Yakima Times

The City of Yakima’s data-driven decision-making and transparency earned it an achievement award for its practice of professional local government management.

The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) gave Yakima, Washington, a certificate of achievement in performance management, making it one of three Washington cities to earn the recognition, according to a press release from the city's website.

“The ICMA awards certificates each year to recognize programs that instill a culture of performance management, pursue comparative analysis and data-informed decision-making, and promote openness, accountability, and transparency,” Interim City Manager Alex Meyerhoff said in the press release.

Cities that earn the award train their staff in performance management. To assure its reliability, the data collected by city staff gets verified. These efforts are seen by the public in newsletters, budgets and the data provided to elected officials, according to the press release.

ICMA uses the awards to recognize how local government staff even during a pandemic can keep focused on data-driven management.

“By recognizing these leaders, ICMA hopes to encourage others to make a commitment to collect and analyze data, report it transparently, and use it to continuously engage their communities and improve their organizations,” ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott said in the press release.