Jane Kusiak, serves as the Executive Director for the Council on Virginia's Future, and delivered a passionate presentation at INPUT's State and Local MarketView conference regarding the significant progress Virginia has made to provide transparency in government. Jane has served in state government in numerous capacities and led the journey, together with the Governor, that the Commonwealth has taken towards more assessment and open government operations.

The Council on Virginia's Future is an advisory board to the Governor and the General Assembly. Governor Kaine worked closely with the council to establish an open portal, " VaPerforms," which provides a scorecard of how well government services are being delivered throughout the Commonwealth. The performance measurement system is the backbone that compiles data and tabulates metrics which provides rankings and statistics for key areas impacting quality of life. The governor actively uses the performance data to make budget decisions.

The "Scorecard at a Glance," gives a snapshot of data across time, regions and in relation to other states. The effort is serving to bring communities and local governments to align with the state to work towards common "high impact" goals. Some of the key indicators that are measured include:

• Economy
  • Personal Income/Wages and Salaries
  • Poverty
  • Unemployment Growth
  • Business Startups
• Education
  • High School Graduation
  • High School Dropout
  • College Graduation
• Transportation
  • Traffic Congestion
  • Infrastructure Condition
  • Land Use
• Public Safety
  • Crime
  • Juvenile Intakes
  • Emergency Preparedness
  • Traffic Fatalities
• Government and Citizens
  • Bond Rating
  • Taxation
  • Voter Registration and Turnout
  • Internet Access

State agency strategic plans and performance measures are included on the website and Virginia Information Technologies Agency, (VITA) uses dashboards reports to look at Human Resources, Finance and Procurement and Contracting areas. The journey within VITA has been IT consolidation of disparate systems.

Virginia has made great strides to provide open government, sharing strategic plans, budget details and performance measurements which have also served as an impetus for agencies to focus on "customer driven" objectives. State leaders are now being held more accountable on how public funds are spent and the Virginia Performs initiative provides data to access the effectiveness of programs; bottom line – are programs effective and enhancing services or not. The comparative data benchmarking Virginia services, such as Public Safety statistics in relation to other states, serves to empower officials ability to build a better business case when seeking federal grant funds. Vendors and citizens must make it a practice to actively monitor and challenge the metrics. Most importantly, the business community must stay engaged with agency executives and legislators to identify changes that are needed. It is imperative that effective solutions are delivered by vendors that will drive improvements with measurable results, which are now transparent throughout government, business and the citizenry.