Making Government Accountable & Innovative
When I first ran for this office in 2006, I emphasized making government more accountable and innovative. One of my initial proposals was to create an independent performance review commission. I made good on this promise by co-sponsoring a bill during February’s supplemental session of the Oregon Legislature that created the Committee on Performance Excellence. This Committee is the equivalent of a management consulting SWAT-team.
We need a systematic way to achieve steady performance improvements and to ensure real results for everyday Oregonians—especially now, in this time of growing economic uncertainty. That’s why the Committee on Performance Excellence is so critical—it promises to modernize state government and accordingly, lead to innovative, lower-cost methods of delivering quality services. It can systematically apply fresh ideas to long-standing challenges. One of the most important aspects of the bill is the fact that it will bring a powerful and consistent outside-in perspective to agency management.
The Committee will leverage alternative service delivery models in other states, important R&D efforts at university and government labs, Internet access to top-notch consulting talent, and of course, ideas proffered by frontline employees, who often face needless barriers to doing their best. Even if we somehow eliminated every vestige of waste, fraud and abuse, our state government would still be large. The creation of this committee goes a long way to ensure it’s effective, doing the right things in the right way. And I received national recognition from the centrist Democratic Leadership Council for my efforts on behalf of this idea.
This Committee is a small, but important part of my plan to reinvent state government. Together, we can advance this and other, similar ideas to make state government work for all of us.