Use of data to improve government services is a topic of perennial interest to county elected officials seeking ways to improve programs and better serve their residents.

At this year’s MACo Conference, representatives from the Governor’s Offices of Performance Improvement, the US Census, Prince George’s County spoke to the ways that data can be used to inform government operations, while Greg Derwart of the Governor’s Customer Service Initiative shared the progress they have made in gathering feedback on state-level services.

From the discussion:

The opportunity project transforms government data into usable tools, including digital tools like Redfin, Fitbit, Zillow and others. –Nesreen Khashan, U.S. Census Bureau

Projections created by the State Data Center include population, school enrollment, and job growth projections on a county-by-county basis. –Mike Morello, Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement

Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative (TNI) translates data into tools that residents can use.–Ben Birge, Prince George’s CountyStat

Constituents rank ‘a positive experience’ as the most important outcome of an interaction with a business or organization. Those who are leaders in the service industry know something in common: the customer is #2; the team is #1. Your team needs to be prepared to respond to the public. –Greg Derwart, Governor’s Customer Service Initiative