Background information for those just wandering into this legislative disaster: Last year, not to be undone by their other incredible feats of total ineptitude, some of our Illinois legislators passed a law under the cover of darkness to regulate and impose a fee on anyone trying to dump dirt in a hole. At least that’sRead… Read more »
What I have noticed over many years of working in local government is that residents who call with concerns or problems will at some point announce how many years they have lived in that particular city. It can be anywhere from 1 to 90+ years. But no matter the amount of time, the declaration isRead… Read more »
Each year, water utilities all over the U.S. have to prepare and distribute Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) to their customers. Usually these documents are sent out as two or three page sheets of tiny text filled with standard, required language reporting on water sources and chemicals found in drinking water. My guess is most AmericansRead… Read more »
Today I had the opportunity to listen to a discussion about cloud computing and virtualization of IT services: “The Future of Enterprise IT Architecture” with representatives from Cisco, VMware, and Barquin. Now most non-IT government workers, like myself, probably would think, “Why in the world would you subject yourself to something like that?” But fortunatelyRead… Read more »
Last month I decided to close down the Public Works Group island in Second Life. Over the last 2 1/2 years, the island allowed many people the opportunity to see and explore how virtual worlds could enhance the public works industry. The site also provided a place for people to meet and experience virtual worldsRead… Read more »
I read a great post on GovLoop by Steve Radick. In the post, he mentioned how important it is to not only take care of your own blog, but visit and comment on other people’s blogs. As I commented on his post, this reminded me of the Bible Verse a Day programs and thought wouldn’tRead… Read more »
The cry for open government is rising and elected officials are delivering. But in the zeal to throw open the doors to the records vault, no one bothered to fully understand the impact except for those of us who actually work for government. But no one wants to hear from us. Politicians only care aboutRead… Read more »
A city’s sustainability and stability relies on an active, engaged, and innovative population. But local government was never structured to address this social aspect of community even though many expect it to do so. Instead, as Tim O’Reilly said in this video, government is like a vending machine, “we pay our taxes and out comeRead… Read more »
Managing a public cemetery is just one of the many tasks handled by a public works department. Typically we take care of cutting grass, repairing monuments, paving/plowing roads, removing leaves, burying people, selling lots, and handling the documentation and requests for grave locations. Little has changed over the years in how these duties are administered.Read… Read more »
Transparency Camp West was held from Aug. 8-9, 2009, on the Google Campus in Mountain View, Calif. After working with Andrew Krzmarzick on the OGI Tweetbook, I wanted to try to compile the Tweets from this conference in a similar manner. Unfortunately I bought a house and moved in the middle of all that whichRead… Read more »