As a management consultant who believes strongly in the power of executive dashboards, I have to applaud the impulse, but I urge Sam (and the public) to be careful. Not everything measureable deserves to be included. And the dashboard's purpose must be extremely clear from the beginning.

I don't yet see such clarity of purpose in Sam's effort. Is the purpose to focus the city on its role in economic development? Or something else?

Good executive dashboards work to support strong, clear strategy by tying strategy to operations. If that's not the purpose of this dashboard, it may not be worth pursuing.

The worst case would be if it became a parking place for data at every scope of action and for every political nostrum, such as Chris Smith's adorable but unsupported belief that income disparity is a useful measure of anything.