Legislature selects watchdog to head performance evaluations

A Boise native who worked for more than a decade as an Idaho state government watchdog analyst is now leading the agency.

Ryan Langrill, the new director of the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluations, told the Idaho Capital Sun that there’s nothing quite like the work he gets to do. 

“What other job do you get to do a new deep dive every year, if not more often?” Langrill told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview. He said “it seems like we’re sort of in between this, like, investigative journalist and management consultant role.”

Langrill served as the agency’s interim director since July, after the agency’s previous director of 21-years, Rakesh Mohan, retired. 

On Nov. 7, the Idaho Legislative Council officially named Langrill as director of the Office of Performance Evaluations.

At the meeting, Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said the committee received applications from across the U.S. in its national search. 

“But the committee, when it came right down to it, felt like we have the best qualified person to do that already in house,” Winder said. 

How he got started in government watchdog work

Langrill started his career on a route toward academia, earning a PhD and master’s degree in economics from George Mason University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in history in economics from Gonzaga University, based in Spokane. 

But soon, he realized that he didn’t have as much passion for teaching.

He started searching for jobs back home in Boise, where his wife returned while he worked in Atlanta.

When he found a job posting at the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluations, he saw it as an opportunity to do what he loves: applied research.

“This seems like that, and it seems very practical. Like, ‘Oh — it is research that is directly being used to improve the governance of the state of Idaho,’” Langrill recalled.

And he’s stayed ever since. He worked as an evaluator for the agency for over a decade, leading 14 projects. 

Report on mental illness facility found issues. Then conditions transformed

Langrill told the Sun that the most memorable report that he’s worked on at the agency was a 2019 report on a mental illness facility in Nampa called the Southwest Idaho Treatment Center, which found a “culture of constant crisis.”

But in 2023, when Langrill briefed lawmakers on the agency’s follow-up report, he reported that conditions had improved.

“It’s been a big transformation. And the report was not the whole reason for that, but I think it was part of that,” Langrill told the Sun. He said “that’s been the most concrete observed outcome I’ve seen from our work.”

As part of the initial report on the Southwest Idaho Treatment Center, he told the Sun he embedded himself at the center for much of one year, was trained on its direct care process and restraint program and became certified with its nonviolent crisis intervention team. 

Being there helped him understand the culture, and to “diagnose” what wasn’t working, he said. 

His plans as Idaho watchdog agency director

Langrill said his principles are fundamentally the same as the agency’s previous director: Rigor, credibility and independence. 

“We need to do a really good job of understanding — if we’re evaluating a program, not just understanding what the role of the state employees are in it, but what is the experience of the people receiving services and the people on the other side of things?” Langrill said.

And he knows that the Office of Performance Evaluations fills a critical role in state government, as one of the tools for the Idaho Legislature see how “government is actually working,” including how the executive branch, laws passed, and money doled out actually function.

“It’s hard for 105 part-time legislators to do that on their own,” Langrill said. But, he said, “if they need a deep dive to understand what’s happening, we are — I think — a great tool for that.”

“That’s how I see the role of the office. And so we provide understanding, and then we provide accountability, if we find that the implementation of programs is not in line with good practices or legislative intent,” he said.

During the legislative session, Langrill said he hopes to spend more time in the Idaho State Capitol. 

Part of that time could be spent synthesizing more of the office’s in-depth work on complex issues, like he did with the Idaho Medicaid Managed Care Task Force in 2023. The Office of Performance Evaluations already presents its reports to the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, which requests reports from the agency. And the agency presents to relevant committees.

“But are there opportunities for us to take what we’ve learned from a whole stable of reports and say, ‘Hey, we have, we have some findings that may inform this conversation,’” Langrill said.