Enhancing public policy reporting

The Public Policy Forum is launching a new project this fall that is somewhat distinct from our usual portfolio of public policy research, facilitation and deliberation.  It's called the "Excellence in Public Policy Reporting" fellowship, and we see it as our small contribution to enhancing both the quality and quantity of local government reporting in Milwaukee.

The project - which emanates from a grant by the Milwaukee-based Argosy Foundation - is a partnership between the Forum, the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (an online news service that focuses on Milwaukee neighborhoods), and Marquette University's Diederich College of Communication. 

Marquette will select two of its journalism graduate students each year to serve as Public Policy Reporting Fellows, working 10 to 15 hours per week for NNS covering local government news that is of interest to Milwaukee's low-income neighborhoods.  During the first semester of their year-long fellowship, the students will cover one or two topical news stories per week, while the second semester will be devoted to lengthier, investigative-type projects.  The Forum's role will be to use its knowledge of local government committee agendas and proceedings to guide the fellows on story ideas, as well as to advise them on contacts and research.

The project is aimed at improving the public policy reporting skills of budding journalists by exposing them to the halls of government and a professional journalism environment while in graduate school, and by adding the perspective of Forum staff who make their living researching and analyzing government data and programs.  We also hope that it will foment interest among journalism students in pursuing a career in local government reporting, as opposed to some other specialty.

In addition, we hope the project will fill a void by producing meaningful news coverage of local government issues that otherwise would have gone uncovered.  This is not a criticism of our traditional local news organizations, but a recognition that many have seen their news-gathering resources shrink.  In fact, our ultimate hope is that news stories written by the graduate fellows and published by NNS will be of such high quality and interest that they will be picked up by larger news organizations.

Additional information about the new fellowship can be accessed in this media release by the NNS. Also, details on the Forum's other fellowship - the Norman N. Gill Civic Engagement Fellowship - can be found here.

      

2012 Salute winners demonstrate innovation and efficiency

Later this month, the Public Policy Forum will hold its 20th annual Salute to Local Government awards breakfast, which recognizes outstanding performance by governments, school districts and individual local government officials.  The 2012 winners were announced today, and they include an impressive mix of projects and individuals who demonstrate the meaning of good government.

This year's group winners include a county treasurer's office that was able to eliminate two full-time staff positions by implementing a series of business process improvements; a city government that leveraged a federal homeland security grant into a comprehensive upgrade of its citywide information technology infrastructure; a set of Milwaukee County cities and villages that combined their public safety dispatch services; and a city library and economic development department that joined forces with a neighborhood organization and private developer to create a shining new housing and library complex.

On the individual side, winners include one of our region's most vibrant and energetic county department heads, as well as an individual who lost his recent re-election bid, but who will always be remembered for his efforts to promote intergovernmental cooperation and civility in government.

If there is a theme threading its way throughout each of this year's winners - as well as the near-record 40 nominations we received - it's that there is no shortage of innovation and ingenuity in southeast Wisconsin's local governments and school districts. It's nice to be able to celebrate those qualities - even if just for one day - and to recognize that despite our differences on issues pertaining to the size and role of government, each of us has an interest in celebrating outstanding performance by the people who work there.

The Salute breakfast will be held on Tuesday, June 19, at 7:30 AM at the Italian Conference Center in Milwaukee.  Click here to sign up and here for the press release with details on the full list of 2012 winners.

Tracking local government in metro Milwaukee

For years, the Public Policy Forum has urged local governments to use performance measurement as a means of tracking progress toward strategic objectives and educating constituents about the outcomes associated with various government services and expenditures. Today, as government budgets grow tighter and taxpayer tolerance for spending money on all but the most essential services diminishes, it would appear that use of this tool is a necessity.

In keeping with that sentiment, the Forum has released its inaugural Tracking Local Government report. The report – made possible by a grant from the Northwestern Mutual Foundation – should be viewed as a resource both for the ordinary citizen to use in understanding the breadth and effectiveness of local government services, and as a potential model for local governments to consider in determining the types of information they should be collecting and sharing with constituents.

The 47-page report identifies 25 local government or government-funded services in nine functional categories that are considered critical to the metro area’s economy and quality of life. For each set of services, the report tracks fiscal and performance data over a five-year period to provide readers with a sense of revenue and expenditure levels, as well as a sense of what taxpayers are getting for their money. The report also provides brief analysis and observations regarding why the services are important, data trends, and future implications associated with those trends.

Performance measurement has been used increasingly by all levels of government since the early 1990s to better manage programs and services and communicate results to stakeholders and constituents. Unfortunately, not all government entities and departments in our metro area do an adequate job collecting performance data, and even those that adequately collect it often do not share it with policymakers and citizens.

The Tracking Local Government report is an effort to compile such data – to the extent it is readily available – in an easily understandable format in one place. In addition to informing citizens, the Forum’s objective is to “encourage those agencies that are not engaged in an appropriate level of performance measurement to improve their efforts."

The inaugural Tracking Local Government report is considered a work in progress. Time and data limitations required us to focus exclusively on Milwaukee County, City of Milwaukee and other Milwaukee-based governmental entities, as opposed to looking at government services within other Milwaukee County municipalities or other southeast Wisconsin counties. We hope to expand the project in the future to include a broader perspective.


The full report can be accessed here.

When the going gets tough...

"When the going gets tough" is the theme of this year's Salute to Local Government, an event held annually by the Public Policy Forum since 1992 to recognize outstanding and innovative government performance in southeast Wisconsin.

This year's theme recognizes that as bad as the historic economic downturn has been for all sectors of our economy, the local government sector has been among the hardest hit. Indeed, plunging property values and sales tax revenues, coupled with growing demand for a variety of local government services, have created severe challenges for even the most property-rich and prudently managed local governments. Those that have weathered the storm - and perhaps emerged even stronger from their innovative efforts - certainly are worthy of recognition this year.

The 2010 award winners - described in this media release - represent a diverse group of governments, programs and individuals throughout the region. Government honorees, for example, include our biggest city, two villages and a special authority, while honored programs encompass functions ranging from watershed management to a library to a zoo. The individual award winners, meanwhile, come from the region's second-smallest county, a small city and a consolidated fire department.

So what's the overall takeaway from this year's slate of winners? Perhaps it's that examples of good government permeate all levels of government in our region, as well as a wide variety of programs that ordinary citizens may not realize are linked to the public sector or even think about as being managed in creative and effective ways.

That's not to say that examples of wasteful and ineffective government don't exist, but it is to say that such examples - while constantly and justifiably in the news - cannot be allowed to overshadow the good work being performed by thousands of local government and school district professionals in our region every day.

This year's Salute will take place on June 17 at the Italian Conference Center - to find out more and sign up, click here.