Columbus*Stat: identifying opportunities for improvement.

• Author: Shellhorn, Jeffrey
• Position: [PM.sup.2] Connections: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT & MANAGEMENT

The City of Columbus, Ohio, created its Office of Performance Management to give city leaders access to information that would enable them to track performance, document successes, and identify opportunities for improving city services. The program was linked to the Columbus Covenant 2000, the newly elected mayor's strategic plan for achieving his vision of the City of Columbus, Ohio, as the best city in the nation in which to live, work, and raise a family. The cornerstone of the performance measurement initiative is Columbus*Stat, launched in January 2006 and modeled after a similar program in the City of Baltimore, Maryland.

Columbus, Ohio, had made several attempts at using performance measures over the past 15 years, but the success of the current system is rooted in Mayor Michael Coleman's consistent support for increased accountability and improved service delivery. He wanted to understand both what worked and what did not in order to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency Seeing performance measurement as a critical tool in accomplishing this objective, the mayor set ambitious deadlines for instituting a performance measurement program, guided by the Columbus Covenant--high-level goals to which all strategic priorities and budgeted initiatives would be linked.

The first step was to hire a chief of staff with performance measurement experience to be the internal champion for the initiative. An Office of Performance Management, organized as part of the Financial Management Division, was given the mission of "ensuring that city leaders and departments have the information they need to track performance, document successes, and identify opportunities for improvement in city services." Office staff comprises a performance management coordinator and three performance management analysts, each of whom consults with an assigned group of departments.

ADAPTING CITISTAT TO COLUMBUS

The mayor visited Baltimore and was impressed with its CitiStat performance measurement program. The Columbus performance measurement team adapted this model, and Columbus*Stat is the result. The Columbus*Stat program is still in its formative stages and continues to be refined based on departmental feedback. It shares many characteristics with CitiStat:

* Departments meet regularly in a designated Columbus*Stat room (large departments meet every six weeks, while smaller departments meet every 10 weeks).

* The performance management analyst responsible for each department develops an advance brief so staff members can prepare for the...