Features Government

She figured to be in career-changing mode sooner rather than later. Not out of desperation, though. Maria Sanchez was holding down two high-profile positions—general counsel for the New Mexico Department of Information Technology and state CIO. Quite a two-fer for a 31-year-old. Or for anyone. Lest one find that resume too impressive, Sanchez will remind […]

It’s time for that most loathed of citizen rituals: spending an entire afternoon watching that digital red counter as you wait to renew your driver’s license: 17, 18, 19, at a rate of roughly one tick every three minutes. By the way, you’re number 72. If you happen to live in the State of Kansas, […]

If you ask Youri Assi Antonin, he’ll tell you the world’s most impressive technology isn’t artificial intelligence or fusion power. It’s not neural networking or molecular assemblers. It’s not even the Hubble Space Telescope, a machine so powerful it can see galaxies 13 billion light years away. Indeed, it’s something far more advanced—and beautiful. “The […]

Every business owner dreads the permitting process. Depending on the space’s size and location, dozens of documents and licenses might be required. Fire safety, air and water pollution control, sales tax paperwork, health department checks: It’s enough red tape to mummify the building (that’s a code violation, by the way). In Reno, Nevada, all you […]

It’s among the most desirable cities anywhere, mile-high Aurora, Colorado, at least for the financially secure and gainfully employed. But the long winters can make it very inhospitable for the homeless. And that’s when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a Point-in-Time tally of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons. The count must […]

For years, residents of Colorado’s Arapahoe County who were eligible for subsidies, including food stamps and shelter assistance, would have to wait a week or more before their benefit application was processed. During the Great Recession, in particular, when need spiked and the old systems were taxed, those lag times could prove the difference between […]

What a difference a few years makes, John Daane had to be thinking on the last Thursday in June, when the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority’s five-member board very routinely OK’d his request to replace its Enterprise Resource Planning software. “I expected some questions and further discussion,” mused the Dutch-born, info-tech director of the local government […]

It’s just a fact of life in the public sector, muses Rick Nolle. Infotech often lags behind the far more up-to-date versions that are par for the course in the private sector, resulting in at least some dissatisfied customers who just so happen to be taxpayers. But that’s becoming less and less the case in […]

It’s a scenic and choice city about 20 miles south of increasingly urbanized Nashville, where more and more folks are putting down roots—Franklin, Tennessee. Quarterly, the local Building and Neighborhood Services Department can count on a mix of 1,300 residential and commercial requests for some kind of permit. That’s a lot for any municipal department […]

Not quite Maryland, not quite Virginia, Washington D.C. may be its own kingdom stationed on the Potomac, but it faces technology challenges similar to those of any other major metropolis, including tight budgets and a lack of access to digital devices for low-income residents. If anything, the challenges may be more pervasive in the nation’s […]