January 1996

Best
Practices Reviews for Local Government:
Identifying and Sharing Better Ideas
on Public Services

Lyle D. Wray and Jody A.
Hauer

What is the most effective way to repair a road or to conduct a child
protection investigation? Even in this age of "reinventing government," when
many in government are trying to find a better way to provide services, it is
not easy to identify and share better ideas for providing services to citizens.
The business sector is making progress through the practice of benchmarking
particular functions—whether materials handling or delivering packages. With
benchmarking, agencies analyze important functions and compare a given agency
with a "best-in-class" performer for those functions. According to a U.S.
Department of Labor report (see reference list at end of article), computerized
databases of information for comparing organizations' performance in key areas
are becoming available.

There is a lot going on at national, state, and local levels to improve
accountability for public programs. The National Performance Review, the
Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) passed by the U.S. Congress in
1993, and the Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) initiative of the
Governmental Accounting Standards Board are but some of the national-level
efforts going on in the field of performance measurement. All are attempts to
measure the actual impacts of public programs.

At the state level, a number of states, including Oregon, Minnesota, and
Florida, have articulated state-level visions for their economic and social
futures and set up systems to track performance toward their goals. At the local
level, the International City/County Management Association and the Urban
Institute have published a manual on measuring the effectiveness of local
government community services, coauthored by Harry Hatry and others.

The purpose of this article is to describe another emerging accountability
tool for public services, the best practices review, and to suggest some
benefits of this approach.
History and
Background
Once we have ensured that public money is being spent
on the services that it was intended to fund—a core purpose of traditional
financial audits—the next accountability question is how much value are we
receiving for that expenditure. Best practices reviews are one way to answer
this question by looking at the outcomes or results of public services.

What is a best practices review? According to a report from the Office of the
Legislative Auditor, State of Minnesota, it involves "a systematic study of
variations in service level and design, work processes, and products among
similar organizations in order to identify practices that are cost-effective and
that might be adopted by other organizations." And according to a General
Accounting Office publication, such "practices refer to the processes,
practices, and systems identified in public and private organizations that
performed exceptionally well and are widely recognized as improving an
organization's performance and efficiency in specific areas." At their core,
best practices reviews involve examining the performance of a program or
function in an organization, identifying practices associated with higher levels
of performance, and sharing those practices with their potential adopters.

A British Model. In the public sector, one of the largest and
longest-standing "best practices reviews" can be found in the work of the Audit
Commission for Local Authorities and the National Health Service in England and
Wales, as reported on in 1989. The commission was established in 1982 to review
both the financial and program performance of local government programs in
England and Wales.

Since then, "value-for-money audits," as the British call their best
practices reviews, have been performed across a wide variety of local
governmental functions, from trash collection to school lunch programs. The
commission, through staff or contracted auditors, conducts value-for-money
studies of local government practices and shares its findings on good practices
through publications and information campaigns.

In Minnesota, visits by representatives of the British Audit Commission,
together with a 1992 Citizens League report on local government service
delivery, have sparked regional interest in the Audit Commission's
value-for-money audits. After studying the British model, the Citizens League, a
nonprofit, public affairs research and education organization in the Twin
Cities, recommended that local governments base their service-delivery systems
on performance standards and results. Recognizing the right of citizens and
elected officials to know how public dollars are spent, the league recommended
changes that would provide information about which services are provided, the
costs of these services, and the quality of the outcomes.

The Minnesota Experience. Following the Citizens League report, the
Metropolitan Council, the long-range planning and research agency for the Twin
Cities' seven-county metropolitan area, conducted a demonstration project to
identify best practices in street sweeping. In spring 1994, the Metro Council
issued a report listing 66 practices used by cities in the region to improve
their street-sweeping services. These "best practices" affected many facets of
street sweeping, including personnel, equipment, maintenance, and operations.
All were methods that varied from standard practice and resulted in improved
service quality or reduced costs.

At about the same time that the Metro Council was finishing its street
sweeping study, the Minnesota legislature established a best practices reviews
program in 1994. Created to "identify practices to save money or provide more
effective service delivery" (Minnesota Statutes SS3.971, Subdivision 4.), the
program focuses on services provided by counties, cities, and townships in the
state. The legislature lodged responsibility for best practices reviews with the
legislative auditor's office, a nonpartisan state office that until then had
worked on financial audits and program evaluations of state agencies.

A local government advisory council was established in the statute and was
charged with identifying which local services ought to be reviewed. On the
recommendation of this advisory group, the legislative auditor chose first to
review snow and ice control on local roads. This initial best practices review
concludes that effective winter maintenance shops typically embrace 12 actions,
including everything from adopting written snow policies to storing road sand in
appropriate facilities. The review describes more than 80 examples in Minnesota
local government that illustrate the value of the 12 recommended actions. For
each example, the review explains what the practice is, describes the
circumstances under which it works best, and lists the names and telephone
numbers of resource people whom other local governments can contact to learn
more about the effective practice.

The second review recommended by the local government advisory council, which
deals with assessing property values for taxation purposes, now is under way.
This study is reviewing how assessment services are organized from county to
county, as well as the effectiveness of the processes for contesting property
valuations, and is scheduled for completion in early 1996. The local government
advisory council is recommending that the third review look at how the
prosecution of misdemeanor offenses is organized in Minnesota counties and
cities.

Legislative auditor staff trained in public policy analysis conduct the
reviews. The auditor relies heavily on advice and feedback from technical panels
composed of persons with expertise in the topic at hand. For instance, in the
current review, the technical panel consists of county and local assessors and
an academician who works with agricultural land values. The legislative auditor
also employs a consultant, in this case a former city assessor, who can provide
insight into the strengths and weaknesses of assessment practices and can answer
technical questions.

The legislative auditor plans to evaluate the impacts of the reviews. The
office has set goals that it hopes the reviews will achieve in terms of
encouraging shared communications among local governments, improving local
services, and increasing the efficient use of public resources. By surveying
those agencies that have received and consulted the reports, the auditor will
try to measure the effect of the reviews.

In addition to the efforts described above, other Minnesota agencies have
embarked on initiatives that involve best management practices, particularly
those related to such natural resource management topics as groundwater
protection. State agencies currently are using these best practices as
alternatives to government regulation of private businesses. For instance, the
Minnesota Department of Agriculture has developed and promotes best practices
for managing the use of such plant nutrients as nitrogen, on croplands.

Similarly, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has developed
best management practices for logging sites. In this case, the DNR visits and
evaluates logging sites to determine how well the owners have applied best
practices and how effectively the groundwater is being protected. Generally,
site owners comply with the recommended best practices because they realize that
the alternative means state regulation of their businesses.
Benefits of the Review Approach
Although experience
with best practices reviews of local government services is relatively recent,
it is possible to point to several potential benefits that should prove
important.

Systematic Analysis of Service Delivery. First, best practices reviews
provide a systematic study of the design and methods of service delivery across
multiple jurisdictions. Many staff employed by local governments already have
interactions with their counterparts in other localities through meetings and
conferences. When they want to learn how others are doing things, however, or
what the latest technological advances are, they often lack the time or
resources to follow up on these questions on their own. They typically must
focus on the day-to-day mechanics of getting the job done, at the expense of
gathering comprehensive information. The best practices reviews program collects
comprehensive data on particular services and analyzes them to determine what
the effective practices are and the circumstances under which they are best
implemented.

Improving the Understanding of Measuring Performance. Second, best
practices reviews provide a richer context within which to understand
performance information, that is, the outcomes, efficiencies, and
cost-effectiveness of public services. Performance measurement began with
efforts to measure public programs in terms of the services delivered, the costs
of the services, and the outcomes or results actually obtained. Best practices
reviews can provide systematic comparisons of a given program's performance with
that of other organizations that have demonstrated their effectiveness. It is
one thing to know how much a course of alcohol or drug abuse treatment costs,
but it is quite another to know the cost and outcomes of the most effective
programs and how those programs actually achieve their results.

Creating a Database of Effective Services. Third, local government
officials benefit from access to an evolving and growing database of best
practices used by others operating similar services. Individuals wishing to
improve the performance of a public program or function can review detailed
suggestions on how to reach higher levels of performance through design,
management, or equipment strategies. This library of ideas may provide some good
"first drafts" for a lot of innovative developments.

Enhancing Communication. One of the downsides to the United States's
radically decentralized system of delivering public services is the significant
challenge, posed by the large number of service providers, to effective
communication about innovations. Such lateral communication often is hindered by
a lack of available time or of appropriate forums for discussing effective
practices. Best practices reviews offer the opportunity to improve
intergovernmental communication of effective management practices and
problem-solving strategies. Such reviews put this information into a concise and
usable form that should ease local government interactions.

Linking Up with Other Management Tools. Finally, best practices
reviews may complement other tools for measuring performance and enhancing
accountability. Managers can link such initiatives as outcomes measurement,
performance budgeting, and benchmarking with best practices reviews to provide
detailed information on public service performance and improvement.

Aside from these reviews' current benefits, there are two primary potential
benefits for the future of best practices reviews: their use as tools to involve
citizens further in the performance measurement process, and their use in
reshaping intergovernmental aid to states and localities.

Engaging Citizens in Government Performance. David Ammons, senior
associate of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia, has
suggested that governments at the local level should involve citizens in
performance measurement activities to provide long-term support for the
performance measurement process. Officials should consider bringing the citizen
more completely "into the loop" on performance measurement information.
Selecting topics relevant to public needs and using best practices review
information in the public budget deliberations can provide citizens with a much
clearer picture of the performance of local or state agencies.

The challenge, in short, is to broaden the degree of involvement and concern
about performance measurement, so that this subject goes from being an insiders'
game played only by senior government officials and elected leaders, to being a
commonly shared concern of citizens.

Transacting Intergovernmental Finance. Best practices reviews also
might have implications for intergovernmental financial transfers. For example,
a case could be made that national or state governments should provide
intergovernmental financial transfers to local jurisdictions in amounts that
would fund all or part of their operations at a "best practice" level, rather
than at a less efficient one.

States also could use information about best practices to channel aid in a
way that rewards local governments that embrace practices with demonstrated
cost-effectiveness. If used judiciously, this incentive could be a powerful
inducement to enhance local efficiency and effectiveness. Best practices reviews
hold substantial promise for providing more complete information with which
elected officials, managers, and the public can judge the effectiveness of
public programs. Reviews also suggest levels of performance to which local
governments can aspire and strategies that likely will produce these higher
performance levels.

References
Ammons, D. N. 1995. Overcoming the
Inadequacies of Performance Measurement in Local Government: The Case of
Libraries and Leisure Services. Public Administration Review 55(1).

The Audit Commission for Local Authorities and the National Health Service in
England and Wales. 1989. Management papers: Managing Services Effectively:
Performance Review. Number 5. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Florida Commission on Government Accountability to the People. 1995. The
Florida Benchmarks Report. Tallahassee, Florida: Executive Office of the
Governor.

Gore, Albert. 1994. Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs
Less: Status Report of the National Performance Review. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Office.

Hatry, H. P., Fountain, J. R., Sullivan, J. M., and Kremer, L., eds. 1990.
Research Report: Service Efforts and Accomplishment Reporting: Its Time Has
Come. An overview. Norwalk, Conn.: Governmental Accounting Standards
Board.

Minnesota Statutes SS3.971, Subdivision 4.

The National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C. Public
Innovator. Monthly newsletter. 1120 G Street, N.W., Suite 850, Washington,
D.C. 20005.

Office of the Legislative Auditor, State of Minnesota. 1995. Snow and Ice
Control: A Best Practices Review. St. Paul, Minnesota.

United States Department of Labor. 1995. Best Practices Clearinghouse.
Office of the American Workplace. World Wide Web address:
http://athena.itl.saic.com:80/fed/uscompanies/labor/

United States General Accounting Office. 1994. Managing for Results: State
Experiences Provide Insights for Federal Management Reforms. Washington,
D.C. Report GAO/GGD-95-22.

United States General Accounting Office. 1995. Best Practices Methodology:
A New Approach for Improving Government Operations. Washington, D.C. Report
GAO/NSIAD-95-154.

Lyle D. Wray serves as executive director of the Citizens League, a
nonprofit, citizen-based public policy research organization based in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jody A. Hauer coordinates the best practices reviews for
the Office of the Minnesota Legislative Auditor.

Copyright © 1996 by the International City/County Management Association
(ICMA)