Summary

King County residents now have several new tools for tracking whether county programs are operating effectively and meeting performance management targets.

Story

King County residents now have several new tools for tracking whether county programs are operating effectively and meeting performance management targets.

First, the county has debuted two new Web-based tools: the County Growth Report and King County Benchmark Program. The reports examine housing, economic, demographic, land use, and transportation trends to help the public and decision-makers better understand the region’s growth management efforts.

In addition to the web sites, the Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management has also produced the second annual King County AIMs High Performance Scorecard an easy to read downloadable four-page document, which provides highlights from AIMs High: Annual Indicators and Measures, a Web-based report on the state of the county and King County government performance.

All of the tools are aimed at making it easier for residents and policy makers to measure the county’s progress on being efficient, effective, and accountable by comparing tangible, year-to-year benchmarks for several critical programs.

“I am proud of our effort to show areas where we are doing well and areas that need further improvement,” said County Executive Kurt Triplett. “This information gives us objective, quantifiable standards and shows whether we’re meeting them or not, which helps us better manage county programs and resources, and be more transparent and accountable to taxpayers.”

The scorecard uses an easy to read red-yellow-green results format to help readers answer the question: “How effective are county services?” and compares actual performance for 19 programs with targets set by county management. The measures were included based on feedback from a group of county residents.

Some of this year’s key findings include:

• Meeting its performance target, King County government reduced its 2008 greenhouse gas emissions three percent from its 2000 emissions levels.
• 85 percent of county roads have pavement in satisfactory condition.
• King County Metro Transit’s on-time bus performance was 76 percent in 2008, better than in 2007 but below the 80 percent target.
• King County Superior Court resolved 91 percent of its criminal cases within the state-recommended guideline of nine months.

The Performance Scorecard, Growth Report, and Benchmark Program can all be accessed on the Web at www.kingcounty.gov/accountable.