Nov. 13, 2008
King County releases first performance scorecard
Part of national trend to make government results more accessible
King County residents can now get an easy four-page performance scorecard to evaluate the effectiveness of county services. The scorecard highlights how well 20 key county programs are doing, what areas need improvement, and summarize the county's finances during 2007.
"This is another step I am taking to make the results of our work more readily available to our residents," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "This short, easy to read scorecard helps people see what we are doing well and where we can do better."
The report is part of a growing trend for "citizen-centric" performance reports being encouraged by the Association of Government Accountants to make performance and financial information more accessible to the public.
The four page format was developed after consultation with residents as part of two focus groups that provided feedback on the content, length, and format of the final scorecard. In addition to specific results and targets, the scorecard assigns a green, yellow, or red label to show progress towards the targets. The scorecard also captures high-level financial data summarized from the county's comprehensive annual financial report.
King County's previous performance reporting efforts have twice won awards that recognize excellence in government accountability, public transparency and performance reporting. The Association of Government Accountants awarded King County with the prestigious national Certificate of Excellence in Service Efforts and Accomplishments Award in 2007 and 2008.
Primary access to the scorecard, and its associated Web site, are available online at http://your.kingcounty.gov/aimshigh. Information about the scorecard is also being broadcast via a public service announcement on the county's King County TV, Cable Channel 22.
To support this project, King County received a "Trailblazer" grant award from the Center on Municipal Government Performance of the National Center for Civic Innovation as one of the nation's leading-edge governments who are advancing innovations in citizen-informed performance measurement and reporting. The grant paid for the cost of the focus groups and production of the scorecard.
To learn more about the "citizen-centric" reporting program, please visit www.agacgfm.org/citizen/completed.aspx. To learn more about the Trailblazer grant program of the Center on Municipal Government Performance of the National Center for Civic Innovation, please visit www.civicinnovation.org/trailblazer.html. To learn more about King County's performance reporting awards, please visit www.agacgfm.org/performance/sea.