Governments & Results-based Community Governance

Governments allocate and manage public budgets, capital investments, and many services, making them important contributors, along with others, to achieving results desired by citizens. And in democratic societies, the decision processes governments use to develop strategies, policies, plans, and budgets, and the street-level decisions they make about delivering and improving services, are all part of community governance. So government managers, staff, elected officials, and auditors all have something to gain from learning better ways to improve results and engage citizens in decision and planning processes in their community.

The Model in Action, Works in Progress, and the book Results That Matter highlight efforts of many innovative government officials, including mayors, local legislators, city and county managers, and service managers. Many are quoted in the book, giving their perspective on how practices that focus on results and engage citizens benefit their communities. A "Works in Progress" feature on this website notes how auditors can use Effective Community Governance and provides tools to help them do so. The Auditor Roles in Performance Measurement website provides tools and examples from across North America for auditors interested in improving results-based government.

Governments Put the Model in Action

Efforts by local governments to engage citizens in solving community problems and to manage their own services for results are recognized as "advanced governance practices" in the Effective Community Governance Model. Some local governments are recognized for going further by engaging citizens in performance management, to turn "managing for results" into "governing for results," another advanced practice of the model.

• Go to the Overview of Effective Community Governance or read Chapter 1 of Results That Matter for more on the Effective Community Governance Model and the advanced governance practices.
• See The Model in Action for mini-case studies of governments performing these practices to benefit their communities, including:
• How the City of San Jose changed the way it measured success of a service from outputs to outcomes, engaged citizens in targeted neighborhoods, and changed its strategy to achieve better results for the community.
• How Prince William County, Virginia, engages citizens in strategic planning and other governance processes, and aligns strategic plans, budgets, program plans, service performance measurement, and feedback of performance results to keep improving results that matter to its citizens.
• How the city government of Washington, D.C., has used large-scale, technology enhanced "citizen summits" every two years to engage citizens in setting strategic priorities that have led to multi-million dollar changes in budget allocations, and engages citizens in neighborhood planning between the summits to achieve results citizens see as improvements in their own neighborhoods.
• These and other case studies of the advanced practices are provided in much greater depth in the book Results That Matter. See a full List of Examples and Case Studies in Results That Matter.
• See Works in Progress for more innovative efforts by governments to improve community governance and results, including:
  • The City of Charlotte, North Carolina's use of balanced scorecards, quality of life studies, targeted investment, and citizen engagement to improve neighborhoods;
  • The City of Santa Monica, California's use of engaged citizens, measured results, and a unique grading model to become more sustainable.