The Council for Excellence in Government was a public/private partnership organization initiated in the 1980s designed to improve the effectiveness of federal, state, and local government in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The organization ceased to operate in 2009 and the majority of its staff and programs moved to the

Partnership for Public Service The Partnership for Public Service is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to inspire a new generation of civil servants and to transform the way government works. The Partnership's most visible program ...

.Rosenberg, Alyssa. 2009. Council for Excellence in Government to close. Government Executive, February 9, 2009, http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0209/020909ar2.htm Originally, the Council was a brainchild of several ex-government officials who had moved on to success in the private sector. They felt that government services and responsiveness to public needs would improve if there were an organization that could bring the private and the public together to meet and exchange ideas. The Council commissioned public polls, attempted to engage citizens and generate interest in public service, and provided generous awards for innovation in government. Council supporters, called principals, provided advice, assistance, and monetary sponsorship for the Council's activities. The Council was non-partisan in nature, and had former Presidents

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

, and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

as honorary chairs of its board. Former President

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

was also an honorary co-chair until his death. Virginia philanthropist

Alan Voorhees Alan Manners Voorhees (December 17, 1922 – December 18, 2005) was an American transportation engineer and urban planner who designed many large public works in the United States. Voorhees was born in Highland Park, New Jersey. Early life Du ...

, whose architectural firm designed the

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

system in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and many other capital cities around the world in the 1960s and 1970s, provided seed money and office space in the early 1980s. Voorhees was always interested in applications of technology to public problems, and was the inventor of the "gravity theory" of traffic flow which was used in

transportation planning Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a collaborative process that i ...

since the 1950s.

References

{{Authority control Political organizations based in the United States 1980s establishments in the United States 2009 disestablishments in the United States Civil service in the United States