Cities Get a Resource Toolkit for Data-Driven Government
Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the new What Works Cities.
In addition, What Works Cities named 12 more to its performance initiative.
The What Works Cities program released a resource toolkit on Monday to assist municipalities with data-driven decision-making, while also naming 12 more cities to its initiative.
The toolkit from What Works Cities, an initiative funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies, will support open data, performance management, low-cost evaluations and results-driven contracting in midsize cities.
New What Works Cities inductees are: Baltimore; Buffalo, New York; Cape Coral, Florida; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Greensboro, North Carolina; Gresham, Oregon; Kansas City, Kansas; Naperville, Illinois; Providence, Rhode Island; Scottsdale, Arizona; Topeka, Kansas; and Wichita, Kansas.
“These city leaders are committed to utilizing data to make better decisions, engage residents and hold themselves accountable,” James Anderson, the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation program head, said in Monday’s announcement.
Member cities, now up to 39 in 25 states, work on open data portals and setting stronger performance goals among other pushes. The What Works Cities network’s combined municipal population now is about 14 million residents and has annual budgets that amount to more than $48 billion.
Many of the new inductees—like Buffalo, Fort Lauderdale, Kansas City, and Providence—will focus on opening data with assistance of the Sunlight Foundation and Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore and a few other cities will even implement performance management programs.
Gresham and Scottsdale will be helped by the Behavioral Insights Team to better evaluate government programs, while Wichita has plans to team with the Government Performance Lab at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government on better structuring and managing contracts.
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Dave Nyczepir is a News Editor at Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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