Archive
Several states not only help citizens find unclaimed property, but they also make money off of it.
An international design contest is calling teams of architects, engineers and ecologists to develop highway overpasses to increase the safety of wildlife and motorists.
Reading suggestions for public officials looking to get up to speed on innovative management.
It is one of the enduring conundrums of public budgeting: How do you feed success and starve failure?
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen discusses health reform, the future of health IT and how states should approach regulating private insurers.
In an effort to combat rising teen birthrates, Texas implemented two programs to show and teach students the real-life responsibilities that come with teen pregnancy.
A proposal by the president's fiscal commission could dramatically increase the cost of borrowing for cities.
The president's new initiative on quality health care deserves support. So does tort reform.
States must make the least-worse budget cuts -- or consider dropping out of the program.
Plus: Giving oversight some teeth, looking at some pretty graphics, and more management news
Getting ready to take office is a lot like putting together a football team.
State and local officials are up in arms over a proposal in Congress that would change the way pension data is reported.
The federal government is urging states to adopt its 11-point plan to get dangerous drunk drivers off the road.
Gov. 2.0 has led to some real enhancements. The focus on results must continue for Gov. 2.0 to deliver fully on its potential.
There is value in all-day workshops beyond tuning up one's performance measurement game. Worshops offer a rare opportunity for those in the human services business to rub elbows and compare notes.
Quincy, Mass., is expanding a pilot program this winter that pays snow-removal companies for the amount of snow they remove, not the hours they work.
Incoming governors in two states pledged they wouldn't move forward on implementing President Obama's high-speed rail efforts in their states. So the federal government is distributing their funds elsewhere.
Grappling with strict budgets, governments redefine how local museums operate.
One Montana county has been implementing a pilot program that enforces two breathalyzer tests a day for repeat DUI offenders to keep them sober.
The tax bill the White House has negotiated fails to renew the popular Build America Bonds program, which makes borrowing less expensive for local governments.
Some thoughts on how to avoid them and successfully implement public initiatives.
A guide to avoiding these five traps, and successfully implementing public initiatives.
Evidence is mounting that unlocking your raw data is a great way to enhance public services at very little cost.
Congress could force states and cities to allow union negotiation for police and fire fighters.
Over the past year, more states and cities started considering and creating social media policies to address acceptable uses and minimize risks.
Courts exist for a reason, but over-reliance on the bench for operational oversight can produce more due process than is due.
Done well, outcome budgeting uses the leverage of the budget process to do more than just better allocate money. It drives innovation.
A nationwide pilot program is set to increase the amount of classroom experience student teachers receive in education programs.
Manhattan is implementing a pilot program that will allow for the recovery of organs from individuals who die outside of hospital settings.
Many government agencies can and should do a better job of making sure that those who owe government money, pay it.
Financial economics should apply to labor relations, not accounting.
With just under a year to go, nine seats -- all held by Democratic governors -- could go to Republicans.
Only Pelham, Mass., can lay claim to having the oldest town hall in continuous use for town meetings.
A column for those who work on the front lines where innovation, these days, is most needed.
Six steps for those who work close to the front line where innovation, these days, is most needed.
Stung by aggressive attorneys general, business is placing big bets on
races it used to ignore.
Plus: Manager must-reads, the importance of good data, and more management news
Maine is one of two states — along with Wisconsin — that flipped from all-Democratic to all-Republican rule on Election Day. On Wednesday (December 1), the state's new GOP-dominant Legislature begins work.
Susana Martinez’s win in New Mexico’s gubernatorial election means she’ll be the nation’s first Latina governor.
Governors who campaigned against stimulus spending face hard choices.
Deep managerial workforce cuts change how tightly and rightly governments run.
A U.S. Defense official leads the charge for a less restrictive, more effective approach.
Cities are using new grant money to install ‘chief volunteer officers.’
Bicycling has become fashionable. Urban and transportation policymakers take note.
State and local officials are thinking pragmatically this holiday season.
Legislators face opposition in passing school bus seat belt laws, but support is growing.
States and localities across the country are adopting tougher anti-bullying laws.
Does holding elections on a workday contribute to low voter turnout?
Two states exempt their kids from vaccinations -- but pertussis is rampant in only one.
In an effort to round up glass bottles littering Fort Worth, officials are enlisting the help of the homeless.
On the morning of May 21, Philadelphians awoke to find that a prankster had dyed the water in the fountain at JFK Plaza bright pink. Rather than causing a hue and cry among city leaders, however, the stunt inspired them.
Prison inmates in Boscobel, Wisconsin, won't be able to read all about it. In response to requests from the city council, the local school district and the union representing prison guards, the weekly Boscobel Dial will not sell subscriptions to convicts at the super-maximum- security penitentiary there.
Earlier this year, Illinois' new secretary of transportation pulled his car over on the Dan Ryan Expressway to introduce himself to some highway maintenance workers and found a couple of them sleeping in their vehicles by the side of the road.
Outsourcing may seem like a perfect solution for deficit-plagued governments, but the morning after can bring some unpleasant surprises.
The 267-year-old tradition is alive and well in Pelham, Mass.
Are states shoring up their defenses enough to protect critical data and computer infrastructure?
School districts in California are building solar-panel roofs in their parking lots to provide shade for cars and generate low-cost electricity.
When it comes to stretching scarce dollars, states should examine recent trends in business best practices.
The number of vehicle-miles driven keeps rising, but the number of
accidents continues to go down.
Like most married couples, Andy Dawkins and Ellen Anderson disagree about lots of things. What makes their domestic squabbles unusual is that they are as likely to revolve around the state of Minnesota's affairs as those of their own household.
Big cities are tapping a broader, more business-oriented talent pool to run their troubled--and politically charged--school systems
Before entering the California Assembly last year, Fran Pavley taught civics at a junior high school. That experience left her ill prepared, though, for the political realities she encountered during the year and a half she spent pushing a landmark greenhouse-gas regulation bill through the legislature.
Growth in mentally ill prisoners sparks debate over incarceration vs.
treatment.
Even in an age of high-tech hype, the Segway human transporter stands out. The launch of the device, which its makers insist shouldn't be called a motorized scooter, was a nationally televised event last December.
In these tough fiscal times, it's important to have report cards that
measure what IT projects are producing.
In the wake of a major procurement scandal, California is seeking a
better way to make big buys.
Sometimes in public life, the best politician for the job may not be a politician. That, at least, is the gamble that St. Louis-area public transit is taking with Larry Salci.
Under a new law, Maine state employees are allowed to retire, collect their full benefits and then be instantly rehired for the same job. The state saves $20,000 to $30,000 on each position, because health insurance and other benefits are funded through the separate retirement system.
Just as sheriffs rounded up posses in the old days, state attorneys general today are collaborating with two groups to enhance the cybercrime-fighting skills of personnel in their offices.
Many legislatures didn't get their work done in regulation time this
year. Some aren't getting it done in overtime, either.
St. Louis not only purchases toilet paper for city bathrooms, it also buys it for city streets. More specifically, the city spent $2,000 last year on 10,000 rolls of toilet paper to help fix crack-filled roads.
Power is going underground in Leesburg, Florida. This Lake County city is the first in the state to decide to move all its electric lines below street level.
Should animal rights be extended to include choice of domicile? That issue is being hotly debated between two towns in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles.
Kansas legislators are donning their blazers and turning off their cell phones thanks to a newly reinstated manners police.
The "not in my backyard" syndrome typically applies to landfills or sewage-treatment facilities. But Las Vegas is not your typical community and neither is the NIMBY situation there. In the case of Sin City, residents have been fighting over the placement of a thrill ride.
To prove that art has a place in modern society--or at least on its roads--artist Richard Ankrom recently added a sign to a Los Angeles highway, warning motorists on the northbound Harbor Freeway that they must be in the left lane to travel north on Interstate 5.
While the federal government remains stymied over corporate misdeeds,
state officials have come out with guns blazing.
Increasingly, cities and development authorities are building and
owning the hotels that support their convention centers.
The District of Columbia, once the nation's poster child for
managerial incompetence, is staging a comeback.
Citizens and public officials alike aren't very good at evaluating
risk and making intelligent decisions about it.
Travel by government employees is down, but it's still a big expense
in every state. The goal isn't to eliminate it but to do it
efficiently.
CIOs from the private sector bring a refreshing mindset to their
government jobs, and vice versa.
Before Congress revisits the Internet-sales issue, states are
developing a simpler and more uniform tax-collection process.
It will take more than platitudes to save Amtrak. But good ideas are
out there.
Among the biggest legal developments of the past decade is the U.S. Supreme Court's weakening of federal power in favor of states' rights. And no politician has taken greater tactical advantage of this new federalism than Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general of New York State.
If Philadelphia can just clear away the rubble of its abandoned
buildings, whole new neighborhoods might spring up. But it will cost a
fortune, and there's no guarantee it will work.
It doesn't rank with Anwar Sadat's journey to Jerusalem, but it's close. The mayor of Dallas and four council members recently visited Fort Worth to ask for advice about reviving their downtown.
Florida is launching a great experiment to cut health costs with
better care for the chronically ill.
Louisiana has undergone a sea change in the use of performance
information. Managing for results is working there.
Traffic tie-ups are still far from intolerable for residents in many
regions in the United States, according to a travel time index.
Schools are being asked to consider ways to relieve the burden of
heavy backpacks.
Rap artists are known for stirring up controversy, but now five current and former Detroit officials are whipping up their own storm by suing the rapper Dr. Dre for allegedly invading their privacy.
Danielle Steel has just completed her 54th book, and more than 470 million copies of her romance novels have been sold worldwide.
The situation could hardly have been more ironic. At the same time that Nevada's top officials were fighting against becoming the nation's nuclear waste dumping ground, the state proudly unveiled a new license plate design: a mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion.
State Senator Enoch Kelly Haney has once again made Oklahoma history. In 1980, he became the first full-blooded Native American to serve in the legislature.
Movie and television producers planning to film scenes with a backdrop of Boston's picturesque skyline, Public Garden or Fenway Park may face more complicated shoots: The city's Film Bureau closed at the end of June.
At universities all across the country, students and their parents have gotten used to paying tuition and other fees by credit card. It allows them to earn airline miles and, by paying fees electronically, to avoid long lines.
Maine's reformers believe they are washing the special interest money
out of state politics. But critics say they are just laundering it.
Light rail may have sex appeal, but a growing number of cities are
jazzing up a more affordable alternative--bus rapid transit.
States are the level of government we go to because we don't expect
the others to succeed.
A growing number of municipalities are using 'reverse 911' to alert
residents in the event of an emergency.
"Pick your Poison" is not the phrase most state tourism sites would choose to refer potential visitors to their major attractions. But the Nevada Commission on Tourism's Adventure Guide is not exactly traditional.
Three states take steps to curb localities' charges for laying
broadband lines beneath city streets.
You don't have to believe e-government is dying to conclude that this
revolution in delivering services has seen better days.
When a TV show deals with the risks of nuclear storage, it can tip an
already unstable political balance.
No one could accuse Mee Moua of lacking political courage. This spring, just weeks after the Democrat won a special election to the Minnesota Senate, she jumped feet-first into an emotional debate over whether the state ought to mandate reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.
In the 1990s, New York and Boston achieved dramatic decreases in
homicide. One of them is still improving. The other is getting worse
again. Why?
Earnings are down, benefits are up. For state and local retirement
systems, it's been a year of living very dangerously.
Many state health agencies would be thrilled to receive 85 percent of their Medicaid claim forms electronically, as the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services does. For DSHS officials in this tech-accomplished state, however, anything less than 100 percent is unacceptable.
Every so often, a handful of social service workers in Hennepin County, Minnesota, give away their pending cases and stop visiting families in need. Instead, they turn into technology liaisons.
State-versus-local tension is getting worse. Locals fear state budgets
will be balanced at their expense. They may be right.
There will be more and longer turn lanes on Iowa's rural roads. Street signs along highways will be larger. Rumble strips will precede stop signs.
Santa Clara couldn't keep its teachers. Despite increasing beginning-
teacher salaries, the county's unified school district found its new
teachers walking away.
Institutions honoring illustrious deeds--or quirky interests--suffer
ill fortune.
Senators in Washington State have made it clear that they prefer not to dine with the masses. In fact, they don't seem to want to break bread with members of the House of Representatives, either.
When Chicago unleashed a herd of painted cows on its sidewalks-- followed by pigs, moose and fish in other cities--only art critics, who bemoaned the displays as lowbrow, ruined the fun.
Either we take steps to halt the escalation of health care costs or we
make plans for the higher bills to be paid.
Politicians and the press have always taken jabs at each other, but animosities reached a new level in Kentucky when a county official snatched a newspaper's name right from its masthead.
Iowa officials are hoping a little shock therapy will remove college students' doubts about the ability of campus security officers to respond to dangerous situations.
It turns out the Mile High City is even higher than people thought.
As important as funerals and cemeteries are to people, you'd think
we'd do a decent job of regulating them. We don't.
A decade ago, voters approved a tax to fund construction of Coors Field in Denver. Now, the 43 municipalities that sponsored the deal are getting money back.
Bad news on stocks holds at least some good news for states and localities.
Techies in several states are all keyed up about providing public
employees with do-it-yourself services.
More and more issues of federalism are ending up in the Supreme Court.
There's a reason for that.
Hotel owners and managers are usually the biggest boosters of their cities. Stands to reason: If outsiders want to visit a place, the hoteliers are the beneficiaries.
When a state or local agency has money left at the end of the year, a
spendthrift mentality tends to take over.
You've heard it said, no doubt, that states have been a little timid this year about raising taxes to get themselves out of economic trouble. That's true--at least for those who don't smoke or drink.
The number of children with learning disabilities is surging. Some say
the real problem is schools' failure to teach students how to read.
An emerging approach to highway maintenance takes the politics out of
road repair.
Ever since the July day when Mayor Ray Nagin announced that 84 arrest warrants had been issued in a massive campaign against public corruption, New Orleans has been a changed city.
It isn't easy, but some suburbs are converting aging shopping centers
and their acres of asphalt into vibrant, mixed-use town centers.
Communities don't need a moribund mall in order to make big changes to stale shopping spots. Consider the commercial areas on the outskirts of almost every American suburb and city.
Arizona regulators are joining the backlash against electricity deregulation, arguing that the state was poised to possibly repeat mistakes made next door in California.
California is always trying to get its local water authorities to cooperate on a regional basis. The state recently put its money where its mouth is, awarding a grant of $22 million to Sacramento-area water agencies that will help them swap water.
A bumper crop of new state leaders will move in next January. Some may
soon wonder why they wanted the job.
When they come to power in the South, Republicans often find a new
enemy: each other.
You'd think that Randi Bragen would see helping rid Zenith City of a problem employee as part of her managerial responsibility.
In the past 15 years, the influence and importance of states and localities in the federal system have grown significantly.
In Michigan, as in many other states, citizens can get some public information they need quickly by calling 900 numbers. There are fees attached to such calls, however, and now Michigan is being sued over the issue.
New Jersey is counting on a new public corporation to speed up sorely needed school financing and construction--and end the bureaucratic tangle that was tripping up school districts trying to make improvements or build new facilities.
Private fundraising to enhance public schools raises questions of
inequity.
