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 “major buyer expertise hub for Washington state businesses.”
In doing so, Gov. Ferguson has handed residents of this nation an sudden 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 isn’t our elected officers. It isn’t authorities itself.
Abraham Lincoln, who led throughout our most divided time, put it plainly: “I’ve understood effectively the obligation of self-preservation rests solely with the American individuals.” Outcomes Washington was a severe try to reply Lincoln’s name — a imaginative and prescient of a state that dared to outline success and measure it in plain view.
It set formidable objectives: world-class training, a robust economic system, clear vitality and setting, protected communities and accountable authorities. Progress was tracked by way of 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 might 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 workers, 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 tougher than launching it. Opinions between the governor and businesses turned scripted. Inslee by no means totally embraced fact-driven problem-solving. By 2019, as Inslee ready his short-lived presidential run, workers 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 turned non-obligatory. Everybody inside Olympia knew: the work now not mattered.
This system’s official loss of life this yr was simply the ultimate act.
We’ve no scarcity of proof that Individuals are divided and annoyed. We’re bored with guarantees. A July Wall Street Journal-NORC poll discovered that the share of people that imagine they’ve an excellent probability of enhancing their lifestyle has fallen to simply 25%, a report low.
Our Structure leaves little doubt about the place accountability rests: “We the individuals.” Some of the radical concepts of our founding is that the very best workplace within the land will not be mayor, governor, senator, and even president. The best workplace is citizen.
What Washington tried with the outcomes program was uncommon. However its destiny will not be. I’ve studied and suggested states on accountability for greater than 15 years. Ten years in the past, I wrote a guide that documented these efforts nationwide. The sample is obvious: Governors launch daring initiatives, however their successors nearly 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.
Probably the most discouraging half will not be that politicians lose curiosity. It’s the silence when the measures come down. Few discover. Fewer care.
We’ve been pulled right into a political system designed to divide us left vs. proper, crimson vs. blue. However accountability will not be partisan. It’s foundational. And it belongs to us.
If we would like accountable authorities, it’s on us. Residents should demand transparency, monitor progress and reward leaders who ship outcomes, not intelligent slogans. Right this moment, 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?
