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GASB project – project description
Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic nonprofit institution established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr., then President and Chief Executive Officer of the General Motors Corporation. Projects and interests of the foundation are divided into four programs; the grant to the GASB resides within the Standard of Living and Economic Performance, in the area of Performance Assessment of Municipal Governments Program. The goal for this program is to encourage the creation widespread adoption of measures of municipal government performance that objectively measure outcomes that matter to people.
As stated by the Sloan Foundation, “our approach emphasizes citizen involvement to ensure that what is measured is what matters to citizens and that the data are not corrupted by the desire of office holders to report favorable outcomes. Our strategy has two parts:
- Demonstration projects in selected municipalities; and
- Other projects that promote the adoption of citizen-based performance.”
Summarily, the Results-Oriented Assessment of Municipal Government Performance project funds research and community organizing efforts designed to foster citizen involvement in the assessment of government services and to improve public sector performance measurement. Sloan also hopes to pave the way for requiring governments to report a standard set of performance data.
About the grant to the GASB
In 1997, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided the GASB with a significant grant to enhance its service efforts and accomplishments research and to address the needs of state and local governments trying to develop performance measures.
The Sloan grant assists the GASB in addressing five developmental needs for state and local government performance measurement and reporting, which are:
- Developing and improving measures of performance for decision making,
- Making those measures available to the public and other users,
- Developing methods for state and local governments to communicate performance measures,
- Teaching users how to work with performance measures to assess the service efforts, costs and accomplishments of a governmental entity,
- Ensuring the relevance, comprehensiveness, understandability, timeliness and reliability of performance measures.
In 2000, the Sloan Foundation extended the grant to the GASB for an additional three years. This extension will allow us to continue our expanded and accelerated research on performance measures.
Other Sloan Foundation funded projects
The majority of Sloan Foundation funded projects are considered “demonstration projects”. Currently, there are over a dozen demonstration projects in progress and another half dozen that have reached its’ completion of Sloan support.
Demonstration projects, their purposes and contacts
Advocates for Children—to create an internet-based forum for citizen-based performance assessment and information of New York City public schools. Contact Jill Chaifetz at 212-947-9779 ext. 18 or jchaifetz@advocatesforchildren.org
NEW—Association of Government Accountants—to help the Association of Government Accounts launch a Certificate of Excellence in Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting Project. Contact Lisa Thatcher at 703-684-6931 or lthatcher@agacgfm.org
NEW—Clean Air Council—to determine whether external, citizen-based performance assessment of public transportation in Philadelphia is needed and feasible and, if so, to develop a strategy and plan to conduct such assessment. Contact Dennis Winters at 215-350-2586 or dwinters@cleanair.org
Connecticut Policy and Economic Council—to create a program of citizen-based performance measurement of municipal governments in Connecticut. Contact Michelle Cunningham at 860-722-2490 ext. 19 or mdc@cpec.org
Connecticut Policy and Economic Council—to create and implement in at least six Connecticut communities an interactive website, called CivicRADAR, that enables residents to make service requests of the local municipal government. Contact Michelle Doucette Cunningham at 860-722-2490 ext. 19 or mdc@cpec.org
Fund for the City of New York—to continue the development and implementation of methodologies that provide reliable, nonpartisan objective, citizen-based assessment of the effectiveness of New York City government agencies. Contact Barbara Cohn at 212-925-6675 or bcohn@fony.org
Iowa League of Cities—to implement citizen-based performance assessment in Iowa cities. Contact Dr. Paul Coates at 515-294-1844 or paulc@iastate.edu
Minnetonka, The City of—to fund the implementation of an on-line citizen request system for the City of Minnetonka, MN. Contact Amy Cheney at 952-939-8259 or acheney@ci.minnetonka.mn.us
NEW—National Center for Civic Innovation—to implement a Performance Reporting Experiment Project that will encourage state and local jurisdictions to use the GASB’s suggested Performance Criteria. Contact Barbara Cohn at 212-925-6675 or bcohn@nationalcenterforcivicinnovation.org
National Civic League—to initiate or increase citizen participation in performance assessment in jurisdictions involved in the ICMA Local Government Comparative Performance Measurement Project. Contact Derek Okubo at 303-571-4343 or DerekO@NCL.org
Neighborhood Capital Budget Group—to support the Campaign for Better Transit to do citizen-based performance assessment of public transportation in and around Chicago. Contact Jacqueline Leavy 312-939-7198 or jleavy@ncbg.org
Neighborhood Parks Council—to support citizen-based performance assessment of neighborhood parks in San Francisco. Contact Isabel Wade at 415-621-3260 or urbanres@igc.org
New York Sate Office of the State Controller—to help the Office of the State Comptroller introduce citizen-based performance assessment in New York State local governments. Contact Debora Wagner at 518-402-4437 or dwagner@osc.state.ny.us
NYPIRG Fund—to continue and institutionalize the Transit Performance Measurement Project. Contact Gene Russianoff at 212-349-6460 or grussian@nypirg.org
NEW—Radford University—to enable Radford University’s Government and Nonprofit Assistance Center to present on a website in a comparative manner financial information from the annual financial reports of Virginia cities and counties. Contact Dr. Bruce Chase at 504-831-5744 or bchase@radford.edu
Rutgers University—to conduct citizen-driven, results-oriented assessments of government performance in Montclair, New Jersey and Dayton, Ohio. Contact Marc Holzer at 973-353-1351 or mholzer@pipeline.com Sloan support for this program is complete.
NEW—Sustainable Seattle—to support and assist in the institutionalization of performance measurement to improve the quality of life in Seattle’s neighborhoods. For more information call 206-622-3522 or info@sustainableseattle.org
Syracuse University—to perform results-oriented assessment of selected agencies of the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County. Contact William Coplin 315-443-3709 or wdcoplin@maxwell.syr.edu Sloan support for this program is complete.
The Urban Institute—to create and institutionalize a local government performance program in 38 localities in cooperation with the International City/County Mangers Association (ICMA) and the National Civic League. Contact Harry Hatry at 202-261-5521 or hhatry@ui.urban.org Sloan support for this program is complete.
West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.—to fund planning of a project for the assessment of New York City’s performance on environmental health measures. Contact Peggy Shepard at 212-961-1000 or peggy@weact.org
Worcester Regional Research Bureau—to support citizen-based performance assessment in Worcester, MA. Contact Roberta Schaefer 508-799-7169 or rschaefe@assumption.edu
Other projects
NEW—Baruch College—to determine the feasibility of launching eTownPanel, an Internet-based panel survey of citizen satisfaction with their local government. Contact Dr. Gregg Van Ryzin at 212-802-5900 or gregg_vanryzin@baruch.cuny.edu
NEW—College of the Holy Cross—to enable College of the Holy Cross to establish two new course for focusing on citizen-based performance assessment. Contact Dr. Stephen Ainley at 508-793-2541 or sainlay@holycross.edu
Citizens League—to study ways to ensure effective government performance assessment with citizen involvement. Contact Lyle Wray at 612-338-0971 or wray@citizensleague.net Sloan support for this program is complete.
IIA Research Foundation—to strengthen auditor roles in state and local government performance measurement. Contact Basil Pflumm at 407-830-7600 or bpflumm@theiia.org
Iowa State University—to fund a study of city elected officials’ attitudes toward performance measurement. Contact Alfred Ho at 515-294-1003 or alfredho@iastate.edu
National Civic League—to fund the consideration of government performance assessment in the revision of the National Civic League’s Model City Charter. Contact Derek Okubo at 303-571-4343 or DerekO@NCL.org
Rutgers University National Center for Public Productivity—to create, disseminate and promote curricular material related to citizen-based performance assessment of local government services. Contact Marc Holzer at 973-353-1351 or mholzer@pipline.com
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