CAO/Deputy Mayor Andy Kopplin elaborates on the adoption of a New Orleans performance management process
Mayor Mitch Landrieu has announced that he will implement a performance management process — similar to Baltimore’s CitiStat model — to combat the tendency of “almost purposefully inefficient” government processes administered by the Nagin administration.
The announcement was made at a press conference to announce the appointment of six new deputy mayors who will govern day-to-day functions in different areas of city government, and who will report directly to the mayor. Landrieu described the deputy mayor model as “forced collaboration” — with deputy mayors meeting every morning at 8:45 a.m. to manage “all of the issues affecting the city, both internally and externally.” The model created by Landrieu appears to be more collaborative than confrontational, which is consistent with the lessons learned by government performance management processes over the years.
Newly-appointed Chief Administrative Officer and first Deputy Mayor Andy Kopplin will govern the process, which he said will “drive the execution of the mayor’s big ideas and help carry out his vision and engage the citizens of this community in that work, in creating the next phase in New Orleans’ proud history.”
“We’ll focus on setting targets,” Kopplin said, “executing against them, staying on or under budget, measuring our results so that citizens know our goals, our timelines and will be able to measure our progress.”
The performance management model is completely consistent with one of two key NolaStat recommendations.
There has been no formal announcement from the Landrieu administration on the second key NolaStat recommendation to improve public access to city data, but communication with the administration on the NolaStat policy may yet produce a satisfactory commitment. An open data policy is vital to ensure that statistical claims made by city departments — such as the New Orleans Police Department — can be independently verified as credible. Access to city data is also important to support the independent development of Web-based information systems using city data — such as smart phone apps — that foster a healthy 21st-century democracy, and that support neighborhood revitalization.
Of course, any news of additional reform commitments will be reported to NolaStat supporters.
The Frank Donze/Michelle Krupa Times-Picayune story announcing the implementation of a performance management process was not published on Nola.com at the time that this post was drafted.
Additional information can be found on the City Business Web site, and on The Lens.
