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B&G REPORT.
The B&G Report features newsy items relating to a wide variety of state and local government management topics, including state and local performance audit, state and local performance management, government budgeting, state and local human resource issues, and a variety of other public sector issues.
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greenebarrett
3 min read
HOT SPOTS FOR GOVERNMENT ACTION
As regular readers of this website know, we generally avoid covering politics or the federal government. That said, we’re beginning this...
greenebarrett
3 min read
REALITY TV AND REALITY IN GOVERNMENT
In 2024, our professional life was very busy (as our colleagues, family and friends know), and so we hardly had the energy in our...
greenebarrett
2 min read
PERFORMANCE READER’S GUIDE (Part 3)
As we approach the last several weeks of December, our plan is to take a full vacation starting on December 14, continuing through New...
greenebarrett
3 min read
SEVEN REASONS FOR THANKS ON THURSDAY
Thanksgiving is just a few days away and we thought this was an appropriate time to dig into some of the state and local government news...
greenebarrett
3 min read
CAN WE HAVE A DATE?
A couple of weeks ago, our B&G Report published a series of answers to the question: “What should members of the press know in order to...
greenebarrett
4 min read
RX FOR PERFORMANCE PITFALLS
Last week’s B&G Report included the second in a series of lists, compiled by experts, about managing performance. The first such list,...
greenebarrett
3 min read
PERFORMANCE READER’S GUIDE (PART 2)
We received a tremendous response a few weeks ago when we published “A Reader’s Guide to Government Performance” by John Kamensky, a...
greenebarrett
3 min read
HOW TO IMPROVE GOVERNMENT COVERAGE
Over the years, we’ve written a great deal about ways in which government officials can improve their relationship with the press. We...
greenebarrett
2 min read
LOOKING BEHIND THE HEADLINES
We recently came across an online report by a local NPR station that began with a headline that stated that, “Philadelphia and Wilmington...
greenebarrett
3 min read
A READER'S GUIDE TO GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
Several decades ago, when we first developed a passion for performance management, we leaned upon a cadre of people who were pioneering...
greenebarrett
3 min read
BURIED ACADEMIC TREASURES
When we were attending the most recent Southeastern Conference for Public Administration in Memphis (SECOPA), we sat in on a number of...
greenebarrett
3 min read
ARE BEST PRACTICES REALLY THE BEST?
Just the other day, we were editing a Guest Column for this website (we won’t bother to mention the name of the author) and discovered...
greenebarrett
2 min read
WHAT DO – OR DON’T – THE FEDS DO?
Over the course of time, we’ve written repeatedly about the confusion many Americans have about which level of government provides which...
greenebarrett
3 min read
EIGHT WAYS TO WRITE FOR IMPACT
Back in March, in collaboration with Donald F. Kettl professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public...
greenebarrett
3 min read
GENERATION Z: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
In conversations that we’ve had lately with people in human resources and elsewhere in government, we’ve found ourselves repeatedly...
greenebarrett
3 min read
AN OPEN LETTER TO ELECTED OFFICIALS
Good day, Last week we were talking to an inquisitive person who is rising in the local public sector world. The conversation turned to...
greenebarrett
3 min read
DO YOU LOVE CITIES TOO?
We love cities. Though we moved out of Manhattan a few years ago for the little town of Bethel, Connecticut, we’ll live the rest of our...
greenebarrett
4 min read
WHEN CORRUPTION HITS SMALL CITIES
Walter Winchell, one of America’s most popular syndicated gossip columnists and radio commentators from the 1920s through the early 1960s...
greenebarrett
3 min read
WHY DO PEOPLE LAUGH WHEN WE TELL THEM WHAT WE DO?
When we attend social gatherings like weddings and are seated with people who don’t know us, one of the obligatory first questions...
greenebarrett
3 min read
POTHOLES ON THE AI ROAD
We’re not scared of AI. It doesn’t take much historical memory to know that pretty much any new technology brings out fear and...
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