberwocky #PortmanteauWordsForPublicSectorManagement #PortmanteauWordsForPublicSectorPerformance #DedicatedToStateandLocalGovernment #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

For a while our Facebook account was out of order. It required the intervention of our son (a native in the world of social media) to figure out how to get it running again. And now we’re not so certain that we’re better off than we were before. In truth, we’re not huge social media users. We have an Instagram account but rarely use it. Every couple of months we fool around with Tik-Tok. We don’t quite count LinkedIn in this group, as it’s far more professionally oriented in nature, and we’re heavy users of that service. Since we tend to view most cultural phenomena through the lens of cities, counties and states, we’ve set about thinking about whether social media has been a force for good or for evil. And as is typical with these kinds of binary questions, our conclusion is that it’s some of both. On the positive side, for example, we’ve been grateful for information about public emergencies, which can be communicated in real time. A couple of weeks ago, we found the following information on Facebook from the nearby city of Danbury, which indicated that “The State Cold Weather Protocol will be in effect tomorrow January 15, 2026 at 5;00 pm through Friday January 16, 26 at 12:00PM due to dangerously low temperatures and strong winds.” The post went on to list the City of Danbury Warming Centers for people who had no way to get out of the cold. Pretty amazing, we think, for officials to be able to communicate to citizens the information they can use just when they need to use it. Beyond that, social media can offer up live-streaming town halls. And even though these meetings can be tedious and sometimes antagonistic, this gives the residents of a community the opportunity to hear directly from their communities’ leaders, without having their comments filtered through the lens of the local television, newspaper or radio station. We also see the use of social media outlets to recruit talent and boost tourism and small businesses. Finally, social media offers residents the opportunity to make their feelings heard and to complain about potholes, slow service at city hall or argue against changes in zoning that may affect their lives. For communities that pay attention, this can allow a way to find out what some residents are thinking and tap a broader crowd than show up at town meetings. Lest you think that we’re huge advocates of social media, you missed the idea that any article which has a section that begins with “on the positive” side is likely to lead to another series of paragraphs that begin with. “But on the negative side. . .” And here we go. Our greatest concern is that the amount of incorrect information that is out on the internet can make civic leaders want to tear their hair out, as misinformation builds up from one resident to another until the sheer mass of falsehoods makes it appear to be the truth. Ultimately, this has the potential of diminishing the already low level of trust in government, and that doesn’t do a community any good. Then too, functioning as an echo chamber, social media can encourage quick responses and distorted information, “undermining the potential for informed discourse and contributing to societal polarization,” as the California Resource Learning Network  aptly put it. We’d be surprised, in fact, if public sector staffers who are regularly exposed to uninformed comment, outright lies and online vitriol, don’t find it increasingly difficult to go to work each day. It’s only human nature to want to be appreciated, and to be unfairly attacked by the online voices is counterproductive for everyone concerned. Even in times when natural disasters hit, and governments use social media to get out good information, this useful material can easily be buried beneath rumors and falsehoods about the nature of the calamity that can jam up social media sites in a way that is counterproductive. Meanwhile, working in social media makes a government a great target for hackers, which means that there’s an ever-growing burden on an entity’s budget just to fend off the daily efforts to compromise city, county and state accounts. Then there’s the digital divide that crops up for people who are uncomfortable with social media for privacy purposes, individuals who have not yet acclimated to the world of online communications and people with disabilities who are unable to navigate online material that frequently doesn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.   Finally, there can be some confusion between the social media posts that are put out by governments themselves and elected officials who may be simply stating a strong opinion and are not actually reporting official government information. While many consultants to states and localities advise that they get out their messages through social media – particularly as the old-fashioned conduits like newspapers have faded, it’s critical that governments think their social media use through clearly, and not simply as an adjunct to other means of reaching the populace, that can be easily utilized because it's cheap. #StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalGovernmentCommunications #StateandLocalSocialMediaUse #StateandLocalSocialMediaAdvantages #StateandLocalSocialMediaDangers #StateandLocalPublicOutreach #CityGovernmentManagement #CityGovernmentPerformance #CityGovernmentCommunications #CityGovernmentSocialMediaUse #CityGovernmentPublicOutreach #CountyGovernmentManagement #CountyGovernmentCommunications #CountyGovernmentSocialMediaUse #CountyGovernmentPublicOutreach #SocialMediaMisinformation #SocialMediaAndPoliticalPolarization #PositiveStateLocalUseOfSocialMedia #NegativeStateLocalUseOfSocialMedia #PublicSectorDigitalDivide #SocialMediaEchoChambers #StateandLocalPolarization #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

Late last year, Bill Eggers, executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, wrote on LinkedIn that "Over my decades working on government reform, my one major complaint has always been that think tanks have focused so much time and resources on policy and too little on policy execution and the nitty-gritty of government operations He was playing our song, and we’d like to add that we find the same unfortunate phenomenon doesn’t just exist in think tanks but also among many elected officials who are entirely concentrated on developing new policies but give too little thought to how they are going to be implemented.   As for us, though we’ve spent a great deal of time and effort researching and writing about policy (especially during the period of time we spent working as  consultants to the Pew Charitable Trusts), our true love has always been exploring management issues in a whole host of fields including information technology, human resources, budgeting and so on. However good a policy is, we’ve found, when the management and implementation is bungled, the great new idea can turn out to be a failure.   We reached out to a few smart people to see what they had to say about this, and Mike Pagano, Dean Emeritus, of the University of Illinois Chicago, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, thoroughly agreed, telling us that “Although policy issues/concerns seem to dominate the airwaves, it's the implementation and management that make a difference in our lives.”  Added Don Kettl, the well-known professor emeritus at the University of Maryland (and co-author with us of The Little Guide to Writing for Impact ),   “ there's a strong case that one of the big drivers of distress in government is the worry among citizens that government programs either don't work, don't work well, or don't benefit them, and it's hard for people to trust things when promises are made and promises aren't kept. Typically, that’s because of a failure to either think through implementation problems from the beginning or fumbling the ball once implementation starts.”   John Bartle, president of the American Society for Public Administration, agreed and added that “While policy is initially made in developing the proposal and on the floor of the legislature, most of the key decisions are made in its implementation. Appointed officials have dozens, maybe hundreds, of decisions to interpret a policy and how it applies in unexpected or borderline cases. “Most citizens care less about the ideology of a policy than making it work and getting value for their tax dollar. Clean water, good schools, safe streets, and thriving neighborhoods are not partisan or ideological issues, they are part of a prosperous and progressive community. Politics is flashy and grabs our attention. While determining who is in power is important, it is a prelude to governance. Street-level bureaucrats make it happen.” We didn’t want to stop our outreach with academics, and so we contacted a few practitioners including Brooks Williams, who is the city manager of Ferris, Texas, and he explained that “ The longer I do this work, the more convinced I am that the most important debates in public life are not won in the policy arena. They are won, or lost, in the machinery that has to carry the decision into a Tuesday morning when nobody is watching. A council can adopt a new priority in one night. A governor can sign a bill in one afternoon. A think tank can publish a report and move on to the next one. “But those are not the moments the public experiences government. People experience government at the permitting counter, the dispatch console, the utility crew schedule, the court docket, the procurement rules, the legacy software that still runs half the organization, and the employee who is trying to do the right thing with six interruptions and a phone that will not stop ringing. If you want to understand why trust frays, start there. It is not because people are reading policies and rejecting them. It is because they are running into a system that cannot consistently do what it promised, and over time they learn that the words were easier than the work.” We can’t deny that bad policies, well implemented may be the worst variation of all, But assuming that the policies have potential, why has the emphasis on them over management and implementation prevailed?   The answer isn’t difficult to see from the elected officials’ point of view. After all, people get elected to office when they pass new laws and announce new programs. There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned ribbon-cutting to get attention from the media. Public announcements of the opening of a new infrastructure or economic development project provide the kinds of sound bites that attract attention from the media (and the official hopes, praise from the general public).   But when was the last time you heard a city councilmember, mayor, state legislator or governor even mention the procurement office that made a new infrastructure development possible or bring up the careful thought in the human resources office that allowed an entity to bring in the kind of staff that made it a better place to live.   Yet the connections are abundantly clear if you just look behind the scenes of governmental progress. Last year we wrote and contributed to UKG research (along with Polco), a study  that provided credible evidence that supported the hypothesis that effective workforce practices have a positive impact on resident satisfaction with both the quality of the services and the customer service they receive from their local government;  their overall confidence in their municipal government and the quality of life in their community.   So, even though these so-called bureaucrats (a term that we’re frustrated  has turned into a pejorative) may not get accolades, they most certainly deserve them. And we’ll continue to give appropriate credit to them in the future and hope that people notice.   #StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalGovermentPerformance #StateandLocalGovernmentHumanResources #StateandLocalGovernmentHR #StateandLocalPerformanceManagement #StateandLocalPerformance #StateandLocalBudgeting #StateandLocalGovernmentDataManagement #StateMedicaidManagement #StateandLocalPolicyImplementation #CityGovernmentManagement #CountyGovernmentManagement #CityPerformanceManagement #CityGovernmentPerformance #CountyGovernmentPerformanceManagement #CountyGovernmentPerformance #WhyPublicPoliciesFail #GovernmentBureaucrats #StateandLocalProcurement #CityProcurement #StateandLocalFinancialManagement #StateandLocalInfrastructuremanagement #PolcoHRStudy #Polco #PolcoStudyAndResidentSatisfaction #NittyGrittyGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalPublicAdministration #PewCharitableTrusts #DeloitteCenterForGovernmentInsights #StateandLocalTechnologyManagement #BillEggers #MikePagano #DonKettl #JohnBartle #BrooksWilliams #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

When people talk about the high cost of state and local government, they often miss an important distinction: between costs and investments. People understand in their own lives that when they put money into bonds or the stock market, these aren’t really costs but money put aside in hopes that they will get a return on this cash in years to come. Yet they miss that same phenomenon when it’s in place for their tax dollars. There are lots of examples of this phenomenon, Training, for example, is often the first thing that states and localities cut to balance their budgets. But the reality is that when workers aren’t trained well, they’re going to be less effective and efficient in their efforts, and that’s a cost for the entities – and thus the taxpayers – over the long term. As Benjamin Franklin said, “ An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." One obvious example is when new technologies are put into place, often costing millions of dollars. The IT folks who are in charge are often sufficiently trained, but many employees who are interacting with the newest innovations aren’t even aware of the bells and whistles in the first place.   As Wiliam Brantley, President of Brantley Advanced Social Sciences Applications, wrote in late 2024 : “A training department dedicated to upskilling and reskilling can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of state and local governments. Investing in human resources is a crucial aspect of governance” Training is just the beginning, and it’s difficult to quantify exactly what its returns are. In other areas there’s strong data to demonstrate our point. Consider the cost of disasters. In just the first half of last year they cost about $100 billion in the United States. With the appropriate advance steps taken, huge sums of dollars can be saved – in addition to reducing the turmoil for residents who experience hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, and floods. As the Pew Charitable Trusts wrote  in a July 2025 article,  “local emergency management agencies lead disaster response and recovery, but many lack the resources, staffing and long-term planning capacity to get ahead of increasingly complex and costly events.”   In fact, an analysis conducted jointly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Allstate revealed that “investments in resilience and preparedness can substantially reduce the economic costs associated with disasters.” The study found that each $1 of investments “reduces a communities’ economic costs after an event by $7.”   Similarly, though cities, counties and states frequently lack the cash necessary to keep up with maintaining their infrastructure, including roads, bridges and buildings, this too is a fiscally shortsighted choice.   As Noah Winn-Ritzenberg, Senior Director, Public Finance, Volcker Alliance, wrote in a Guest Column  for this website, “Deferring infrastructure maintenance may be a tempting relief valve as budgets become strained. Ignoring the mounting maintenance backlog, however, could imperil economic activity and future revenue as well as incur higher replacement costs down the road, only serving to deepen fiscal woes.”   It's really just common sense at work here. The option to spending the necessary dollars to keep infrastructure in shape is to eventually allow it to decay to the point where it becomes hazardous and ultimately useless. At that point, full replacement becomes necessary, which is far more expensive than keeping up with maintenance costs as they arise.   According to FacilitiesNet , an online resource for facilities management professionals,  “Studies of organizations show that on average, for every dollar "saved" by deferring maintenance, there comes a four dollar increase in future capital renewal costs. Those are the direct costs for that specific asset. There are additional indirect costs that may have an even larger impact. Over the life of that asset, those additional costs may total more than 15 times what would have been spent on the maintenance had it not been deferred.”   These estimates apply to all organizations, not just to states and localities, but there’s every reason to believe that the same multiplier effect applies at least as much to governments in which assets are often particularly large in scale.   One last thought here. Though it may be the case that nobody likes it when the taxman comes calling, money spent on tax audits is one of the best investments (not costs!) around.   Although most of the data about this pertains to the IRS, we have no reason to believe that the numbers are any less dramatic in cities, counties and states. And as for the feds, “we find an additional $1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th income percentile yields more than $12 in revenue, while audits of below-median income taxpayers yield $5,” according to research done by the National Bureau of Economic Research .” There’s no question that for many taxpayers, a combination of a lack of trust in government, coupled with a desire to keep this year’s taxes as low as possible, can lead their states and cities to avoid spending money regardless of the long-term benefits. That’s understandable, of course, but in many cases it’s not wise. #StateandLocalGovernmenManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalInfrastructureManagement #CityCostsVsInvestments #CountyCostsVsInvestments #StateCostsVsInvestments #StateandLocalHR #StateandLocalGovernmentBudgeting #UnderstandingCostsAndInvestments #StateandLocalEmployeeTraining #StateandLocalTaxManagement #StateandLocalEmergencyManagement   #StateandLocalEmergencyPrevention #StateandLocalTaxAuditInvestment #StateandLocalTrainingInvestment #StateandLocalInfrastructureInvestment #StateandLocalDeferredMaintenanceInvestment #StateandLocalEmergencyPreventionInvestment #BrantleyAdvancedSocialSciencesApplications #WilliamBrantley #VolckerAlliance #NoahWinnRitzenberg #FacilitiesNet #TaxAuditInvestment #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

“This is the last B&G Report we’ll be publishing in 2025 (the next new column will appear in this space on January 12, 2026 )  And so, we thought it only appropriate for us to look back at the columns we’ve done over the last year to pick out ten of our favorites – and provide them to our readers who may have missed them the first time around. Take a look, and as NBC used to say  in a campaign to get people to watch its reruns, “If you haven’t seen it, it's new to you.”   Uncertainty Is The Only Certainty : “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.”   Dataphobia:  (We) “ worry about what we see as a growing inclination to distrust or dismiss data when it potentially disrupts policy or political plans.  If data doesn’t conform with expectations, further analysis is always welcome to determine why. But to ignore the message, bury it out of public view or reject it out of hand only undermines the effort to see what’s really working in government and what’s not.”   Ten Tips for Better Performance Management : “ During the last three (plus) decades, we’ve seen a number of flaws crop up in the performance management functions of cities, counties and states. Some of these are obvious -- like the problems caused by low quality data -- others are not. Following, are ten tips that we believe can be useful for entities that covet success in this discipline.”   Untangling Fraud, Waste and Abuse : “ Many states, counties and city leaders are regularly raging against “fraud, waste and abuse.” This is hardly a new issue but inspired by the efforts in Washington D.C. – whatever you think of the administration’s approach – there’s been refreshed action at other levels of government to tackle this triad of governmental ills.   “Here’s the problem. These three words are generally comingled as if they were one thing. But they’re not. And mixing them together as a single phenomenon can easily cause governments to lose a clear vision as to exactly what they’re trying to fix.”   AI and Energy Use: A Growing Concern : “ AI has the potential to use incredible amounts of electricity, and at a time when global warming is no longer a matter of debate in the serious scientific community, this feels to us like the kind of emerging problem which soon enough will be in the headlines everywhere.”   Survey Exhaustion : 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 argue that it has now entered a new phase: Let’s call it survey exhaustion.   Are Best Practices Really the Best : “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 ourselves.”   Bureaucracy Is Not a Dirty Word : “When was the last time you heard anyone say, ‘Gee what an excellent bureaucracy we have in the Department of Motor Vehicles. It only took me five minutes to get a new driver’s license’?   “In fact, the word bureaucracy is most frequently used as a pejorative. . . But this kind of context for bureaucracy is a sad and frustrating fallacy. Without the bureaucrats, we’d be left with a bunch of policies and programs that would have no one left to implement them.” Eight Gripes about Government Websites : “ Nearly every town, city, county and all the states have websites. We turn to them with regular frequency for a variety of purposes, which we’ll delve into right now. But there are any number of downsides to many websites and that’s what we really want to write about today. . .   “Since barely a day passes when we’re not visiting a government website, we’ve accumulated a bunch of grievances. Here are eight that are on the top of our list.”   Information Can Be A Buried Treasure : “What AI can find for you is information that has been digitized. But there’s tons of valuable material that’s never been put in digital form. That includes information about groups and cultures, with histories that have been written about less and never picked up by the digitizers of the world.”   #DedicatedtoStateandLocalGovernment #StateandLocalManagement #StateandLocalPerformanceAudit #StateandLocalPerformance #StateandLocalPerformanceManagement #StateandLocalData #StateandLocalDataGovernance #BadData #MissingData #GovernmentWebsiteFlaws #StateandLocalAI #StateandLocalBureaucracy #SurveyExhaustion #CityData #CityManagement #CityPerformance #CityPerformanceAudit #CountyManagement #CountyPerformanceAudit #AIandEnergyUse #WasteFraudandAbuse #StateandLocalUncertainty #InDefenseOfBureaucracy #BandGReport #BarrettandGreene #BarrettandGreeneCommentary

When the federal government announced that it intended to create a new Department of Government Efficiency, we had our doubts – which were fulfilled when the news emerged that the vast majority of DOGE’s efforts were to cut back on government employees to the extent that some agencies have been hobbled by the lack of trained workers. Soon enough we began to hear that a number of states, which were led by Republicans, were also starting programs with the phrase DOGE, or a variation like COGE (Committee on Government Efficiency) attached, including Florida, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri and others. But the power of rhyme aside, in many instances these have been a different exercise than that which was once led by Elon Musk at the federal level. For one thing, while many of the state efforts were created by legislation or executive order, the federal version was essentially an advisory body, free-wheeling in its approach, but with no internal mechanism for making sure its recommendations turned into actions – even though a number accomplished just that, reflected by the number of federal workers who lost their jobs. In fact, it turns out that many of these state-level DOGE efforts are more similar to old-fashioned streamlining initiatives – the best of which save dollars while ensuring that the level of service is maintained or improved. Take Kansas, for example. The heart of its COGE effort is a government efficiency portal , which allows residents of the state to submit ideas for making their government more effective and efficient. Back in February, Oklahoma’s effort labeled DOGE-OK was established to demonstrate “that Oklahoma is committed to smarter government,” Governor Kevin Stitt was quoted as saying. “We’re focused on reducing waste, investing in efficiency and delivering better services to Oklahomans without raising costs.” For example, the state’s Department of Transportation, has combined, “district facilities and crews, instead of undertaking the cost to potentially replace each individual building,” according to a release . “Depending on the number of crews combined, these enhanced facilities will save ODOT approximately $2.9-$5 million per facility and allow district personnel to efficiently collaborate, cross-train, and maintain heavy field equipment. Efforts are underway in District Four, District Seven and District One, for a combined savings of about $12.9 million.” It seems to us that it’s a pity that these states, which are launching efforts to save money and deliver services more efficiently felt impelled to use DOGE-like wording in their creation. This, we think, politicized initiatives, many of which were just good old-fashioned management. For example, in March, according to an AP article,  Wisconsin, avoided that trap when it created a GOAT committee, which stands for Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency. Three of its nine members are Democrats. What’s more, unlike the federal government, “the committee can’t unilaterally fire state workers or slash government spending. Broad actions like that require action by the full legislature which is controlled by Republicans in addition to Democratic Governor Tony Evers.” Even though we make every effort to avoid raising political issues in this space, it seems to us that the politicization of good management by copying the Trump Administration’s labeling, is an unfortunate trend – particularly when many Republican efforts have not taken a page out of the federal DOGE’s book. Over the course of years, we’ve tried to point to streamlining efforts as much as possible, regardless of the party affiliation of the state leaders involved. But picking up on the DOGE name does a disservice, we believe to this good work. While there may be some states that genuinely want to follow in the footsteps of the federal DOGE efforts, we haven’t come across any that are genuinely inclined to following the federal model, such as it is. As our friends and colleagues Don Kettl and Phil Joyce recently pointed out,  “ At first, Musk  promised  to find $2 trillion in savings. Then the pledge dropped to $1 trillion. Then he struggled to document any savings at all.” The states can be – and are – doing much better than that.    #StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateGovernmentEfficiency #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformanceManagement #DOGEinStateGovernment #StateDOGEvsFederalDOGE #StateStreamliningInitiatives #WisconsinGOAT #KansasCOGE #DOGEOklahoma #DifferenceBetweenStateandFederalDOGE #StreamliningAndPolitics #StateGovernmentAccountability #TransportationStreamliningIdeas #StateResidentOutreach #KansasStreamliningOutreach #StateandLocalHr #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalHumanResourcesManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentWorkforce #StateStreamliningIdeas #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

Several years ago, when the nation was in the depths of the pandemic, there was hardly an article we could write that didn’t bring the impact of Covid-19 into play. Even though the public sector was still delivering tons of services, collecting taxes and trying to create affordable housing, everybody we talked to about these topics would bring in questions of how they were being impacted by the pandemic. We were disheartened by the terrible toll the pandemic was taking, but, frankly, tired of being drawn to its ramifications in most of what we wrote – whether in the realms of human resources, budgeting or technology. More recently, we’re experiencing much the same phenomenon with the fast-growing advent of artificial intelligence. Surely AI is changing the world around us at a rapid clip, but it’s not the only thing that’s going on in the public sector. Just yesterday, we were interviewing someone about leadership academies for an article we’re working on now – and before we knew it, the conversation had somehow morphed into one about AI. Then there’s the relentless news that flows from the federal government. It’s so hard to escape that increasingly people are writing about a phenomenon called "news fatigue”. So how can states and local governments get a word in edgewise, when the big story of the year tends to crowd them out of the public eye? Here’s a list of recommendations for those of you who speak to reporters or researchers who want to write about your government:      1)   Speak directly and honestly. Government officials who are trained to deal with the press (actually just about anyone who is trained to deal with the press) have learned to skirt questions asked so they can answer entirely different questions of their choosing. At various times we’ve had media training, and this is exactly what we’ve been told: “Don’t worry about the question you’re asked. Just answer the question you wanted to be asked.” There may be some logic to this, but it’s a really good way to avoid being quoted at all. When reporters are putting together an article about a particular topic, they’re disinclined to let you bring them down another road entirely.   2)   Don’t allow your public information officers to take over the show. It’s stopped being a surprise to us when we seek a conversation with an elected or appointed official to write about something positive that they’ve accomplished, we find ourselves blockaded by gatekeepers who make us jump through a series of hoops. This is particularly unsettling when we’ve talked to that source in the past, with no problems, but now they’re being protected so effectively that we struggle to get to them again (even when there’s a deadline involved for us).   3)   If your press liaison sits in on the interview, try to do the talking yourself. You’re the one who the reporter will want to quote, not your press person   4)   It’s fine to say “I don’t know.” That’s way better than making something up. But if it’s possible to follow up with written answers to the questions you couldn’t answer, that’s a terrific approach. (And by the way, if you promise to send more information after the conversation, don’t forget to do it!)   5)   Don’t rely on press releases to get your story across. Our own e-mail boxes are full of so many releases every day that it’s impossible to ferret out all the stories that we would want to tell. And in hopes that this doesn’t sound boastful, we suspect that we review story ideas more carefully than most other journalists do.   6)   For years, we’ve talked about “adopting a reporter,” a device that we’ve seen work for some very smart public officials.  By this we mean that a personal relationship with the people at the news outlets you would like to report your story, goes a long way to getting attention to it.   7)   Tell stories that provide concrete examples. Speaking in broad generalities can sometimes be helpful, but actual real-life stories are inclined to make the message you want to get across come to life. It’s always been a source of frustration to us, when we seek a clear example from the real world, and our source can’t seem to provide one.   8)   Speak in plain English. Jargon is bad enough and acronyms can be impenetrable. It’s easy when you’re living in a world in which acronyms are understood by everyone in your immediate circle, to think that everyone knows what they mean. But that’s not true. (In fact, it’s relatively common for a source to be unable to even tell us what the mysterious letters in the acronym stand for).   9)   If you’re late for an interview, that’s fine and happens every day. But if you’ve limited the time a reporter has access to you, don’t show up late and then tell the reporter about the hard stop you have in ten minutes.   10)               It’s OK to ask for questions in advance, but it’s better to ask about general topics to be covered. Good interviews flow from the information you’re providing, and a prescribed list of queries just inhibits that.   #StateandLocalGovernmentCommunications #GovernmentReporterRelations #StateandLocalGovernmentMediaRelations #CityGovernmentCommunications #PublicSectorPressRelationship #CityGovernmentMediaRelations #CountyGovernmentCommunications #CountyGovernmentMediaRelations #HowToGetStateandLocalStoriesTold #AvoidingPublicSectorJargon  #StateandLocalGovernmentStoryTelling #RecommendationsForMediaRelations #DedicatedToStateandLocalGovernmentManagement #CommunicatingStateandLocalPerformance #GovernmentPressRelations #StateandLocalManagementNews #StateandLocalPerformanceNews #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

In a surprising number of conversations in recent months, we find that political tensions are depressing our friends and giving them a sense that government has ceased to function in a way that gives them hope for the future. And that’s when we try to cheer them up ( at least a little bit). We point out that cities, counties and states are doing a good number of positive things – in both red and blue portions of the country. Sometimes, this takes a little convincing. The pages of highly esteemed national newspapers like the Washington Post, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal are overwhelmed with politics, leaving little room for talk of management, performance and policy at the state or local levels. While we don’t believe in conspiracies, we’ve come to call this phenomenon, the “conspiracy to depress us all.” So, as Thanksgiving approaches later this week, it felt like it might be an appropriate time of year to give some credit to the good news that we see every day. We’ve gone through some of our Management Update items from recent months and here are eight examples of reasons to give thanks. To bolster the public sector workforce, many states have reduced degree requirements as well as other qualifications traditionally required for employment – therefore opening up jobs for workers with skills (or the ability to acquire skills). According to a National Governors Association brief, “These actions—often through executive orders and legislation—have helped address workforce shortages, advanced skills-based hiring, and accelerated a broader national policy conversation. Importantly, they also highlight the outsized role of the public sector as the largest employer in most states.” There’s a general sense among residents, and even employees, of local governments, that the job of HR is limited to internal functions that administer leave policies, appraise employee performance, manage compensation and classification systems, post job openings and deal with recruitment, hiring and retention. But a new study, created through a collaboration between UKG, Polco and Barrett and Greene (the two of us), powerfully demonstrated that there are statistically significant correlations between HR effectiveness and resident satisfaction with government and quality of life. One of the advantages of working in the public sector is that there can be opportunities to work for agencies that deliver a wide variety of services to the public. In an effort to emphasize this point, on July 21, the  Mississippi State Personnel Board organized a successful “intern fair,” which attracted some 92 interns (from 19 agencies) who were able to get a quick education about the wide variety of jobs available in the state – particularly useful information to interns who may not have seen a future in the agency for which they were currently working. A data warehouse created by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in 2017, now holds more than  6 billion data records representing Massachusetts residents, with care given to the protection of privacy. One example of the warehouse's dramatic benefits: “cross-sector data from the warehouse was used to identify people at significantly higher risk of opioid-related overdose death and then informed the design and implementation of a program that reduced that population’s mortality by more than half.” Orange County, California, the sixth largest county in the United States, has a current computer system that had expanded into 21 separate systems over 30 years. But its Auditor-Controller Andrew Hamilton has been bringing his county a giant step forward by building an innovative cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.  It's estimated to save the county $45 million over the next ten years. “We had proposers call this the most integrated system of its type in the entire United States” says Hamilton. Non-emergency 311 calls are a remarkably rich source of data which cities can use in a variety of ways, With that in mind, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has established an interactive dashboard, which “allows the user to identify certain agencies or complaint types experiencing a high public demand for service and geographical concentration of such service demands. The performance measurement tool is particularly sophisticated in that it filters out duplicate complaints and according to the Comptroller’s office, it will be used “by the public for local advocacy efforts, elected officials for fiscal and operational planning and response efforts or city agencies for allocating resources.” Last spring, the National Association of Counties launched a new Childcare Supply Network, with a focus on strengthening childcare systems to support workforce and county economic development needs. “You can’t have a healthy workforce if your workforce doesn’t have care for their children,” says Ashleigh Holland, chief program officer at NACo. “The Childcare Supply Network is focused on helping counties center childcare services as part of their countywide economic development and workforce development strategies. The startlingly positive news on the drug front is that was a 27 percent decrease in drug related deaths between 2023 and 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformanceManagement #StateandLocalHR #StateandLocalGovernmentHumanResources #CityGovermentPerformance #CityGovernmentPerformanceManagement #CountyGovernmentPerformance #CountyGovernmentPerformanceManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentWorkforce #CityWorkforce #CountyWorkforce #PublicSectorDegreeRequirementChanges #StateandLocalReductionDegreeRequirements #StateandLocalSkillBasedHiring #CityandCountySkillBasedHiring #HRImpactOnResidentSatisfaction #MississippiInternFair #StateandLocalGovernmentInternships #StateandLocalDataManagement #MassachusettsDataWarehouse #MassachusettsDataImpact #StateandLocalPerformanceMeasurement #StateandLocal311DataImpact #NewYork311DataDashboard #NationalAssociationCounties #NACo #CountyChildCareSupplyNetwork #StateandLocalGovernmentManagementNews #BarrettandGreeneInc

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 argue that it has now entered a new phase: Let’s call it survey exhaustion. The overabundance of survey instruments is directly related to the advances in technology that allow online surveys to come directly to you, often through texts or e-mail. It has become nearly effortless for any organization to spread a survey instrument far and wide. And now that it’s cheaper and easier to put a survey out into the field (many of which are political in nature) lots of people want to do their own – notwithstanding that the more surveys that are in the field, the less likely it is to get response. We know that this presents a problem for state and local organizations and researchers in the field, as the validity of their conclusions declines when they don’t reach a critical mass of respondents. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics said in a podcast early last year, which we covered in this website , that there’s been an erosion of some of the data that is fundamental for his economic analyses, as well as to critical government decision-making because, "a lot of it is based on surveys and survey response rates are way down across the board.”   In fact, we’ve been at a number of conferences lately in which academics present their data based on surveys they’ve undertaken. But in a fair number of instances, they’ve expressed some concern that the lack of responses may lessen the value of their results and even introduce biases. For example, when a survey only triggers responses from the people who feel very strongly one way or another about the topic being explored, the opinions of the vast middle ground can be missed out on entirely. According to a  letter published in the Journal of Caring Sciences  last year, there are four types of survey fatigue: “Over surveying Question fatigue (when “the researcher asks the same questions in diverse ways”) Long surveys Disingenuous surveys: (“This is a dangerous type of survey fatigue. It occurs when our participants think that their responses will not affect an outcome.”) That last  one is echoed by a report from McKinsey , which stated that “ We reviewed results across more than 20 academic articles and found that, consistently, the number one driver of survey fatigue was the perception that the organization wouldn’t act on the results.” As we wrote  in a June article  in Government Finance Review, “When a community chooses to use a citizen survey, respondents need to believe their responses have been heard and considered. Otherwise, they may well rebel by not participating the next time they’re asked for their views—or even lose some trust and faith in the government altogether. “Even if it’s a matter of explaining why a particular priority is heavily favored by respondents but doesn’t get funded, people need to know why. If a community can’t close the loop and acknowledge that it heard from a resident, there is a natural assumption that this was just a paperwork exercise designed to make people think that leaders care when they don’t.” Our concern about this phenomenon is rooted in our strong belief that surveys are an important tool for states and localities to gather information from residents that can help them to establish their priorities. We’ve seen ample evidence that surveys can help leaders set agendas and make important decisions. Here’s a good example, which we’ve reported elsewhere: When Hurricane Helene hit Ashville, North Carolina in September 2024, the damage was devastating. In fact, the community is still recovering. But with devastating damage, the city was eager to use its limited resources in ways that would be of greatest consequence to its residents. So, city leaders decided to reach out to the populace to see what they thought was of greatest importance to them. As Dawa Hitch, communications and public engagement director in Asheville, told us, the city did everything in its power to get as many responses as it could “We did daily social media promotions on our city platforms,” she told us, “we had media coverage in local news outlets; used announcements; city newsletters, and we did some email campaigns.”The most significant finding from this work was that 96 percent of respondents were concerned about the city’s infrastructure. This wasn’t much of a surprise since the hurricane left many of the city’s assets far worse off than they had been before the storm. But the city was able to look closely into the comments and that helped it focus its vision. Explained Hitch, “it indicated that road repairs were essential or very important, while infrastructure improvements, like sidewalk repairs, greenways and bikeways were rated as lower importance.” In that case, of course, residents were particularly motivated to reply to the city’s outreach because they saw that their comments had the potential of affecting their lives. But it’s rare for residents to have that kind of motivation, and since we’ve long advocated that states and localities get as much citizen input as possible, we see the reticence to reply when a city county or state asks for views as a decidedly unfortunate turn of events. #StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalPerformanceManagement #StateandLocalCitizenSurveys #StateandLocalCitizenOutreach #CityGovernmentManagement #CityGovernmentPerformance #CitySurveys #CitySurveyResponseRate #PublicSectorSurveyResponseRate #LowSurveyResponseRate #AcademicSurveyResponseRate #PublicSectorSurveyFatigue #PublicSectorSurveyExhaustion #GovernmentSurveyResponseRates #CitizenSurveyResponseProblem #StateandLocalGovernmentSurveyResearch #AcademicSurveyResearch #ConsequencesOfOverSurveying #JournalOfCaringSciences #MarkZandi #MoodysAnalytics #GovernmentFinanceReview #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

Some time ago, in a conversation with a high-ranking county official, he told us about the three attributes that he sought when hiring a new employee: “attitude, aptitude and adaptability.” Subsequently in looking up those words online, we’ve realized that he didn’t make the “three A’s” up himself, but the idea remained with us as a sensible one. Clearly, the fundamental hurdles before someone should be hired for a job in state or local government are attitude and aptitude. If someone has a contrary personality and creates drama in the office that kind of attitude can be lethal. And as for aptitude, the aptitude to do a particular job (with or without a credential) remains essential. That said, while adaptability has always been an important trait, we want to argue that it’s never been more significant than it is right now. The world is changing at a frenetic pace, and so the absence of the ability to adapt to changes that weren’t predicted or predictable is a recipe for failure. The most obvious example right now is artificial intelligence. We’ve done a great deal of reporting about this phenomenon in recent months, including an October report for the IBM Center for the  Business of Government , and we’ve become aware that there’s a lot of trepidation in government about adapting to this brave new world. Many fear that their jobs may be in jeopardy. Others just don’t like the idea that the way they did things until recently is suddenly being antiquated. Notwithstanding the various issues with AI, government employees, at all levels, are seeing it enter their lives -- at least to some extent. Those who aren’t willing to adapt are going to be left in the same dust pile of history as the people who manufactured leather at the turn of the century. In 1900, the United Leather Company was one of the biggest corporations in the United States and was one of the first to be included in the list of firms that form the Dow Jones Average. Today, the US leather industry is barely noticeable in the world market. AI is just the most obvious example of ways in which government employees are going to have to adapt. There’s a growing expectation, for example, that people who provide services to the public have to be citizen oriented. Disappearing are the days when they could harbor an internal process-focused mindset, without regard to incorporating citizen feedback in their work. Then there’s the effort on the part of many places to break down silos and share not just data, but the tasks before them. Though it’s easy to say that silo breaking is simply logical, it can be somewhat easier said than done. For one thing there’s an ever-present concern that the power wielded by one department will be diffused when it’s sharing tasks with others. In a world in which most people want to get credit for their successes, departments sometimes are reticent to collaborate on projects out of concern that they’ll have to share the “attaboys,” and maybe even see their collaborator getting more praise. What’s more, two departments that are required to work together may each have a very distinct ethos. For instance, police departments increasingly collaborate with social service agencies.  But social workers and police officers may well not share the same sentiments regarding the best way to help fight violence or social strife. For the two units to successfully work together for the common good, both are necessarily going to have to adapt. Then, of course, there’s the change in the workforce away from credentialism. A growing number of states and localities are broadening the net for new employees to people who have the capacity to do a job but may not have a degree that signals  that they do. As a growing number of non-collegiates enter the workforce, it seems inevitable that there will be resentment on the part of the old-timers who struggled to get their degrees in order to land a job. Over the course of the years, we’ve been told that often progress in states and localities is stymied by the comment “but that’s the way we’ve always done it,” when a new approach to getting the work done is addressed. People who have been in their jobs for a while can be very comfortable with the tried and true. When that’s the case, new skills may seem like the enemy. That may just be a matter of human nature. But it’s a losing game. #StateandLocalGovernmentHR #StateandLocalGovernmentHiring #StateandLocalGovernmentHRandAdaptability #CityHR #CityHRManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentHumanResources #CityHiringCriteria #StateHiringCriteria #CountyHiringCriteria #StateandLocalPerformanceManagement #CityPerformanceManagement #CountyPerformanceManagement #GovernmentEmployeeAdaptability #PublicSectorHiringAndAdaptability #StateLocalHiringAndAdaptability  #AdaptabilityAndStateLocalHiring #AdaptabilityAndCityHiring #AdaptabilityAndCountyHiring #AdaptabilityAndStateLocalWorkforce #AdaptabilityAndStateandLocalJobSuccess #StateandLocalArtificialIntelligence #AdaptabilityAndStateLocalAI  #IBMCenterBusinessOfGovernment #BarrettandGreeneStateArtificialIntelligenceReport #AdaptationAndTheGovernmentWorkforce #BandGReport #BarrettandGreeneInc

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 back on its editorial staff and more general contributors and focused almost exclusively on technology. For those years, it was a frustration to us because we didn’t feel like we could quote from the hundreds of columns and articles we had written for Governing over 22 years. After all, they were the competition. Of course, as history turned out, Governing didn’t go anyplace and continued its thriving website. Last year, it even started again to publish a magazine you can hold in your hands, with an issue in Spring 2024  the first hard copy version since September 2019.   So, we’re back again and are now contributors to Governing, which has reprinted a number of articles we’ve published on our website. In the future, we plan to write articles directly for the publication itself. So, now that we feel like the cork is out of the bottle, we thought we’d share ten Governing columns that we were particularly proud of. They follow, including the links. Some may be a little out of date, but we’ve tried to select out evergreens. Testing Period : “ Pilots—for programs ranging from a new model of fire engine to teen pregnancy prevention efforts—are an accepted management technique almost everywhere. Unfortunately, there are lots of ways to get tripped up by them.” How Breaking Down Silos in Government Can Make Things Worse  “Collaboration is the road governments need to be on to find solutions to problems that bedevil multiple agencies and departments. Unfortunately, that information road can be full of potholes. Sometimes attempts to fill the ruts create new holes.” What Happens When Evidence Based Policy Making Meets the Real World?  “Even with money and staff, evidence-based policymaking can be fraught with peril. For one thing, once evidence seems to indicate that a program is successful, public officials often declare victory and move on. “But there are few easy wins with health care, poverty, education and so on,” says Gary VanLandingham, a professor at Florida State University and a national expert on evidence-based policymaking. “No single program or process is a silver bullet that will solve all problems.  But everyone loves silver bullets.” Accounting for Oysters – The Importance of Fiscal Notes in Policy Making  “Clipping fiscal notes to bills is easier said than done. Management of that process is dicey. Some states are laggards. They do not have their legislative analysts calculate estimates for all bills. . . Nor do many states manage their fiscal note process to gain the most pertinent information available. “ Data-Based Decision=Making Works Great – Til Someone Cheats  “Even though we’re still strong supporters of the move to make decisions based on measures, we’ve begun to get a little skeptical about the validity of some measures and concerned about the way government officials sometimes misuse the data -- inadvertently or, on occasion, intentionally.” Are Public Employees Safe at Work ? “Violent attacks in the workplace are not common, but they may leave public employees fearful about going to work, especially in understaffed institutions. “Across the country, chronic understaffing in correctional facilities, youth detention centers, psychiatric hospitals and in social services contributes to high turnover among qualified staff and increases the likelihood that violent incidents will occur,” says Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.” Did We Say That? Public Sector Predictions that Never Came True . “We’re not perfect. Despite the depth of our reporting, the decades of historical memory and the thousands of experts upon whom we rely, we miss the mark from time to time. Maybe you’ve noticed. Several years ago, for example, we wrote excitedly about the coming age of performance-based budgeting. Although performance measures have certainly helped management, you’d need to look far and wide to find good examples of budgets that have been clearly formed by performance measures.” Bad Bosses  – “All the managerial systems in the world, it appears, aren't strong enough or thoughtful enough to overcome the problems that can be created by supervisors or managers who lack communication skills, fail to listen to employees, treat them poorly or don't provide honest feedback about job performance.” What Improv Comedians Can Teach Government Employees  “Government managers often find themselves in so-called ‘brainstorming sessions,’ where they’re supposed to work together to come up with a new approach, fix an old problem or develop a new program. Participants too often emerge from these meetings with the sense that little of value has been accomplished -- except for giving a handful of folks the opportunity to talk.” How Government Can Benefit by Becoming Better Storytellers . Simple statements of fact supplemented by statistics aren’t enough when communicating with the public. Storytelling is also needed for getting a message across not only to the public, but also to managers, legislators and public-sector employees.   #StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalPerformanceManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #BarrettAndGreeneAndGoverning #DedicatedToStateandLocalGovernment #StateandLocalPerformanceMeasurement #StateandLocalHR #StateandLocalGovernmentHumanResources #StateandLocalEvidenceBasedPractices #BadBossses #StateandLocalEmployeeSafety #CityEmployeeSafety #StateandLocalFiscalNotes #StateandLocalGovernmentBudgeting #PerformanceInformedBudgeting #CityGovernmentManagement #CityGovernmentPerformance #CityPerformanceMeasurement #CityHR #CountyGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalSilos #CountyGovernmentPerformance #MisguidedPerformanceIncentives #DataBasedDecisionMaking #StateandLocalDataGovernance #StateandLocalDataUse #PublicSectorDataUseAndStoryTelling  #CoverageAboutStateandLocalGovernment #BandGReport #KatherineBarrettandRichardGreene #BarrettandGreeneInc

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 spell the difference between a minor incident and a crippling injury or a death. To the general public, fast response times are the most tangible evidence that they are getting good service. Just ask anyone who has waited for an emergency vehicle when a relative or friend is having chest pains and shortness of breath.   It’s our guess that most people who read about response times aren’t aware that they can be measured very differently by first responders. Police 1, covers response issues frequently, including an upcoming webinar on “Advancing unified command and communication”  on November 4. In one article that was published prior to the pandemic, Police 1 noted that “almost every agency measures ‘response time’  differently.  Some cities use a ‘hello to hello’ standard. This is the time it takes for a dispatcher to pick up the phone (“hello”) and the time it takes the police officer to arrive on scene (“hello”). Other agencies break this time into multiple chunks, such as how long the dispatcher stays on the line, how long the officer is en route to the call, and how long the officer is on scene. “Where one city might automatically exclude anything over a certain time another city will just include every call sent to their call center. There are probably as many response time definitions as there are police departments across the country.” These distinctions are important, particularly from the point of view of the person who is urgently in need of help. With a shortage of EMS vehicles in many parts of the country, for example, after the 911 call is finished it can take the dispatcher valuable minutes to actually get an ambulance company to respond to the call. Once that happens, the ambulance still needs to arrive at the scene. From the perspective of the person who made the call, the response time might be 23 minutes for help to arrive, not eight minutes (for the emergency vehicle to make the trip).   If response times are truly to be used as helpful performance measures, we’d argue, that what really matters is the amount of time it takes from reaching 911 until help comes knocking on the door (or kicking it down in extreme instances). Other measures don’t really reflect the customer experience.   Yet another issue with response times is that they don’t take into account the specific situation – and that can jeopardize safety for others, including the responder. If someone thinks they’ve broken an arm, for example, and calls 911 it probably doesn’t matter much if an ambulance arrives in ten minutes or twenty minutes. But if the call is for a fire or a heart attack then every minute counts. Yet these different scenarios are comingled when response times are published, and used to hold police, fire and EMS accountable for delivering solid service. And that means that when emergency vehicles are summoned, responders who are eager to be seen as effective may respond to the scene as quickly as is possible – traveling far faster than the speed limit, going through stop signs and so on.   No surprise that in 2023 according to the National Safety Council , 198 people “ died in crashes involving emergency vehicles. More than half of these deaths were occupants of non-emergency vehicles (57%). Deaths among pedestrians accounted for 23% of the total, while emergency vehicle drivers represented 11%, and emergency vehicle passengers accounted for about 7% of the deaths.”   Our recommendation is that response times, wherever possible, should be disaggregated in such a way as to differentiate between life and death emergencies and those that are far less serious in nature. This would not only make the response time measures more useful – it might save other innocent lives along the way. #StateandLocalGovernmentManagement #StateandLocalGovernmentPerformance #CityGovernmentManagement #CityGovernmentPerformance #StateandLocalPerformanceMeasurement #StateandLocalPerformanceManagement #CityPerformanceMeasurement #CityPerformanceManagement #PolicePerformanceMeasurement #PolicePerformanceManagement #EmergencyPerformanceMeasurement #EmergencyManagementPerformanceMeasures #StateandLocalEmergencyResponseTime #PoliceandFireEmergencyResponseTime #EMSEmergencyResponseTime #911EmergencyResponse #MeasuringStateandLocalGovernmentResponseTime #MeasuringAmbulanceResponseTime #MeasuringFireResponseTime #MeasuringPoliceResponseTime #ResponseTimeMeasurementVariation #StateandLocalGovernmentData #StateandLocalDataQuality #CityGovernmentData #CityGovernmentDataQuality #PoliceResponseTimeDataQuality #RespondingToResponseTimes #ResponseTimeDistinctions #EmergencyVehicleAccidents #911DispatchPerformanceManagement #911DispatchPerformance #Police1 #NationalSafetyCouncil #BarrettandGreeneInc