Tim, very specific and practical recommendations to improve state government performance. You should have written the column. Thanks for expanding on the thoughts I shared.
My sense is the Gov. Brown has been more focused on policy than performance and has tended to take a "no news is good news" approach to her agency managers. Only when they screw up does she respond.
I'd like to see the next governor (1) task a transition team to set the deliverables for agency managers prior to taking office, (2) require each agency to prepare and provide an audit of current functions, problems and plans for improvement and then (3) convene and lead a cabinet of key agency heads to focus on modernization, performance and prioritization of functions going forward.
As it is now and has been for some time, the governor relies on policy staff to workj with the agencies on their policy goals and defers to the DAS administrator to oversee their performance. That has made execution an afterthought, creating the problems we have now. Agencies are good at telling the budget writers how much more money they need to do X or Y, but few of them pay enough attention to how get things done in new or better ways and how to anticipate and overcome obstacles that should be foreseeable. A new cabinet structure focused on performance as well as policy goals would help. So too would a stronger and more empowered DAS director or a new position dedicated to execution as job one.
Finally, there is no substitute for a governor who meets regularly with agency heads, lets them know the and her team are watching, sets and enforces expectations and demands results.
Tim, very specific and practical recommendations to improve state government performance. You should have written the column. Thanks for expanding on the thoughts I shared.
Excellent piece. You are exactly right.
My sense is the Gov. Brown has been more focused on policy than performance and has tended to take a "no news is good news" approach to her agency managers. Only when they screw up does she respond.
I'd like to see the next governor (1) task a transition team to set the deliverables for agency managers prior to taking office, (2) require each agency to prepare and provide an audit of current functions, problems and plans for improvement and then (3) convene and lead a cabinet of key agency heads to focus on modernization, performance and prioritization of functions going forward.
As it is now and has been for some time, the governor relies on policy staff to workj with the agencies on their policy goals and defers to the DAS administrator to oversee their performance. That has made execution an afterthought, creating the problems we have now. Agencies are good at telling the budget writers how much more money they need to do X or Y, but few of them pay enough attention to how get things done in new or better ways and how to anticipate and overcome obstacles that should be foreseeable. A new cabinet structure focused on performance as well as policy goals would help. So too would a stronger and more empowered DAS director or a new position dedicated to execution as job one.
Finally, there is no substitute for a governor who meets regularly with agency heads, lets them know the and her team are watching, sets and enforces expectations and demands results.