Features Government

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 […]

The start of San Leandro, California’s, technology revolution can be pin-pointed almost to the day. In 2011, Dr. Patrick Kennedy, the founder and CEO of OSIsoft, the city’s largest tech company, which specializes in installing its trademarked “PI system” for private companies and public organizations, approached City Hall with an idea to install fiber optics […]

Fifteen years ago, a city council meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, ran on printed agendas and the occasional memo. While this is the way most cities operated at the time, Director of IT Mark Barham is glad many governments have shifted from this paper-driven environment, Williamsburg included. “There was no interactivity between citizens and their government […]

As a young man, D. Darnell Smith recognized the growing importance of info-tech, deciding to major in computer science rather than accounting at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and finding opportunities aplenty to ply that skill post-graduation. After long stretches of distinguished performance with E.I. DuPont and Elster Group, Smith opted for the […]