The Center for Accountability and Performance (CAP) Annual Awards for 2022

THE HARRY HATRY DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AWARD

The Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Management Practice Award is presented to an individual whose outstanding teaching, education, training, and consultation in performance management has made a significant contribution to the practice of public administration.  The award winner must have spent the primary part of his/her career in public service.  This award recognizes a person who has made outstanding contributions on a sustained basis rather than a single accomplishment.

Selection Process – Nominations for the award were accepted through November 1, 2021.  To build a robust pool of nominees, Rich Greene and Rakesh Mohan reached out to the past recipients of the Hatry Award and asked them for their recommendations.  In addition, the award co-chairs consulted CAP Board members.  Finally, the award co-chairs contacted a number of professionals familiar with the field of accountability and performance in the public sector for their recommendations.  Among them were Harry Hatry, Paul Epstein, Scott Pattison, Shelly Metzenbaum, Don Kettl, Marc Holzer, Phil Joyce, Mark Funkhouser, Don Moynihan, and Gary Van Landingham (formerly head of Results First at the Pew Charitable Trusts).  Calls for nomination were also made via the CAP website, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Recommendation to the CAP Board – Roughly 26 people were nominated.  Most were familiar names.  Among the nominees, one name stood out – John Kamensky.  He was the only person who was nominated by three individuals:  Don Kettl, Don Moynihan, and Gary VanLandingham.  Beyond that, in the interest of full disclosure, both of us went into the process believing that John was an ideal candidate – and a particularly timely one given his recent retirement from the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

After reviewing all nominations, Rich Greene and Rakesh Mohan were confident in recommending John Kamensky as the Hatry Award recipient to the CAP Board for its consideration.  The following is a brief summary of John’s many contributions which will be familiar to many in the performance management field. 

John M. Kamensky, who until very recently has been a long-standing member of the Center for Accountability and Performance (CAP) Board and has made numerous contributions during his tenure as a Board Member, including the rejuvenation of the Board and its activities in the 2012 timeframe.  Mr. Kamensky is also an Emeritus Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for the Business of Government and was an Associate Partner with IBM’s Global Business Services where he has made over two decades of contributions to the overall realm of performance management – including the more detailed fields of strategic planning, program evaluation, evidence-based policymaking, strategic foresight, and data analytics.

In addition, during his 24 years of public service with the federal government, he played a significant role in pioneering the federal government’s performance and results orientation.  Mr. Kamensky has repeatedly demonstrated his passion for transforming government to be more results-oriented, performance-based, customer-driven, and collaborative and transparent in nature.  In his role as deputy director of Vice President Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), and before that, as an assistant director with the General Accountability Office (GAO), he was a central figure in creating the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA).  The enactment of GPRA and its implementation as part of Gore’s NPR efforts, was one of the milestone achievements in the history of government reform generally, and more specifically, performance management in the federal government – and John led those efforts. 

Most recently, he has carried on the torch as an adviser and mentor to many, and through a wide body of work he created for the IBM Center for the Business of Government.  Since joining the IBM Center, John has co-edited six books, and he writes and speaks extensively on performance management and government reform. His current areas of emphasis include transparency, collaboration, citizen engagement, and management challenges in government.

John M. Kamensky is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and received a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, in Austin, TX.

THE JOSEPH WHOLEY DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

The Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award (Annual) – This award is presented for outstanding scholarship on performance in public and nonprofit organizations.  The author(s) must provide a significant contribution to advancing knowledge in a scholarly journal or book about the development, implementation, use or impact of performance management.^[1]  Preference will be given to a scholarly work that is relevant to the broad public administration community and is of interest to both practitioners and academicians. (Updated August 5, 2021) 

Selection Process – Nominations for the award were accepted through November 1, 2021.  Calls for nomination were also made via the CAP website, Twitter, and Facebook. Elaine Lu, the CAP Award Chair, and her Research Assistant, Claire Fleischer mainly conducted a literature review to determine a candidate for the Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award in addition to only one nomination that was received.  A total of 97 articles were reviewed.  Books were not included due to time limit and cost consideration.  

Eligibility Criteria – Topic: performance management related to organizational performance management or other similar topics (performance measurement, strategic planning, program evaluation, strategic foresight, or the application of other evidence-based analytical tools); Language: only included studies reported in English; Year of publication: within the dates of January 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021; and Type of Article: peer-reviewed journal articles (viewpoint articles, editorials, book chapters, and articles that discussed cyclical individual performance reviews used in many human resources organizations were not included). 

Strategy – First, a search was conducted within the John Jay database for peer-reviewed articles within each relevant public administration journal (Public Administration Review, PPMR, Public Management Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration, International Journal of Public Administration, Governance, Public Administration) using the keywords “performance management” OR “performance budget” OR “performance measurement”.  Second, a general database search was conducted within the John Jay database using the same search string in order to collect articles that fell outside those publications.  Third, a search was conducted on Google Scholar using the same search string to expand the search and ensure relevant articles were located across all search engines.  Articles were selected for inclusion based on a review of their titles and abstracts to determine if they fit the eligibility criteria. 

Reading and Coding – Once articles were deemed relevant based on the eligibility criteria and search strategy, they were coded by their topics via an exploratory coding process.  A new category was added when an article in review did not fit any of the themes.  Topics were not mutually exclusive.   

Award Candidates – Potential award winners were selected based on the study filling a literature gap, showing clear empirical support of its main findings, organization and ease of reading, and offering real, applicable solutions in public administration. 

Recommendation to the CAP Board – Based on their extensive literature review, Elaine Lu, the CAP Award Chair, and her Research Assistant, Claire Fleischer recommended the following article and author as the recipient of the 2022 Annual Joseph Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award:

Dr. Sounman Hong

Hong, S. (2020), Performance Management Meets Red Tape: Bounded Rationality, Negativity Bias, and Resource Dependence. Public Admin Rev, 80: 932945. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13213

This research examines an important question: Can governments reduce the level of red tape by implementing a performance management system?  The relationship between red-tape and performance management has been a gap in research.  The two main findings, as laid out by the researcher, are 1) “the reduction in the level of red tape was observed only among low performing localities,” and 2) “the more fiscally dependent on the central government a locality is, the greater its response to the performance management system.”   

The research used multiple methods, including a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity design.  The empirical analysis part is strong and the methodology is clear.  

Theoretically, it enhances the understanding of performance information negativity bias hypothesis (the asymmetrical impact of negative and positive performance feedback: negative performance feedback enhances positive reform outcome, in this case red tape reduction) and the importance of resources in the use of performance information for red tape reduction (resource dependency theory).  

Although the publication did not explicitly note its implications for the role of performance management in advancing service equity, the finding that low-performing localities benefit most from the role of performance management in red tape reduction links performance management not only to red tape but also to the larger issue of equity.  

Practically, it broadens and deepens the understanding of the impact of performance management.  The potential for performance management to serve both efficiency (red tape reduction) and equity (benefits to low-performing localities) is an exciting idea.  

Sounman Hong is Underwood Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University, South Korea.  His research focuses on bureaucratic control, innovation, and reform and how to achieve a more efficient, responsive, and accountable public administration.  He holds Master of Public Policy and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Yonsei University. 

THE CAP ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD

The CAP Organizational Leadership Award, presented to an organization, recognizes outstanding applications of a systems approach to performance measurement that has resulted in a culture change, sustained improvements, and demonstrated positive effects on government performance and accountability.  The award recognizes an organization, rather than a person that has yielded outstanding results on a sustained basis.  The organization may be selected from all levels of public service organizations, including local, state, or federal government, as well as from international and public service nonprofit organizations. Preference will be given to an organization whose results have been measured and whose impact has been documented in the literature or at conferences.

CAP is proud to present the 2022 Organizational Leadership Award to the New Mexico Legislative Committee.

As part of its mission, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) oversees state agencies to improve performance, ensure accountability and effectively allocate resources for the benefit of New Mexicans.  It is made up of eight senators and eight representatives, with a professional staff,

Over the last two decades, the committee has plunged into a variety of performance topics.  The quality and expansiveness of its evaluation output surpasses the work of many state performance audit and evaluation shops. To see a list of 2020 and 2021 evaluations and other reports, click here.  The website in its entirety gives a very solid look at the extensiveness of the LFC’s involvement in performance issues, its attention to performance measurement, and its commitment to using evaluation, measurement and evidence material in its budgeting decisions.

Ten years ago, the LFC was one of the first states to work with Results First, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  Initially the project was focused on cost-benefit analysis of criminal justice, with an expansion over the years to other social programs and increasingly an emphasis on the pursuit of evidence-based policies and practices.  “With the committee’s focus on prioritizing state investments in evidence-based programs and the agencies’ dedication to these methods, the state has become a leader in the field of evidence-based policymaking,” a May 20, 2014, Pew backgrounder stated.

The initial suggestion for giving the 2022 Organizational Leadership award came from Gary VanLandingham, who is currently a professor and the MPA director at the Askew School of Public Administration at Florida State University.  He is the former executive director of Results First and of the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) in Florida.  He says the New Mexico LFC is “the best legislative program evaluation unit in the nation that has done a lot of big data & RF analyses.”

One additional note – with the aid of the LFC, New Mexico recently embarked on a new and unusual performance-oriented program that creates a Stat oriented approach to legislative hearings.  New Mexico’s LegisStat piloted in August 2021, with a focus on New Mexico’s economic recovery, following the pandemic.  The idea is to change the dynamic of committee hearings by providing a clear focus on data trends and key agency performance challenges.  Two more LegisStat meetings were held in October, centered on K-12 and higher education.

THE CAP EMERGING LEADERS AWARD OF EXCELLENCE WINNERS

In 2016, based on the leadership of Michael Jacobson (King County, WA), and the lack at the time of a formal recognition award for emerging leaders in the field of performance management, CAP created a new CAP Emerging Leaders Award of Excellence for up to five early- to mid-career professionals in the field of performance management at the federal, state, or local levels.  Since then, 25 of these awards have been granted, usually being presented at the CAP board meeting associated with the annual ASPA meeting.  This year’s Emerging Leaders Awards will result in 29 recipients of this important award after 7 years from the Award’s inception.

CAP has a history of promoting the adoption of accountability and performance management systems in government.  Traditionally, CAP accomplished its goals through educational materials and awards for scholarship, organizational improvement, and individual leaders/contributors.  As performance management has spread, but remains a developing field of practice, CAP sees an opportunity to recognize and encourage a new generation of practitioners through a CAP Emerging Leaders Award of Excellence program. 

Through recognition by CAP, an Emerging Leaders Award of Excellence will provide an early or mid- career boost to individuals who are actively implementing performance management systems, innovating new practices, and promoting the importance of performance and accountability within their governments and communities. 

As part of the recognition, Emerging Leader award recipients will be invited to (but not be required to) develop a case study or panel presentation about their organization’s performance management practices to present at the annual ASPA Conference.  These CAP-sponsored panels at the annual ASPA meeting would focus on highlighting best and alternative practices from the field and help build the empirical base for additional analyses. Each recipient will also receive a formal Award of Excellence plaque of recognition. 

Emerging Leaders can be self-nominated or be nominated by others and will be chosen by a subcommittee of current CAP Board members.  There will be no more than five awardees per year, they should represent a variety of governments (local, state, and federal), and help promote racial and geographic diversity in the field.  Nominees should have approximately 5-10 years of experience within a government organization and shown leadership, innovation, and/or accomplishment.

The following individuals are recipients of the CAP 2021 Emerging Leaders Award of Excellence:

Jaime Lees (She/Her)

Chief Data Officer at Arlington County Government

Jaime serves as the County data steward, responsible for building a trusted data culture which enables data-driven decision making, open government and digital service delivery.  In the coming months, she will establish business rules, guidelines and best practices for the use of data addressing (i) data sharing, open data and privacy; (ii) data governance and compliance, (iii) data analysis and self-service analytics and (iv) data storage and security.  Jaime has also stepped up and taken an active role as a Mid-Atlantic StatNet (MASN) co-organizer.

Highlights of the last year:

• Earned 2018 County Manager’s Excellence Awards (2) for data analysis for Arlington Addiction Recovery Initiative and presentations at the World Bank’s Land and Poverty Conference (Dec 2018)
• Partnered with university graduate school data analysis programs to conduct innovative data analysis and visualization projects (2018)
• Published 21 substantive new datasets to the County’s Open Data Portal (2018)
• Initiated, managed and published County’s first data asset inventory (Jan – June 2018)
• Drafted and obtained County Board approval for a Data Sharing Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate partnering with university graduate programs (May 2018)
• Formed and lead Open Data Advisory Group, Arlington Data Analyst Community and internal data governance body (2016 – present)

Jaime Lees is part technical professional and part outreach and data champion. She is data-passionate.  Jaime can connect with stakeholders to see the promise of open data and data analysis, refine their business case, work with technical staff to obtain, prepare, analyze and visualize the data, and share that success story with the next outreach partner.  Jaime can quantify monetary and impact value of data and communicate that value.

Rudy de Leon Dinglas, MPA 

Manager, Data & Performance Practice at The Johns Hopkins Center for Government Excellence

As Data and Performance Practice Manager at the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Government Excellence, Rudy leads an accelerated executive leadership program to 100 cities in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. This program works to build the data use and management capacities of mayors and government executives through evidence-based practices so they can lead confidently with data, invest in people, practices, and platforms, empower people to engage, and drive transformational results.

Rudy’s extensive government background knows no borders. Previously as senior government advisor at GovEx, he worked with US cities and states providing strategic advice on data and performance management practices to mitigate risks, drive operational excellence, and improve citizen outcomes. Internationally, he has served as a subject matter expert on results-based management, economic development, and local government administration with The World Bank Group’s Europe and Central Asia Region. Rudy worked within local governments for almost a decade with the Baltimore City Fire Department, the District of Columbia Child & Family Services Agency and the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. There he designed, implemented, and managed performance management programs and special projects.

He is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in public management at the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a focus on local governments’ usage of performance management programs.

Haley Kadish MPA (The Ohio State University – The John Glenn School of Public Affairs, OH)

Performance & Innovation Officer, City of Albuquerque 

Haley improves City operations and outcomes by drawing upon her experience in both the public and private sectors.  After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Haley started her career working in the private sector for Procter & Gamble.  She transitioned into the public sector by getting an MPA from the Ohio State University and then working for the US State Department, Franklin County, Ohio and Catawba County, North Carolina.  Prior to joining the City, Haley spent five years improving local governments throughout the country as a management consultant.  Haley is the first Performance & Innovation Officer at the City of Albuquerque.  Haley also serves as Adjunct Faculty at The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Tim Moreland 

Director of Performance Management and Open Data

Office of Open Data and Performance Management, Chattanooga, TN

Tim directs the Office of Performance Management and Open Data within the City of Chattanooga.  There he and his small team works to make the city more citizen-focused and data driven in their delivery of services.  Tim has a background in city and regional planning and came to the world of data through his interest in geographic information systems and open government initiatives.

We are a small team of data driven individuals who are seeking to better the City of Chattanooga.  We understand the power of data in today’s world, and we hope to push the City internally to maximize the immense amounts of data it has to the benefit of its constituents.  We utilize several methodologies to achieve our mission.  We run several types of training aimed at front line employees as we understand our office itself cannot serve all data needs through City government.   We also push data top down via departmental performance measures submitted by departments along with their request for funding each year.  Ultimately, these programs are aimed at driving change and higher usage of data driven decision making tools within the City.

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^[1] The field of performance management includes performance measurement, strategic planning, program evaluation, strategic foresight, or the application of other evidence-based analytical tools.  It includes primarily organizational performance management and individual performance management to the extent that it contributes to organizational performance management.  For the purposes of this definition, it is not intended to include the cyclical individual performance reviews that are used in many human resources organizations.