Guerrilla Warfare

Thinking about a recent hiring process I was reflecting on possible differences between generations. My motivation in working for government has always been to make it more accessible, accountable and respectful to citizens. It brought to mind a book that spoke to me many years ago, Guerrillas in the Bureaucracy. I think I still have a copy in my office. I googled it and found this interesting book. I also found this article about how do deal with guerrilla bureaucrats. "Create an organization culture that accepts, welcomes, and encourages candid dialogue and debate." Yes!!

Not statistically significant

The Fair Housing Council of Oregon conducted audits from the citizens' point of view to determine if housing discrimination existed. In Ashland and Beaverton, when African American and white testers were sent to the same location, two-thirds of the black testers faced discrimination in Ashland and 78 percent in Beaverton. Management response in Beaverton was that the testing sample was too small to be statistically significant. But one wonders what the tolerance level is. Even though it was not a large enough sample to generalize to the full population, is it then okay to have some discrimination?

Words 2

As I said below, words are important. As auditors we want to speak precisely. But to communicate to our audience we may have to speak more generally and give up some precision. Case in point, is in the new Freakonomics blog post. Economists have a precise definition of "recovery" but the public doesn't understand the same word the same way.

Citizen Point of View "Audit"?

Here's a news story about a Housing Program in the Bay Area. The Program had people pose as persons seeking housing to gauge the response. I did a brief search of the web site to view the report but was unsuccessful. Probably not an audit according to standards but still an approach that could be worth using. Reminds me of the joint housing audit conducted by Multnomah County and the City of Portland where we had students posing as homeless call emergency housing services. The results were amazing and powerful.

Opaque Transparency

I have written before about transparency and how that is translated into action. In one post, I cited the Government Accountability Office’s report on transparency. To reiterate, transparency is the public’s access to information. I have also written about the presentation of information recently when I compared EPA web information to the New York Times handling of very similar information. Thinking about the citizen point of view is important to designing the presentation.


Today there was commentary in the Oregonian about the opaqueness of government transparency as it is currently delivered on http://www.recovery.gov/ . The GAO has now started to audit transparency. See page 33 of this report. They note as positive that the Office of Financial Stability on its http://www.financialstability.gov/ site has added a usability survey to help them improve the quality of their transparency. The GAO itself uses a similar survey when you search their website and I have to admit I have seen steady improvement in their website and its usability.

Transparency via the New York Times

I frequently admire graphics in the New York Times. And, I wish many times that audit reports could communicate as clearly. Sometimes I even use ideas I find in the Times to design an illustration for a report. For example this map illustrates my point. The NY Times compiled data on facilities that have permits to discharge pollutants and responses from states regarding compliance and entered it into an interactive map. You can enter your zip code and learn what facilities are near you and the number of violations they have had.

There is much talk now in government about increasing transparency. The federal government has launched http://www.recovery.gov/ to track stimulus funds and we have http://www.usa.gov/ that serves as a gateway to government information including a page of links to government data sources. But flooding citizens with data is not necessarily transparency.
The EPA has a similar feature to the NY Times map that is referenced on its main page. You can enter your zip code and access "MyEnvironment." Here you will have access to information about environmental quality in your area. There is a map with sites that report to the EPA. But the only information for each site is the name and address. It lacks what is of most interest to a citizen - the number of violations. I tried to probe further to see if with more investigation I could find this out at the EPA site but it proved impenetrable to me. Maybe if I had searched more industriously I might have found the information. But you have to admit that a citizen probably would not be as determined.

Bus audit creates discussion about purpose

Here is an interesting news article about an audit of the transit system in Houston. A state audit has caused a debate about what the purpose of the transit system is. Is it efficiency? One metric considered was the operating ratio or the percent of the cost that is paid for by the fare. Increasing this metric requires reducing or eliminating routes that serve lower numbers of people. But then this raises the issue of equity or whether the transit authority's purpose is serving the low income, those who have no other means of transportation. Quality can be measured in another way - the comfort of the trip. Some think that using that performance measure light rail transportation is better than bus routes - because light rail is quieter, more comfortable, and more reliable.

A very interesting discussion and illustrates the value of an audit. Audits can improve the quality of the public discussion. This article reminds me of the debate that is taking place in my own jurisdiction, but without the benefit of an audit to clarify issues. See here, here, and here.

I became a fan of San Francisco on FB today

I became a fan of San Francisco on Facebook today. My son invited me to join FB several months ago and I have to admit it has been fun. I am careful though who I let friend me and also what I say knowing that nothing is private. But I have reconnected with some old high school friends that I never would have found without it. Also, I've been able to communicate with my son and his fiance in different ways. However, my daughter still remains appalled that I am a member.

But, if you are a member of FB you should check out the official site of the City and County of San Francisco. I find most government web sites difficult to penetrate or understand. The developers of these sites do not use language that is easily understood by a citizen and also have not thought about what a citizen might be looking for. That old auditing from a "citizen's point of view" thing. But SF's Facebook site was penetrable and actually interesting. It managed to talk about governmental things in a way that was interesting to a citizen.

Public Records Audit

One of the audits I was most proud of was an audit of how accessible public records were at the county. During that audit we discovered that journalists routinely "audit" public records. Now the League of Women Voters has published a toolkit for a public records "audit" that includes resources and state contacts. This makes it easy for an auditor. Best practices and criteria all in one place.

US 2008 Financial Statement

The GAO released the 2008 financial statement for the US in mid-December. Quoting from the press release - "For the 12th year in a row, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was prevented from expressing an opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government—other than the Statement of Social Insurance—because of numerous material internal control weaknesses and other limitations." I did a google search on news archives to see if there was any press coverage but came up with none. I did find this coverage on the Public Financial Management Blog. The Citizen's Guide to the Federal Government's Financial Health is only 11 pages and contains highlights. It would be good if this information was reported in the news.

Citizen's point of view II

Citizen's are very sensitive about how tax dollars are used. Travel to attend conferences, training, and meetings related to government business are necessary expenses. But it is important to always reflect on appearances. Here is a story about an audit of travel expenses. I was impressed that the reporter clarified the findings and put them in context. The reporter notes that the expenses were a "tiny fraction" of the total spent during the time period studied and also describes the methodology to arrive at the estimate of potential savings.

Wow! Citizen Satisfaction

I went to DEQ this morning to renew my vehicle registration and to take the vehicle emission test. I couldn't have spent more than 10 minutes. I drove in immediately with no wait. The employee was courteous and clear in her instructions. I went inside, completed my registration form, and a few minutes later, the employee took my fee. I had many methods of payment available. After I paid she gave me my tags for the license plate and I was done. I hadn't done this in years. My husband usually takes the car in. But in the past, I can remember lines and waiting to get the vehicle emission test completed. Then I had to submit the registration and test results by mail to DMV and wait for my tags to put on the license plates. You can even renew your registration online! This is one of those moments of truth where government looks good. And, from an auditor's perspective, the whole process looked efficient.

Government Transparency

I keep seeing the potential for the web to bring government closer to citizens. Here's an article in Wired magazine about one person's attempt to do that. (Hat tip to KidFurbo)

Citizen's point of view

This blog about The Big Look Task Force's visit to Tillamook reminded me of a presentation I gave last fall on auditing from the citizen's point of view. The blog describes a citizen who went to this meeting with hopes of interacting. He had thought there might be a 15 minute introduction or summary then two hours available for testimony and observations. Instead, the event was managed to keep the participants "on task" according to him. He also described a survey where he felt the choices were not comprehensive enough to include what would have really been his choices. Overall, his impression was that the event was "window dressing."

Getting public input on potential policy choices is not a easy task. The timing of gathering input and the methods are an art. This blog represents one person's experience from his perspective. Sometimes audits can help improve a citizen's experience in the future. I have conducted several audits that try to improve this experience from how easy it is to access public records, find a building or service, or get help over the phone if you are homeless to whether an adult foster care home is homelike. Each of these started from a simple concept. Instead of auditing the process, experience the process to add validity to the information available. Government workers may have the best of intentions. But in their focus on how best to manage input and be productive, they forget how it feels from the citizen's perspective.

Walkability Audit

This sounds interesting. I tried to find out if an actual audit had been published but my search turned up nothing on the Department of Transportation's website. It reminds me of unique audits I have been part of in the past such as the Wayfinding Audit, an audit about how easy it was for citizens to find service locations (no longer available online), and the Public Records Audit, an audit about accessing public records from the public's point of view.

What is transparency?

Now commonly used, what does the word transparency mean and why is it important to auditors? I think one of the best discussions was a paper from the GAO in 2007. Transparency is the public's access to information. With transparency the public can understand and trust government decisions. But without access to information, decisions will be misunderstood and misconstrued. Transparency also shines a light and puts heat on decision makers to grapple with the bigger problems. So the auditor can help provide the public with clear objective information. But, an auditor can also make recommendations that the information always be available, after the audit is completed. And, an auditor can also provide the bigger picture and focus attention on the long term effort needed.