Citizen-Driven Government Performance

Case Studies

The cases featured on this website are narratives of citizen-driven initiatives that involve citizens in the measurement of government performance. Each case is presented in three formats:

• Montclair, New Jersey
• Iowa, Citizen Initiated Performance Assessment
• New York City, Straphanger's Campaign
• Fund for the City of New York
• Dayton, Ohio
• Governmental Accounting Standards Board
• Hartford, Connecticut
• Syracuse, New York
• Worcester, Massachusetts
• New York City, Inside Schools
• Clean Air Council, Pennsylvania
• Sustainable Seattle
• Neighborhood Parks, San Francisco

IOWA, CITIZEN-INITIATED PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (CIPA)

In 2001, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded a three-year project called “Citizen-Initiated Performance Assessment” (CIPA) in Iowa. The project engages citizens, city council members, and departmental staff in developing and using performance measures to evaluate public services.  Thirty-two Iowa cities with populations above 10,000 were contacted initially.  Eventually the city councils, departmental staff, and citizen representatives of nine cities (Burlington, Carroll, Clive, Des Moines, Indianola, Johnston, Marion, Marshalltown, and Urbandale) made commitments to the project. 

• Case in Brief
• Detailed Case
• Iowa, Management Decision Teaching Notes
• Iowa, Performance Measurement Teaching Notes<
• Links and Background

To view abstracts of citizen meetings in different cities through streaming
video you need RealNetworks Realplayer, which can be downloaded for free at
www.realnetworks.com.

• Citizen's views: Why performance measurement is important
• Citizen tour of the public works department
• Discussion of expanding the committee
• Pick a service area for performance measurement
• Des Moines city meeting

For complete listing of streaming videos and summary's of participating cities (click here)