LOCAL GOVERNMENT IS DEFINED LEGALLY AS
“NONPARTISAN” BY WASHINGTON STATE LAW
Using Good Governance is a simple method which to improve governmental
processes and create a healthy, thriving community, as we should expect.
How Do We Get There?
Review of Components for a Good Governance Process :
Public policymaking, just like law, medicine, engineering and other disciplines, has a set of principles and best practices. We call these best practices the Good Government Process.
The Good Government Process produces measurable results that meet or exceed expectations, are more cost-effective, and provide sustainable, fairer outcomes.
A Good Governance Process is:
- Inclusive – brings more voices to the discussion
- Analytic –fact and evidence-based
- Financially sound – uses public funds responsibly
A Good Governance Process follows these steps:
- Involves community stakeholders – who participates?
- Defines the problem together – what, precisely, is the problem we are trying to solve?
- Identifies potential solutions – how might we solve the problem?
- Defines costs and benefits to potential solutions – how much will our potential solutions cost in time, money, etc?
- Selects optimum solution collaboratively – debate and discussion is encouraged.
- Determines effectiveness – how will we define and measure results?
- Iterates to improve outcomes – measures outcomes and adjusts approach as needed.
Wait, isn’t this the way our government already works?
Sometimes individual leaders place partisan politics ahead of good policy analysis and inclusive public participation. Instead of carefully defining the problem and working towards the best possible community solution, they start with a preconceived “fix” in mind.
Committed to a specific outcome before the real problem has even been defined, our elected officials are unable to collaborate, compromise, or think creatively to solve big community problems.
This ineffective policy strategy often called the “Controlled Outcome Model” – because the outcome is mostly predetermined before the process begins.