Newsletter – August 2021

Summer always goes too fast for my liking. I can’t believe we’re already at the end of August with Labor Day just a week away. I hope all of you are safe and doing well.

I mentioned in last month’s newsletter my long time membership in the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and that I have recently become a member of their Government Division. ASQ is a well-respected global organization with nearly 80,000 members in over 130 countries. Much of my good government work through September will be associated with ASQ, including a webinar where I will share with members of ASQ’s Government Division details of my government accountability and effectiveness principles and detail much of the work that I’ve done over the last five months.

I continue to believe that I will devote much of my good government efforts to supporting and promoting the work of larger, better connected and better financed organizations like ASQ. However, I believe that in conjunction with that approach, I can continue to advocate for my good government principles, continue to provide information through my monthly newsletter, find and promote synergies between organizations, and recruit people to lend their support and expertise to our good government efforts.

I have learned that ASQ’s Government Division has three major initiatives focusing on Quality Standards in government, election integrity, and performance excellence. I have also learned that the General Services Administration of the Federal Government has a Performance Improvement Council. My current understanding of this Council is that it focuses heavily on quality and effectiveness of the many agencies of the federal government.

While I believe that there is considerable overlap and potential synergies between the work of ASQ, the Performance Improvement Council and my work, I believe that my work distinguishes itself from the Performance Improvement Council and ASQ’s Government Division by its focus on legislative quality and on accountability and effectiveness of our elected officials, with an overriding goal of reducing gridlock in Congress.

Last week I attended an ASQ webinar on the development of a national standard on government efficiency and effectiveness. This work provides a roadmap and objective method of evaluating the quality and effectiveness of government agencies and entities. Leveraging this standard would establish a way of measuring the progress and success of Speak Up for Good Government.

Certainly much more to come as I learn more about the work of ASQ and of GSA’s Performance Improvement Council and further define the role and the work of Speak Up for Good Government.

Additional work, news, and resources from the last month:

1. I continue to be actively engaged in Ohio’s redistricting process. I attended a Fair Maps Town Hall in early August.

2. I learned about a new website/resource—Citizen Connect—a non-partisan platform that serves as a repository for information on good government organizations and events.

3. I learned about Vote Smart. Vote Smart's mission is to provide free, factual, unbiased information on candidates and elected officials to all Americans. Thanks to the Speak Up subscriber that alerted me to this organization/resource.

4. I closely followed the negotiation process for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Key takeaways for me:

   1. When legislators are committed to problem solving they can do great and important things for the American public.

   2. Quality principles I have articulated in previous issues—focusing on root causes and clearly defining the problem proposed legislation is designed to solve -—are critical for good legislation. However, painstaking negotiation and attention to detail are also important parts of the legislative process

Likely themes for next month:

1. Update and review of timeline and objectives

2. Recap from ASQ webinar

Take care and have a great month.

Allan

Newsletter – July 2021

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer.

I mentioned in last month’s newsletter the launch of the Partnership for American Democracy. I attended their launch event on July 1, and have closely reviewed the material on their website. Their objectives and initiatives are largely aligned with Speak Up for Good Government and they have much more “firepower” than Speak Up for Good Government. However, I strongly believe that the basic principles that I have articulated provide the most comprehensive framework for ensuring an effective and accountable federal government. Ultimately, I suspect that I will devote much of my good government efforts to supporting and promoting the work of larger, better connected and better financed organizations like the Partnership for American Democracy. However, I believe that in conjunction with that approach, I can continue to advocate for my good government principles, continue to provide information through my monthly newsletter, find and promote synergies between organizations, and recruit people to lend their support and expertise to our good government efforts.

To support this approach, I want to refine my good government principles. As a result, my focus for this month’s newsletter is to review and expand upon the basic principles I articulated in my first newsletter (also posted on my website). I would love your input on ways to clarify and improve those principles.

1. Free and fair elections where anyone that is eligible to participate can easily do so

This principle speaks to making it as easy as possible to vote, while maintaining the trust of the voters and eliminating the possibility of fraudulent outcomes. Contrary to what is playing out on the national stage and in many states across the country, access to the polls and election integrity are not mutually exclusive.

2. Availability of accurate and unbiased information to help drive voting decisions

I highlighted this principle under “Fact Checking” in my May newsletter. Simply put, all voters need easy access to accurate and credible information to help them determine their stance on key issues and help inform their voting decisions.

3. Shared commitment by all elected officials to problem solving

It is much easier to gain consensus on the problems that need to be solved than gaining consensus on the approach to solving those problems. Whether it is at the workplace, amongst our friends, or within our family, in most instances if we set our minds to solving a problem we find a way to do it despite different perspectives. Too frequently the legislative agenda and votes of legislators appear to be driven more by party loyalty and the next election than by the desire to solve the nation’s problems and do the work of the people.

4. Respect for and embrace of opposing views

Even in landslide victories, the losing candidate gets 30 to 40% of the vote. Simply put, this principle is about mutual respect. Basis behind this principle is incorporating feedback and incorporating ideas from both sides of the aisle and from across the political spectrum in legislative solutions

5. Legislative approach that allows for and empowers regional differences

Something that works in New York City is unlikely to work for rural Montana. Although I am still learning a lot about the approach to federal legislation, I currently believe that the focus of federal legislation should be on creating national objectives and empowering states and municipalities to determine the best way to achieve those objectives. Healthcare and education are great examples (e.g. reduce infant mortality rate by 20% or increase high school graduation rate by 20%). A few years ago I was struck by a story a colleague told me about the effectiveness of well-funded block grants in improving the quality of healthcare in Maryland.

6. Active partnership between the public and our elected officials

Although we all have the ability to email our legislators. I am very skeptical that those emails truly impact their votes. I am a huge supporter of the objectives of Voice of the People, an organization that is working to create citizens’ cabinets that would help influence legislators’ votes. I would like to see legislators actively solicit input from their constituents and have that input have an influence on legislators’ votes. A key to this principle is providing accurate and unbiased information to the citizens’ cabinets (principle 2).

7. Expert input on legislative solutions

This principle speaks to consistently leveraging subject matter experts and using data and facts to drive legislation. As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is considering the re-establishment of an office to provide members, committees, and staff with analysis of complicated scientific and technological issues. This principle also recognizes the need to leverage the knowledge of industry experts to drive viable legislative solutions to difficult problems.

8. Strict rules to prevent conflicts of interest

This principle serves as a counter-balance to the “expert input” principle (principle 7). In the purest sense, lobbyists are experts that have a vested interest in a particular subject or policy. Conflicts of interest inevitably occur when those lobbyists also donate to candidates and political parties. Most companies have very strict conflict of interest rules with many having Compliance departments to investigate and help prevent potential conflicts of interest. The “ideal solution” is to eliminate money in politics/eliminate the need for elected officials and candidates for office to raise money to support their election/re-election efforts.

9. A shared commitment to excellence, leveraging continuous improvement principles to drive government effectiveness

There is a prevailing opinion that government by definition is slow and inefficient, yet government has a huge impact on everything we do. I refuse to believe that we cannot achieve excellence from our government. Government by nature is tasked to solve big problems, and solving big problems is essentially change management and Quality Improvement. This principle speaks to using tools and principles such as Lean and Six Sigma that are being effectively deployed throughout the private sector. This was a key component and rationale for my proposed establishment of a Congressional Office of Quality and Process Improvement (included in my testimony to the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress).

When I first published these principles, someone suggested including a principle about accountability which might include an active review of the accomplishments and voting record of individual legislators. I am a long time member of the American Society for Quality and have recently become a member of their Government Division. I will be attending an upcoming webinar on the development of a national standard on government efficiency and effectiveness. ASQ has also published a paper that advocates for the development of an electoral quality management system (i.e. objective standards for U.S. elections). I’m not sure if a separate good government principle that speaks to accountability and measurement of government effectiveness is needed, but standards and metrics should be an output of our overall good government work.

Likely themes for next month:

1. Update and review of timeline and objectives

2. Recap from ASQ webinar and more on how we measure the effectiveness of our government and the work of our elected officials

Take care!

Allan

Newsletter – June 2021

I am now approaching five months since I retired, and I can’t believe that this is my fourth Speak Up for Good Government newsletter.

As mentioned last month, this month’s newsletter will be much more abbreviated than previous months. I just returned from an 18 day, 5000 mile vacation, spanning 10 states and 5 national parks. This month’s newsletter will not be a travelogue, but the travel, going through urban and rural areas and red and blue states did inform this month’s email. More on that to follow…

Although much of the month was spent traveling. I was able to complete one key Good Government activity. In last month’s newsletter, I mentioned my interactions with Issue One. Recapping from last month’s email, Issue One bills itself as the leading cross-partisan political reform group in Washington, D.C. They are working to “unite Republicans, Democrats, and independents in the movement to fix our broken political system and build a democracy that works for everyone.” I encourage all Speak Up for Good Government subscribers to review and sign their declaration.

Issue One’s Fix Congress Cohort Coordinator, made me aware of an upcoming hearing of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress on “Improving the Lawmaking Process & Evidence Based Legislating”. The purpose of the hearing is to discuss the need for impartial scientific/technology analysis in Congress, and potentially reestablishing an office to provide members, committees, and staff with analysis of complicated scientific and technological issues. With much appreciated guidance from Issue One’s Fix Congress Cohort Coordinator, I have submitted written testimony for this hearing to the Select Committee. Unfortunately, I found out late yesterday that this hearing has been cancelled with a potential reschedule date in October. There are currently no future hearings or virtual discussions listed on the Select Committee’s website. I have followed up with the Capitol Hill staff member that I sent my testimony to.

“Data-driven” legislation would be a very positive step. My testimony recommended that the committee broaden the scope to incorporate Quality Improvement methodology to improve the lawmaking process. I recommended establishing a Congressional Office of Quality and Process Improvement that would provide analysis to members of Congress and their staff and utilize Quality tools to produce world class legislation. I suggested that the office could focus on both the quality of the legislative process and on supporting the development of optimum legislation through data analysis, benchmarking (other industries, best practices in states and municipalities), process design and documentation, and development of success metrics. I will provide an update next month and will likely post my testimony on the Speak Up for Good Government website.

As I continue this journey and refine my work and role, I’ll be closely watching the work of Issue One and a new initiative that Issue One is helping to launch on July 1: The Partnership for American Democracy. If Speak Up’s Good Government Principles are largely included in the work of Issue One and/or The Partnership for American Democracy, my time might be better spent supporting their work rather than continuing as an “independent entity”. Over the next month, I will be attending the launch event for The Partnership for American Democracy, reviewing Speak Up’s Basic Principles, and reaching out to other organizations such as Voice of the People and the American Society for Quality’s Government Division. At minimum, I can leverage my expertise to advocate for a viable and over-arching plan and strategy for meaningful and measurable improvements in government effectiveness and accountability.

As implied in the second paragraph above, my time on the road offered me ample opportunity to reflect on the Good Government journey and how the perceptions and expectations of our federal government likely vary depending on region of the country, personal circumstances, etc. My assumption is that a strong perception of people living in a remote/rural area of South Dakota or Montana is that Washington D.C. is completely out of touch with the needs in those areas, and that they get very little benefit from the federal government. That assumption led me to do some research on allocation of federal dollars and the net flow of money to and from the federal government. The results actually fly in the face of a narrative that shaped some of the discussion around COVID-19 relief money. The "Balance of Payments Portal" compiled by the Rockefeller Institute of Government provides some surprising results regarding the states that receive more federal aid than what they pay in tax revenue. Take a look and judge for yourself.

In the queue for future months:

1. Refinement and further articulation of the basic principles that can be found on my web site

2. Review and update on timeline and objectives

3. Further exploration of metrics and a possible survey

4. Discussion and investigation of legislative and government processes

Take care and have a great month!

Allan