County administrator unveils quarterly management report dashboard; commissioners ask for clearer plan-of-record links

Tanya Angie, Washington County’s county administrator, presented the county’s quarterly management report and a new cross‑department dashboard at the Jan. 6 roundtable, describing how status colors and narrative fields will show progress and next steps.

Angie said the dashboard is a first effort to present “one Washington County” reporting and explained the status colour scheme. “Green is that the activity is going according to or in some cases, maybe it's ahead of schedule,” she said. “Yellow is a bit off track. Red is … blocked.” She added that blue indicates completed initiatives and purple indicates upcoming work.

Commissioners pressed staff to tighten the connection between the executive narrative and the line‑item dashboards. Multiple commissioners said the opening message and cross‑functional goals should explicitly call out when a plan of record has changed and point readers to the corresponding dashboard entry showing the cause and next steps. One commissioner said the dashboard’s prior “progress” meter confused readers and recommended removing it; Angie confirmed staff would eliminate that column and rely on the status indicator.

Angie and department directors said this is the county’s first county‑wide, standardized initiative dashboard and that departments had varied in the length and detail of narratives. She said the CAO’s office will ask departments to keep updates concise and to add “last update” and “next steps” explanations when initiatives move off track. The CAO’s office also plans to transition quarterly reports after the budget cycle so the October report will reflect an evolved set of countywide goals aligned to the adopted budget.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the quarterly management report should help the board and public understand whether priorities are being met, where program timelines have slipped, and whether department work‑plans have changed. Commissioners sought assurances that the report will link narrative changes to an updated plan of record so the board can spot systemic delays and hold departments to clear corrective actions.

What’s next: Angie said the next quarterly report is scheduled for late January (the CAO noted the target date of Jan. 28 may be adjusted) and that staff will continue iterating the dashboard, remove confusing indicators, and add clearer “last update/next steps” notes for initiatives that are off track. Staff will also explore improved layout and readability for PDF distribution and web presentation.

Ending: Commissioners praised staff for the dashboard work while asking for clearer, more standardized narrative links to the plan of record and for public‑facing readability improvements in the budget book and quarterly report.