Mayor Cara Spencer calling a former ambassador by the wrong name several years ago led to a visit to St. Louis today by former mayor, governor, and presidential candidate Martin O’Malley.
As a two-term Baltimore mayor, elected in 1999, O’Malley implemented CitiStat, a performance management and accountability program that tracks metrics like the rate at which potholes are filled, streets are cleaned and abandoned cars are towed. Two decades later, Spencer launched CityStat (note the y), which tracks and makes public similar metrics in St. Louis. O’Malley was in town to meet with Spencer and her staff and advise on how to better make use of the data.
“We’ve never had better tools and an easier way to collect data and to analyze it for its insights,” said O’Malley. “But we oftentimes bump up against 250 years of political wisdom that says, ‘Oh my god, you don’t want to share that because your opponents or the press might cherry pick the bad things.’”…