County residents will be better able to assess the performance and efficiency of King County government under a countywide effort to increase accountability and set identifiable performance standards, adopted unanimously Monday by the Metropolitan King County Council.

“The ability of citizens to review how well the county performs is especially important in light of our shrinking county wallet and increasing costs for providing services,” said Councilmember Jane Hague, prime sponsor of the legislation. “Today we have continued King County’s leadership in accountability to its citizens through performance measures.”

Hague’s district includes Bellevue.

The Performance Management and Accountability Act calls for county residents to be asked their opinions on the performance of county government. Those opinions along with data will be publicly reported annually in a “King County scorecard” and a “State of King County” report. The information will help enable county residents to answer two critical questions on the performance of their government:

— What is the state of the county? What is the condition of our air, our economy, our infrastructure? Are we safe and healthy?

— How is King County government performing to improve the state of the county?