WHAT ALL MAYORS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT BALTIMORE'S CITISTAT PERFORMANCE STRATEGY
Citistat is a strategy by leadership which when used by mayors result in efficient mobilizing of resources resulting in the achievements of the specific objectives. It is designed in a way such that its application will result in the improving of the performance of every city agency involved. In Baltimore, The system has been used to set key performance targets for every type of service for the different city agency resulting to timely provision of services hence efficiency. Leadership is key tool for the efficient application of Citistat by the Mayor and other Agency leaders.
In Baltimore, Citistat was started by acquiring the various equipment and space required to ensure an efficient running system then updating of the past historical data into the system. There was some resistance at first by the various agencies involved but later on it was adapted fairly by all due to the ambition the Mayor and her subordinates portrayed and the dedication they hard to ensure its application. All kinds of mistakes are observed by the cities as human is to error but the focus of the management including the Mayor on removing of the obstacles will result in the improvement of the performance. The data collected varies from agency to agency, as there are different agencies each in different fields. Audit of data is also encouraged in Baltimore to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. The data may include qualitative and quantitative data.
The mayor has a primary responsibility of ensuring that motivating staff, spending money, time employ Citistat and promoting it to all stakeholders. The mayor should ensure that the Citistat station is well equipped with the necessary furniture, up to date electronics including computers, relevant staff and data is always up to date and accurate. Frequent meetings should be organized by the Mayor and the Mayor should always be in attendance with all the agencies excluding journalists and the citizens well represented to discuss all the relevant issues relating to the city and any upcoming agenda. The introduction of Citistat in Baltimore requires all agency directors and managers to abide or lose their jobs, making it mandatory affecting the various relationships of the managers as well as the citizens and staff in the City as well.
In Baltimore Citistat was warmly welcomed by the citizens and the journalists as it showed desirable results. Citistat has enabled the City to save a good some of money by filling loopholes in the system in less than ten years faster than any other city in the Country. Citistat is dependent on the leadership of the City hence there should be a Strong Mayor form of government or a strong council to ensure its effectiveness such as in Baltimore.
All in all, Baltimore has made tremendous improvement not only on the filling of the loopholes in the administration but also resulting in the improvement in various SRs in the various city departments and agencies as a result of implementing of the Citistat project. All these improvements can be directly related to the implementation of the Citistat project. Mayors in other cities should not look at the success of Baltimore as their own success, as different cities result in different result depending on their implementation; this also applies to the future mayors of Baltimore.
