Results that Matter Team

Paul D. Epstein, Principal, Epstein and Fass Associates

Paul Epstein has worked with local, state, federal, and nonprofit organizations and the UN on many performance challenges for over 25 years. He has helped governments start jurisdiction-wide performance measurement programs, including the Cities or Albuquerque and Wichita, and he has provided performance measurement training to many organizations. He has also helped clients implement advanced results-based practices such as balanced scorecards and related value chains to turn performance management into strategy management. And he has been a community and organizational facilitator, as when he facilitated nonprofit and government organizations in Hartford, Connecticut, in planning how to empower residents of low income neighborhoods with community information. Mr. Epstein has taught graduate public management at NYU, the University of Hartford, and Baruch College. He is also a volunteer activist in his own community, serving on the Steering Committee of the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York. A few of his many projects follow:

In partnership with the KH Consulting Group, he is using the Effective Community Governance Model as a template to evaluate the County of Los Angeles’s pilot approach to improving services in the unincorporated Florence-Firestone community.
He also helped LA County departments of Internal Services and Public Health develop balanced scorecards as part of KH strategic planning projects.
He is working with the Hartford Public Library (HPL) to use the Effective Community Governance Model for developing a citizen-driven community indicators project.
He is also working with HPL on implementation of a balanced scorecard to manage for results. HPL has used Mr. Epstein for many past projects, including initiatives cited in national awards won by HPL and its Chief Librarian.
For the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS), Mr. Epstein led a Rensselaerville Institute project to analyze and improve the Family Services Performance Incentive Program (PIP). The project led to improvements that made the PIP fairer to homeless shelters and better focused on meeting DHS’s housing goals.
He facilitated strategic planning to help the City of New York’s central information technology agency shift from a monopoly to a customer focus, including competing for some of its business. He later assisted the agency’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Utility, and used “value chains” to analyze benefits and lessons learned from massive use of GIS in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
For the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), he co-authored a research report on what citizens want from government performance reporting; a guide for citizens, elected officials, and the media on using performance reports; and a special report on “suggested criteria” for effective communication of performance information. He also helped the GASB develop the criteria.
A professional association committee he chaired influenced the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, as cited by the U.S. Congress. He then served on Vice President Gore's National Performance Review to assist federal government reinvention.
In the 1980’s Mr. Epstein helped integrate productivity improvement with the New York City budget process, leading to annual savings and revenue of over $1 billion.