A Vision for Boston:
Questions for the 2009 Mayoral Candidates

Day 8: Performance Measurement

How would your administration collect and use data to improve service performance?

Response from Councilor Flaherty:

Strong performance management will ensure that scarce city resources are used most efficiently, improve the delivery of city services and empower residents to hold City Hall accountable. As Mayor, I’ll employ various mechanisms to regularly collect and review information to make data-driven management and policy decisions, such as annual performance reviews of all city departments, a 311 call center and call-tracking technology, Baltimore's model CitiStat program and regular city surveys. I will be involved in the implementation of these programs. Specifically, I will lead the biweekly CitiStat meetings with CitiStat staff and department heads and will work closely with the new Chief Technology Officer to conduct sweeping performance reviews of all city services and departments. Equally as important will be creating measures to give residents access to real-time performance management data so as to increase government transparency and accountability. To achieve that end, I will share the results of city surveys, publicly post our call center's call logs and service request completion rates, ensure that biweekly CitiStat meetings are open to the public and can be viewed either online or on television, and will post all relevant CitiStat data online on a biweekly basis, instead of quarterly.