Achieving Useful Performance and Cost Information in a Comparative Performance Measurement Consortium

Abstract

As countless local governments engage in performance measurement, many have become interested in comparing their performance relative to other organizations. Formalized benchmarking consortiums, like the North Carolina Local Government Performance Measurement Project, allow governments to compare their service delivery with that of other jurisdictions. This article asserts that reliability and relevance of performance and cost data are key elements in achieving data use in a comparative performance measurement consortium. These two elements are examined in detail within the context of services studied by the North Carolina project.