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County unveils new performance companion document and program inventory to improve budget clarity
Summary
Durham County’s Organizational Effectiveness team said it identified about 118 county programs and refined roughly 400 performance measures to accompany the FY27 budget book; staff rolled out a companion performance document with visuals and narratives to retain context while expanding measurable coverage.
John Kefir, director of Durham County’s Organizational Effectiveness unit, presented a year‑long effort to catalog programs and strengthen performance reporting across the enterprise.
“I am John Kefir, director of organizational effectiveness,” he said, outlining a three‑part priority: produce a comprehensive program inventory, strengthen measurement quality and improve public‑facing reporting. County staff said they met with departments, reviewed nearly 700 legacy performance measures and refined a set of about 400 measures across roughly 118 programs to be included in the FY27 recommended materials.
Kefir and his team described a change in format: the budget book will use a tabular, program‑based presentation to increase the number of measures per program while a companion performance document provides visualizations, narratives and data‑source notes to preserve context and explain trends and targets.
The companion document will be finalized before the adopted budget and staff said it will evolve next year into a live, on‑demand reporting capability keyed to departmental work plans and quarterly reporting. Kefir said staff will work with departments over the summer to add targets, stretch goals and alignment to the county’s strategic plan.
Commissioners praised the clarity of the new materials and asked staff to ensure the documents are accessible to residents, to place copies in libraries and to continue improving targets and return‑on‑investment narratives so elected officials can use performance data in policy choices.
Staff committed to follow‑up: finalize measure narratives for the adopted budget, add targets where possible and continue developing a dynamic reporting platform to allow leaders and the public to drill into program results during the fiscal year.
