Marathon County data officer unveils in-house KPI dashboard plan, targets February 2026 rollout

Marathon County’s data officer, Michael, told the county executive committee she has built a mock-up of departmental dashboards and intends to publish an initial set of about 50 key performance indicators (KPIs) by February 2026.

Michael said the county will adapt the Pulse platform (used in Marathon County health partnerships) to host the dashboards, which will present “how much did we do, how well did we do it, and is anyone better off” for programs tied to the budget. She said the county identified about 240 potential KPIs across departments and will phase publication, prioritizing “quick wins” where data are already in a usable form.

County Administrator Leonard and other committee members described Michael’s work as foundational for program evaluation and budgeting. Leonard noted the data team is a single-person office and that Michael has already rebuilt justice-system reports and automated weekly case manager notices. Leonard said using an in-house solution avoids an outside vendor quote that ran about $263,000 over three years.

Michael described concrete examples already implemented: a dashboard mock-up for Meals on Wheels that includes a five-year line graph, a downloadable CSV dataset, and a non‑duplicated customer count; rebuilt justice-system reports that flag missing fields for case managers by color-coded email each Monday; and budget visualizations such as timber and camping revenue projections.

On data quality and standardization, Michael emphasized the need for consistent logging practices across departments before analytics or automation (including future AI use) can add value. “If you can standardize the data and have it log the same way every single time,” she said, “now we can start to have those better conversations about how AI might play a role.” She described outreach to other counties and the state to identify reusable approaches for justice-system data and to reduce siloed systems.

Committee members asked about scope, comparisons to other counties, and the public value of dashboards. Vice Chair Dickinson said dashboards should serve measurable goals and not be “vanity metrics.” Leonard and Michael said the dashboards will support program evaluation (for example, treatment‑court success rates and public‑health caseloads), internal management (workload and case tracking), and public transparency. Michael committed to an aggressive timetable: “My goal is February 2026.”

Michael said the initial rollout will focus on budget‑related KPIs and then expand incrementally as data accessibility and standardization improve. She asked departments to cooperate on access and standardization; Leonard said the county will continue to invest in systems where needed, while noting the limits of a one‑person data team.

The committee did not take formal action on the presentation; members asked follow-up questions and directed staff to continue development and bring updates to future meetings.