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| APRIL 2007 In this month's edition, a Governing Management Letter test: How quickly do state governments respond to e-mails sent through the governor's Web site? Also, public finance expert Girard Miller looks at two ideas that could change public employee retirement systerms. And in the latest B&G Report , a no-holds-barred interview with the controller for the city of Los Angeles -- plus, the 4-1-1 on 2-1-1. |
 Rate of Return By JOSH GOODMAN For The Governing Management Letter How quickly do state governments reply to constituents' e-mails? What's Right With Public Pensions By GIRARD MILLER For The Governing Management Letter A "pension-purchase option" could revolutionize the retirement industry. Great GASB? By PENELOPE LEMOV For The Governing Management Letter The Governmental Accounting Standards Board takes another step on a controversial plan to incorporate states' performance data. And some critics are calling for the end of GASB altogether. Bonding with OPEB By GIRARD MILLER For The Governing Management Letter Some municipal bond underwriters are peddling the idea that public agencies should sell bonds now to “pre-fund” their promised retiree medical benefit plan liabilities. But that strategy requires substantial research. 
In MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS, some of America's top experts share their perspectives on getting the most out of government. The online-only column, a collaboration between Governing.com and Harvard University's Government Innovators Network, is updated every Wednesday. This week's topic: harnessing the management power of time. Full profiles of each of Governing's Public Officials of the Year are available online. Read them here.Click here for video of the winners at Governing's awards gala.  Links to past editions of the Government Performance Project, including the most recent Grading the States issue. Click here  Excerpts from books published by Governing, including "We Don't Make Widgets" by management expert Ken Miller. Plus, order books from Governing online. Click herePLUS: Full content from Governing searchable and free You are receiving The Governing Management Letter because you requested it via either Governing.com or the online print subscription process. Have colleagues who would benefit? Forward this edition to them -- they can subscribe by clicking here. To unsubscribe from The Governing Management Letter, click here. Governing Magazine/Governing.com |
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Katherine Barrett
& Richard Greene |
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- Exclusive - Ready for a look into the future of performance measurement? Then visit Virginia's three-month-old Web site, Virginia Performs. As John Kamensky, senior fellow with the IBM Center for the Business of Government, reports in a column in PA Times, the monthly newspaper for the American Society for Public Adminstration, "The new governor, Tim Kaine, seems to have set a new bar for performance leadership." We agree. KEEP READING "Chronically late." That's how the New York State budget was described for years. But a few years ago, the state came up with an on-time budget. It did the same last year. And this year, it was 11 hours late (which, as far as we're concerned, isn't really late; it's kind of a rounding error in time). All of which is good. The disheartening thing is that apparently promptness has a price. KEEP READING So, there we were riding home from our daughter's soccer game (regular readers of this space may notice that we frequently see deep truths about government management while watching teenage girls maul one another over possession of a large ball). And our 16-year-old indicated that she's altered her style of play thanks to her coach. This could be a good thing, but it turns out that she feels so withered by his frustration when she makes a mistake that she's now taken to making the safe, sure play rather than one that could turn a game but has a higher risk of failure. Electronic health records are a much-praised notion in the federal government and in states, counties and cities. But according to a piece in the March 2007 issue of the American Journal of Nursing, there's a hitch. Much of the technology produced thus far has been designed to help physicians easily retrieve a body of vital information. But the needs of the nurses who end up entering a lot of this data haven't been adequately addressed. For one thing, it can be pretty inconvenient entering lots of this documentation at a bedside in a small patient room. KEEP READING Talking with Nick Vagianelis, director of civil service operations in New York State, is always fun. He's one of those people who likes searching for the big picture. Recently, he educated us a bit about a critical trend in state hiring: turns out that there's an ever-growing number of older men and women taking jobs in state government who would rarely have applied in past years. KEEP READING Florida teachers spent between 21 percent and 51 percent of their week on paperwork and data collection, according to a February 2006 report by the state's "paper-reduction task force." Any teacher who spends half his or her work time filling out forms isn't spending nearly enough time with students. The state responded to the report with several legislative changes -- a couple of which, curiously, seemed to be a call for more reports about the overload of report making. KEEP READING And while we're talking about information overload, there was a terrific little piece in the Orange County Register a couple of weeks ago about the use of disclosure to keep campaign financing in line. The article begins by quoting a California assemblywoman as saying that "full and timely disclosure...will do more to keep the system clean than modifying the time during which contributions are made." Lest anyone think we're suddenly anti-information, here's an example of two state agencies that deserve a lot of credit for providing citizens with much-needed information about health care costs. They do so on a new Web site, created by the New Hampshire Department of Insurance and the state's Department of Health and Human Services. It may not be the first state to develop such a site, but it's still worth pointing out. The site has only been live for a few weeks now. We tried it out (using a local zip code we found in the World Almanac) and the individualized information it provides was great. KEEP READING In the retail business, they talk about "big pencils" when it comes to important store buyers who can get the best price from manufacturers. We just came across an impressive program in which the National Association of Counties helps give many of its members big pencils by negotiating on behalf of multiple entities. Other levels of government, and even agencies within one government, could certainly benefit by taking a look at the effort. KEEP READING The full B&G Report | Who are Barrett and Greene? |
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