The National Association of Counties Futures Lab published Building Trust: Performance Metrics in Counties, including how Prince George’s County handles performance measurements along with three other U.S. counties. The other counties included are McHenry County, IL, Douglas County, NV, and Catawba County, NC.

The study collected data from county respondents investigated the reasons and barriers for performance metrics.

Of the county participants, 84% mentioned that they track performance with the number 1 reason being budget.

However, some counties don’t have access to resources to capture metrics in addition to other barriers keeping them from participating.

Prince George’s County, among four analyzed in this study, has developed a CountyStat team to focus on performance evaluations.

In this highly technological age, I strongly believe that it is incumbent upon every modern government to not just use performance metrics to make decisions on how to use taxpayer resources most effectively, but to also make that data available to the public online.

– Rushern L. Baker III, Prince George’s County Exective, MACo board member

Prince George’s County uses CountyStat to focus on its budget priorities for the county agencies. These agencies input their budget requests based on their priorities, and the majority of them have embraced this as a needed resource.

Between 2010 and 2015, the program has yielded some impressive results.

Read NACo’s performance report to learn more about CountyStats and how other counties measure success.