Salt Lake County’s Peer Exchange with Baltimore and Montgomery County, MD: Deeper dives in outcome budgeting, performance management, and the use of data to foster employment opportunities

By Megan Hillyard, Salt Lake County Director of Administrative Services and RFA Local Government Fellow

Part One of a Three-Part Series

Interested in learning more? Continue reading Parts Two and Three.

On January 31st and February 1st, 2019, the County of Salt Lake engaged in a double peer exchange, first with Baltimore, MD and then with Montgomery County (MD), supported by Results for America’s Local Government Fellowship program. These exchanges were organized by Results for America Local Government Fellows Megan Hillyard, Director of Administrative Services for Salt Lake County, Robert Cenname, Budget Director for Baltimore City, and Dave Gottesman, CountyStat Manager for Montgomery County. The purpose of the exchange was two-fold: 1) Salt Lake County would learn more about Outcome Budgeting, performance management, and performance dashboards from both Baltimore and Montgomery County; and 2) Salt Lake County would share information on their recent expungement work to create employment and housing opportunities for Salt Lake County residents.

This is the first part of a three-part Medium post detailing the learnings of the three jurisdictions over the course of the two-day exchange.

Goals of the peer exchange were:

1. Baltimore shares its Outcome Budgeting process and CitiStat program with Salt Lake County.
2. Montgomery County shares its CountyStat program with Salt Lake County.
3. Salt Lake County shares recent expungement work with both Baltimore and Montgomery County.

Baltimore and Salt Lake County pose for a picture following their peer exchange.

Salt Lake County is learning about Outcome Budgeting from Baltimore and Montgomery County

Background: Why is Salt Lake County exploring new ways to approach budgeting and performance reporting?

In 2015, the Office of Data and Innovation (ODI) was established in Salt Lake County under Mayor Ben McAdams to increase the use of data to drive decision-making, guide performance, and promote government transparency. One of the first tasks of ODI was to establish a CountyStat site, similar to Baltimore’s CitiStat and Montgomery County’s CountyStat. In creating Salt Lake County’s CountyStat site, the ODI team recognized a disconnect between outcomes and indicators and the budgeting process. While agencies are asked to submit outcomes and indicators during the budget process, they are not consistently tied to budget requests or funding allocations. Salt Lake County has prided itself in top-notch budgeting practices, demonstrated by a longstanding AAA Bond rating, but feel there is opportunity to better align dollars with outcomes. This desire has led to an exploration of less traditional budgeting approaches, which in turn, led to intrigue of former Results for America Local Government Fellow Andrew Kleine’s book, City on the Line: How Baltimore Transformed Its Budget to Beat the Great Recession and Deliver Outcomes.

Additionally, Salt Lake County has new leadership as Mayor Jenny Wilson took office in January 2019. As a former Salt Lake County Council Member, Mayor Wilson is interested in better engaging both the County Council and public, as well as foster greater cross-collaboration between agencies as the county budget is put together. Outcome Budgeting is a promising tool to accomplish her budgeting goals.

Learning: In Baltimore, Salt Lake County sat down with Baltimore’s Bureau of the Budget and Management Research Office, and had a conversation led by Budget Director and RFA Local Government Fellow, Robert Cenname. Baltimore walked Salt Lake County through the steps of establishing an Outcome Budgeting process. In Montgomery County, Salt Lake County met with Andrew Kleine, Montgomery County’s new Chief Administrative Officer (and former Baltimore Budget Director and RFA Local Government Fellow) to discuss his book City on the Line. Andrew shared lessons learned from his time in Baltimore, the experience of writing the book, and his plans for implementing Outcome Budgeting (OB) in Montgomery County. Highlights on OB from both jurisdictions include:

• Unequivocal commitment from leadership is key to adopting a new budgeting and performance management process. This can be challenging in a political environment where leadership inevitably changes with some frequency. OB has existed in Baltimore over a few administrations, although its priority has seemed to ebb and flow with the interests of leadership. Strong interest and commitment from leadership is needed at the onset to launch this initiative, but the real goal is for OB and performance management to become so interwoven with the culture of an organization that it is “simply the way business is done.”
• Implementing Outcome Budgeting and performance management is a journey of continuous improvement, and the work is never done. Both Baltimore and Montgomery County are veterans in the performance management space, yet they are both constantly looking for opportunities to improve this work. Adjustments are needed as new leadership comes in, priorities change, and challenges arrive. While there are general principles and lessons learned (again, much of which is documented in City on the Line), in the day-to-day application, ongoing flexibility, creativity, and continuous improvement are needed to sustain this work.
• Consider a two-year budget cycle. Baltimore transitioned to a two-year budget cycle with the implementation of OB. Montgomery County is currently in the process of doing the same. Since OB is so labor intensive, an extended budget cycle gives relief to the people who spend so much time crafting an outcome-based budget and provides a more realistic timeframe to see what is working. Additionally, Andrew Kleine suggested that a two — year cycle frees up more time for innovative work, particularly if the jurisdiction has an innovation fund.
• Outcome Budgeting is not a panacea. Salt Lake County asked Andrew Kleine how to maintain the energy and momentum it takes to lead an organization through OB. Mr. Kleine suggested a need to diversify the focus by considering an innovation fund, lean process improvement, etc. in order to keep the work fun and interesting.
• Change is hard and it comes at a cost. The resources and commitment to launch this work are not to be minimized. When Baltimore implemented OB, they were in financial crisis; the recession was hitting hard, and the city needed a new approach to ensure critical services would continue to be funded. Salt Lake County is currently in a much different political and economic climate. While the county has its fair share of challenging issues, unemployment is at an all-time low, crime is relatively low, and the economy is thriving. Salt Lake County looks forward to continued learning as Montgomery County implements OB because they have a similar political climate.

Andrew Kleine, Montgomery County’s new Chief Administrative Officer, and Darrin Casper, Salt Lake County’s Chief Financial Officer, discuss learnings from Andrew’s time as Baltimore Budget Director.

Applying the Learning: Upon returning home, the takeaways from the exchange were presented to newly elected Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson. The Mayor was particularly intrigued by the transparent, evidence-driven, and collaborative nature of OB. Accordingly, she has asked Mayor’s Finance and the Office of Data and Innovation to analyze the impacts of implementing OB at Salt Lake County.