With the stroke of his pen, Gov. Bob Ferguson killed Outcomes Washington — as soon as hailed because the nation’s mannequin for presidency accountability and transparency. Executive Order 25-06 ended a program that dared to measure progress on the issues that matter most to Washingtonians.
In signing that order, Gov. Ferguson as an alternative created Your Washington, retooling Outcomes Washington right into a “main buyer expertise hub for Washington state businesses.”
In doing so, Gov. Ferguson has handed residents of this nation an surprising present, that of readability round a query that’s important to our nation’s survival but not often enters public dialog: Who’s answerable for holding our authorities accountable?
One factor is now sure. It’s not our elected officers. It’s not authorities itself.
Abraham Lincoln, who led throughout our most divided time, put it plainly: “I’ve understood nicely the obligation of self-preservation rests solely with the American individuals.” Outcomes Washington was a critical try and reply Lincoln’s name — a imaginative and prescient of a state that dared to outline success and measure it in plain view.
It set bold targets: world-class training, a powerful financial system, clear power and surroundings, protected communities and accountable authorities. Progress was tracked via dozens of actual measures, together with commencement charges, housing affordability, wages, poverty, suicide, site visitors deaths, homelessness, drug overdoses and firearm deaths.
For a time, residents may see precisely how their authorities was acting on these key points. I do know, as a result of I used to be there when Gov. Jay Inslee launched Outcomes Washington. His first chief of employees, Mary Alice Heuschel, requested me to assist design it. It was daring. It was brave. And for a time, it labored.
However sustaining accountability is more durable than launching it. Critiques between the governor and businesses grew to become scripted. Inslee by no means absolutely embraced fact-driven problem-solving. By 2019, as Inslee ready his short-lived presidential run, employees quietly scrubbed environmental measures from the web site as a result of actuality didn’t help somebody working because the “environmental president.” By 2021, even updating the measures grew to become non-obligatory. Everybody inside Olympia knew: the work not mattered.
This system’s official demise this yr was simply the ultimate act.
Now we have no scarcity of proof that People are divided and annoyed. We’re bored with guarantees. A July Wall Street Journal-NORC poll discovered that the share of people that consider they’ve a great likelihood of enhancing their way of life has fallen to only 25%, a document low.
Our Structure leaves little doubt about the place accountability rests: “We the individuals.” One of the crucial radical concepts of our founding is that the very best workplace within the land isn’t mayor, governor, senator, and even president. The very best workplace is citizen.
What Washington tried with the outcomes program was uncommon. However its destiny isn’t. I’ve studied and suggested states on accountability for greater than 15 years. Ten years in the past, I wrote a ebook that documented these efforts nationwide. The sample is obvious: Governors launch daring initiatives, however their successors virtually all the time abandon them.
Gov. Christine Gregoire’s accountability system was discarded by Inslee, who created Outcomes Washington. Ferguson has now buried what little momentum was created. The widespread thread? Self-accountability doesn’t final.
Essentially the most discouraging half isn’t that politicians lose curiosity. It’s the silence when the measures come down. Few discover. Fewer care.
Now we have been pulled right into a political system designed to divide us left vs. proper, pink vs. blue. However accountability isn’t partisan. It’s foundational. And it belongs to us.
If we wish accountable authorities, it’s on us. Residents should demand transparency, monitor progress and reward leaders who ship outcomes, not intelligent slogans. Immediately, too many people vote on ideology. Tomorrow, we should vote on outcomes.
The query isn’t whether or not politicians are prepared for accountability. The query is, are we?
