ABSTRACT
A simple definition of performance measurement for governments is the systematic assessment of how well services are being delivered to a community—both how efficiently and how effectively. The term “efficiency” refers to the relation of the amount of input required to the amount of output produced. “Effectiveness” refers to the impacts and quality of the service delivery, whether the service achieves its purpose, and how responsive it is to community needs. The increased knowledge about a government’s service delivery system can improve the decision making of its elected officials and managers, and can improve their accountability to the public. This overview of performance measurement in local government covers four topics: the criteria for selecting measures, the various types of measures that should be considered, the data collection procedures for collecting data on the individual performance measures, and how targets for individual measures might be established.
