In his inaugural address, Governor Bob Ferguson noted that “Our state government is bogged down by too much bureaucracy,” going on to say, “I’m not here to defend government. I’m here to reform it.”
On September 3, the governor signed an executive order he hopes will play a role in that reformation. Called, “Transforming customer experience and service delivery in state government operations,” the order creates a program called “Your Washington” to replace Jay Inslee’s failed Results Washington program.
The goal of Your Washington is to “improve customer experience throughout state government, emphasizing accessibility, efficiency, effectiveness, security, simplicity, accountability, and customer satisfaction in government service delivery.” The governor promises to “publicly track progress and report results, and drive continuous improvements related to customer experience.”
To head the new program, Governor Ferguson tapped former investigative reporter Jesse Jones, noting that “Washingtonians know when there is a problem, you get Jesse.” Appointing someone from outside government with experience in holding people accountable is a really positive move. Jesse built his credibility on demanding accountability. He’s unlikely to waste his well-earned reputation for the sake of protecting government bureaucracy. It took courage for the governor to appoint someone who has demonstrated he can’t be controlled.
But the hard work is just beginning. As the experience with Results Washington shows, government accountability is difficult. Agencies resist accountability, sometimes even refusing to provide metrics. And when programs stumble, politicians quickly lose interest and run away from the program rather than admit they failed. That was exactly what Jay Inslee did when it became clear he was missing virtually all of the key environmental targets (among others).
Here are three things Jones and his team at Your Washington can do to make sure the program lives up to its promises.
1. Meet the timelines.
It will be an early test of the seriousness of the program to see if it can meet its deadlines. Within 120 days of the executive order – January 1, 2026 – agencies must provide customer experience metrics, how agencies will collect and respond to complaints and a progress report. Based on past experience, some agencies will comply, others will appear to comply by providing data that is largely symbolic, and others will complain they don’t have the staff to comply. How the governor and Jones deal with those reports will be an early indicator. How effectively Jones leverages the office of the governor and ultimately leverages the governor himself will determine if the usual walls stay up or come tumbling down.
2. Make the metrics meaningful.
One of the Results Washington targets was that utilities must generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. That sounds good until you realize utilities were required by law to meet that goal. The Inslee Administration didn’t do anything except enforce the law, so the measure itself misrepresented who was making the improvement.
Metrics must deliver real improvements – making government more transparent, efficient and responsive. If agencies offer metrics that are phony, Your Washington staff should reject them and make agencies try again.
3. Create accountability.
During COVID, the state Department of Health set targets for contacting people who tested positive to help them track others they might have infected. The goal they set for themselves was to contact 90 percent of people within one day. They never came close to meeting that goal and the typical percentage was between 20 and 30 percent. Rather than take steps to improve the results, agency staff actually said they were “proud” of the program’s results. By their own rhetoric, their failure increased the chance that people would die, but since there was no threat to their jobs or reputation, Director Umair Shah and others in the agency waived off the abysmal results.
Holding agency staff accountable for failure to improve and meet the goals set by the governor. At some point in 2026, the governor will face a situation where an agency is failing to meet his goals and isn’t making a meaningful effort to improve. How he reacts in that moment will be a strong indicator about whether the program is serious or not. If he blinks, everyone will see it.
This doesn’t mean automatically firing people who fail to meet goals or improve. A system based on fear is likely to encourage agency staff to play games with the numbers and spend resources on efforts that are more about making numbers look good than providing real-world improvement. Agencies must be encouraged to find solutions and begin a process to implement them. Government, like business, will fail to meet their goals. Your Washington’s job is to push them to find solutions when that occurs.
Ultimately, Your Washington and the governor have to make it safe to fail, but they can’t make it safe not to try. If the governor doesn’t put his credibility behind the program and create a cost for failure, Your Washington will end the same way Results Washington did.