At Collins Center Conference, Gov. Patrick Announces Next Phase of Performance Management Efforts

On March 20, Governor Deval Patrick addressed federal, state, and local leaders at the second annual Conference on Performance Management in State Government hosted by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston and highlighted the progress the Patrick-Murray administration has made in building a results-oriented government. 

“Thanks to our Commonwealth’s results-oriented nature, we are leading the nation in economic competitiveness,” said Governor Patrick. “We lead the nation in student achievement, health care coverage, life sciences and biotech, veterans’ services and energy efficiency. By launching the MassResults initiative, we are seeking to embed a culture of performance throughout state government so these advances can be replicated.”

The conference, "MassResults: Building a Results Oriented Government,” brought together state and local government officials to discuss the progress made to date in implementing performance management practices and share examples of where these practices are making a difference.

Alongside the governor’s FY14 budget recommendation, the Patrick-Murray Administration launched the MassResults Initiative. The initiative seeks to make state government more effective, accountable, and open. Since its launch in January, the Patrick-Murray administration has made further significant transparency announcements, launching the revenue simulator and investment maps detailing the benefits of the governor’s ‘Choose Growth’ funding proposals. 

“Together with the program budget, our focus on delivering measurable results is making a real difference across the Commonwealth,” said Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor. “But this is not a short-term fix. We want to take this to the next level and provide state government with improved data and evidence so we can continue to make state government more effective and efficient for taxpayers.” 

Over the course of this year, the Patrick-Murray administration will implement the MassResults Initiative, which will see more state agencies and organizations adopting strategic planning and performance management practices and using data and evidence to inform their decision making. Critical to these efforts will be the development and publication of performance reports for each Secretariat by January 2014. The MassResults initiative is led by the Office of Commonwealth Performance, Accountability and Transparency (CPAT), which is based in the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.

“The Patrick administration is now well along the path of developing and implementing one of the most comprehensive and meaningful performance management programs of any of the 50 states,” said Ira A. Jackson, dean of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “As their central partner, the Collins Center at the McCormack Graduate School is pleased and proud to showcase these pioneering efforts at making state government more strategic, more performance-driven, more accountable, and more transparent." 

Performance management practices are increasingly being adopted at all levels of government. Richard Serino, the deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and former chief of Boston Emergency Medical Services, gave the keynote address to the conference via video link from Washington. 

“At FEMA, we are using performance management through our FEMAStat program to drive better results,” he said.  “As a lifelong Massachusetts resident, it is wonderful to see similar practices being adopted by the Patrick-Murray administration. Performance management is a powerful tool that all levels of government can use to be more effective.”

Other participants and speakers included Suzanne Bump, state auditor; Thatcher Kezer, mayor of the City of Amesbury; Fred Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority; Rachel Kaprielian, Registrar of Motor Vehicles, Julian Harris, State Medicaid director; Angelo McClain, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families; and Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources.

In February 2012, Governor Patrick signed Executive Order 540 (EO 540), which set out the policy framework for instituting performance management across state government. Since that time, the first major EO 540 milestone has been met with the publication of two-year strategic plans for each of the eight executive Secretariats alongside the Governor’s FY14 budget recommendation. The Governor’s FY14 budget was also presented in a new, more accessible program-based format that allows the public to learn more about the actual functions state resources support.

McCormack's Dean Jackson was most pleased with the MassResults conference, which drew close to 500 people.

"Thanks to Collins Center expertise, we are well on our way to helping Massachusetts become a national center of excellence in performance management,” he said.

 

Resources

See related story:
"Thanks to Collins Center, Massachusetts Government Leads the Nation in Performance Management" (posted February 19, 2013)