Archive
Some people buy an extended warranty for a car. New Mexico bought one for a highway.
Cars that can run on both gasoline and electric power are a hot item
in government these days.
A handful of county health departments in California, Ohio and New York have adopted a streamlined Web site to improve access to mental health information, legislation and treatment.
Cities are trying to gain some control over the fiber-optic cable-
laying frenzy.
Some are white, others are blue. Some are parked in the street or driveway, while others are plopped right on the front lawn. In any case, Portable On-Demand Storage units--or PODS--intended for short- term use, are becoming permanent eyesores in Northern Virginia communities.
In the public sector, there's one phrase that's downright bone-chilling.
For parties of five or more patrons, restaurants often impose an automatic tip on the bill. Some Florida restaurants, it turns out, have been doing the same thing--except that the automatic tip is based not on the size of a group but rather on the color of customers' skin.
West Virginia has long been the butt of jokes about backwoods ways and poor vocabulary. Residents roll their eyes when they hear references to their state bird being the satellite dish or a laptop being where the cat sleeps.
The "vroom, vroom" of engines getting ready to drag race may still be heard on San Diego streets, but the shouts of encouragement from onlookers have diminished markedly. It's not that the "sport" of illegal street racing is any less exciting to aficionados. Rather, those who watch can now be arrested and fined $1,000 or thrown in jail for six months.
Manhattan's penchant for naming streets after people, places and events has given birth to some interesting addresses over the years. A section of 45th Street was once called "Jackie Mason Way" after the legendary comedian.
Patrick Lynch, the attorney general of Rhode Island, talks about Spider-Man so much that you'd think the action hero, who is returning to movie theaters this month, was his running mate.
Sometimes, a penny saved is an accident waiting to happen. California Governor Gray Davis learned that lesson the hard way when a secretary in his office tripped over the very old, worn and wrinkled carpeting he'd decided not to have replaced. She fell right before his eyes, slightly injuring her ankle.
The major road projects profiled in "Managing the Mess" [June 2001] are all still keeping construction crews hopping, with some budgets and deadlines met--and some missed--along the way.
In response to security concerns, many states have been quick to add
exemptions to their open-government laws.
After six years and countless lawsuits and countersuits, the city of Spokane is finally paving the way toward paying off the bonds sold by a local foundation whose failure to pay them resulted in multiple credit downgrades.
A new generation of billionaires is remaking American cities. The
cities are better off; the democratic process sometimes suffers.
When so many state IT leaders leave, does it suggest a need to
overhaul the CIO concept--or just make adjustments?
Centrism is smart presidential politics. But it's ideological zeal
that dominates the state electoral scene these days.
The two-tier economy seems more of a reality in the America of today
than it has in almost a century.
There are some who say that direct democracy is the wave of the future in American government. If I may be excused for paraphrasing John F. Kennedy, let them come to Denver.
Why should governments calculate value for something that can't be
sold anyway? Who's going to buy a city street?
I'm not a lawyer, so I've never aspired to being a judge. But I sometimes indulge in fantasies about the sort of judge I would be, if given the chance. I'd be a wonderful judge--patient, fair-minded, even-tempered, witty, self-deprecating--but above all, restrained.
In 2003, Maine passed the at-times controversial Dirigo Health reform initiative. Seven years later, what has Maine learned to help other states reform health care?
When it comes to networking, California county auditors and
controllers are way out there. A sophisticated online system links
auditors, accountants and other financial officers, giving them access
to reams of information about their peers and other staff members
across the state.
A school for corporate directors will swing its doors open this
September. Companies have been invited to attend by the State of
Wisconsin Investment Board, the 10th-largest U.S. public pension fund.
SWIB's reason for setting up the school, one of the first by a
public investor, is the state of corporate governance: Rather than
grumble about how poor it is or sell off shares of an offending
company, the board is offering directors the opportunity to educate
themselves.
When voters create a legislative deadlock, the legislators have to try
extra hard to make things work. Often they don't succeed.
Commissioners in Hillsborough County, Florida, have given the final
thumbs up for construction to begin on a seawater desalination plant
on Tampa Bay.
Suburbanites in Texas may soon have new ways to get around. The state
legislature recently approved a bill that will allow suburban counties
to create their own mass transit authorities.
Boasting that he had a doctorate didn't help Omar Bradley in his bid
for a third term as mayor of Compton, California. But then, he wasn't
exactly an Ivy League graduate anyway.
Bellying up to the bar in Florida just got a little more interesting.
For more than three decades, patrons of watering holes and liquor
stores across the state weren't allowed to indulge their taste for any
beer that wasn't served in an 8, 12, 16 or 32-ounce container.
Just when you thought good ol' boys were all but dead in the modern
state legislature, South Carolina lawmakers have served up a scandal
that sounds straight out of 1951, not 2001.
Instead of chewing on a shoelace or scratching the living-room couch,
as their domestic counterparts would do, about 100 feral cats have
been tearing apart screened-in porches, urinating in children's
sandboxes and spraying shrubs in the backyards of Cohoes, New York.
Faced with the problem of controlling these feline terrorists, the
Common Council recently settled on a humane solution: a Trap-Neuter-
Return program.
Referendums held in special districts permit multimillion-dollar bonds
to be issued based on the casting of a single vote.
The private sector is moving quickly to cash in on the new world of
public assistance. Can the for-profits do a better job than government
workers?
With their sights set on a lucrative market, companies are elbowing each other out of the way for the chance to set governments up with e- government capability--for free.
For as long as public service has existed, public servants have clung
to their familiar little platoons of co-workers, trying their best not
to identify with the impersonal entities above them that make the big
decisions. Their loyalties have been to the office over the division;
the division over the department; the department over the city, the
county or the state.
With quiet forcefulness, Paula Moskowitz is transforming New York
State's procurement process into a service-oriented business.
They are growing in number and political appeal, but special courts to
deal with drug users can still get a judge's dander up.
Once again, Lee Honsan isn't in the office. Once again, his staff
needs some guidance. Once again, they call you. Once again, you have
to drop your own work to do Honsan's.
In 22 years of service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, special agent Carson Dunbar was at the center of some of the world's most sensitive and pressure-packed investigations: the 1985 Achille Lauro cruise-ship hijacking, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.
Beach erosion threatens the existence of many coastal communities.
Solutions are expensive and may ultimately prove futile.
Abolishing elected treasurers, auditors and commissioners would
probably do more good than harm.
A still-unfolding scandal in Connecticut may bring even more attention to the unsavory practice known as "pay-to-play."
Governments are offering employee training via TV and the Web. But
don't write off classroom instruction just yet.
Can a strong mayor and a strong manager find happiness together in a
city with big problems? So far, yes.
Combatting the homemade drug methamphetamine is proving to be a
difficult and costly job for law enforcement agencies in many states.
Employee idea boxes seem like an obvious way to foster the ballyhooed
notion of `continuous improvement.' So why don't they work?
Corporations have been rushing to create a new executive position:
"chief privacy officer." They're awash in a flood of privacy concerns
from customers who worry whether their personal information is being
trafficked over the Internet. Few governments have created such a
position, but some now are starting to follow in those corporate
footsteps.
Local officials are trying to alleviate flight delays by improving the
layout and operations of their airports and influencing local air
traffic control procedures.
Touch-screen voting looked like the obvious answer to hanging-chad
election chaos. But the new machines have generated some problems of
their own.
Sophisticated sensors, complex algorithms and 'smart' fare cards are
enhancing both the safety and efficiency of public transportation
systems.
As the taxman cometh online, states and localities are trying to
decide whether citizens should bear the costs of e-filing.
The P.R. man for Pennsylvania's state government is a whiz at
explaining policy. Sometimes that's because he's the one creating it.
University of Arkansas Razorback football fans can get pretty rowdy on game days, but they're rarely unruly enough to require emergency assistance. One Saturday last fall, however, Fayetteville police found themselves inundated by dozens of emergency 911 calls from the stadium before half-time alone.
The push to privatize is expanding beyond service delivery into the
areas of policy making and program design.
If we want a health care system that works, we need to start some
radical experimenting.
It may be free and totally adaptable, but whether or when to use non-
proprietary software is far from an open and shut case.
Cutting back on military bases makes economic sense--unless you happen
to live near one.
Anyone who has seen a delivery truck driving down the street with a parking ticket flapping from its windshield knows that the vehicles hold a special place in the hearts of parking-enforcement officers.
A few months after he took over as Maryland's Juvenile Justice
secretary, Bishop Robinson asked an aide for some numbers on the
budget and juveniles. The aide said he had the numbers in his office
and offered to bring them right back. After the man had been gone an
hour, Robinson wondered what the problem was.
Indicting corrupt judges and exposing a shady judicial-selection
system isn't winning Charles Hynes many friends.
Urban planning departments have been in decline for decades. Now they
are reviving--with the nation's capital leading the way.
There aren't enough nurses to go around, and there's no cure in sight.
Calvin Trillin, the New Yorker magazine writer, used to say that most cities not located on either coast suffered from "hickophobia," which was not the fear of hicks but the fear of being thought of as hicks. Imagine, then, the fears of Fargo, North Dakota.
A new report can help agency officials and lawmakers use performance
measures more effectively.
For years, Boston's Tom Menino has argued that retail commerce is the
key to revitalizing urban neighborhoods. Other cities have begun to
listen.
Melding historic facades with modern buildings can yield odd results.
It was a fine September morning--until the sun came out. Then the midday rays began to wreak havoc on U.S. 82 outside of Brunswick, Georgia, turning a recently applied road sealant into what one trucker described as a "big mass of hot super glue."
Being able to turn a traffic light from red to green is an impatient driver's dream--and a prospective nightmare for law enforcement officers.
TV game show host Bob Barker's signature sign-off: "Help control the animal population. Have your pets spayed or neutered!"--along with similar pleas from humane organizations--seems to be working
Congestion is going to get worse in the next two decades. And that's
likely to be true no matter what policies we adopt.
In response to growing complaints over the No Child Left Behind school testing law, federal education officials have announced changes that will make it easier for some schools and teachers to meet requirements.
The core problem for states is not structural deficits. It's the
polarizing disagreement over what to do about them.
It's been a while since the odor from the stockyards wafted across
Chicago, but now the Windy City is grappling with a new source of
olfactory offensiveness.
This year's look-before-you-leap award goes to Saratoga County, New
York. Officials there recently acquired a piece of tax-delinquent
property, only to find out later that the land contained an illegal
tire dump, a potentially huge environmental liability.
I used to think that, for some reason, the American judicial system was avoiding me. Over more than three decades of adult life, as a citizen of three different jurisdictions, I had never once served on a jury.
Whatever Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry did to deserve a statue in Statuary
Hall at the U.S. Capitol, it's not going to be enough to keep him
there. The state of Alabama recently passed a resolution to remove
Curry from the Hall, replacing him with the significantly better-known
Helen Keller.
Florida state Representative Nancy Argenziano recently poo-pooed a
nursing home bill she did not like. Literally.
Localities may soon feel pressure to boost--by more than 10 percent--
the number of fire fighters on their payrolls.
Self-funding models for e-procurement seemed like a grand idea for
budget-strapped purchasing departments: The private sector would foot
the bill while the public sector got itself an automated purchasing
system.
California is gearing up for a $12.5 billion bond sale next month, an
offering four times larger than any previously issued municipal bond.
States have been feasting on the bounty of a booming economy for half
a decade. Now what?
When Blue Cross Blue Shield plans convert to for-profit status, states
are entitled to big money. But they have to ask for it.
I can't imagine many of you have been to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. But I can help visualize it for you: Just close your eyes and think of an old public high school auditorium.
Most governments have not been daring enough in their Web strategies
and may be missing a real opportunity to change things.
To a business community confronting 50 sets of rules in 50 state
capitols, Washington suddenly looks like a friend.
We've learned a lot about cutting caseloads. The next step is to focus
on keeping people out of poverty.
For a guy who doesn't vote, Larry Bartels sure knows how to get
himself in a political tangle. True, he never intended to thrust
himself into the contentious debate over racial fairness in public
office. And he certainly didn't plan to put himself at the center of
the first major redistricting case of the decade.
As more public-policy grads take private-sector jobs, governments are
having to work harder at recruitment.
National City, California, was only getting a paltry 6 percent
collection rate on the tardy sewer bills it had turned over to a
private collection agency. Then San Diego County's Office of Revenue
and Recovery made the city an offer it couldn't refuse: The county
promised to collect on at least 40 percent of the overdue bills.
Indiana legislators don't have to play by the same rules of disclosure
as everyone else. On the last day of Indiana's legislative session,
lawmakers approved a bill that exempts them from the state's public-
records law.
It's payback time for toll cheats in Illinois. The state can lift--and
did so this spring--the license plates of drivers who refuse to pay
their tolls.
Airplanes aren't the only things soaring at Miami International
Airport. The cost of the airport's extensive renovation and expansion
is on its way up, too--probably by about half a billion dollars.
Even Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz couldn't have scripted this
scenario
The recent discovery of wooden vats from an old rum distillery doesn't
mean that Albany, New York, suddenly has a new brownfield on its
hands. Indeed, there's no contamination on the downtown site--only
artifacts. But deciding what to do with them has delayed construction
of a $12 million municipal parking garage.
The grandstand events at the Wisconsin State Fair won't be so grand
this year. The fair board has decided to change the format and venue
of the shows that brought in the likes of Garth Brooks and Jeff
Foxworthy, saying that big-name acts are too expensive.
How much is contending with a bad smell worth? Courts in San Francisco
and Kentucky may soon decide.
How well governments plan for, execute and report their financial
affairs is becoming a decisive factor in credit ratings.
A financing idea from the 1970s is taking current stormwater
management by, well, storm.
When it comes to the New Economy, no metropolitan area is without
assets--and precious few have a monopoly on success.
File a civil suit these days, and you can actually get it heard
without waiting years.
When a big highway project digs in, it's no small challenge to keep
traffic moving around it--and the public enthusiastic for it.
A few years ago, I went for a drive through the winding streets of
Emery Manor, a subdivision of small, Levittown-like rambler houses
built in the Chicago suburbs in the early 1950s. People in the older
neighborhoods nearby said terrible things about Emery Manor when it
was going up: They called it a drab, tasteless collection of identical
tiny boxes, scarcely better than shacks.
When Wisconsin created a state lottery 12 years ago, legislators promised it would be self-funding and they would never, ever tap into state tax dollars. Yet, last session, legislators did just that.
New York City inhaled deeply and issued the first-ever tobacco bond in November. The $709 million bond, part of a $2.8 billion debt the city will sell in the next four years, sold out immediately.
Fuzzy language is a big impediment to good management--and to
understanding the way government really works.
This isn't the easiest time for localities to get money out of
Washington. But they aren't about to quit asking.
There's a dagger at the heart of any solution to the crisis in health care costs--but it's not the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs. Rather, it's the uninsured: the 41 million Americans--one in seven-- who can't afford, aren't offered or choose not to carry health insurance.
Public interest in the Lewis and Clark bicentennial should benefit
tourism in many states.
Thanks to an amendment to Florida's probate code, residents of the Sunshine State no longer have to worry about what will happen to their pets that survive them. The legislation, which took effect in January, enables people to create "pet care trusts" to ensure their animal's livelihood.
Camden, New Jersey, has a new kind of homeless problem involving the city's namesake, an 18th-century English earl who never set foot on American soil.
Tim Eyman has launched a number of successful anti-tax ballot initiatives in Washington State in recent years. Does that make Eyman a "horse's ass"?
Meals are generally considered to be a highlight of life behind bars. So states take a risk when they mess with inmates' mess. In the wake of budget cuts, however, Iowa has been pruning prison meals to save money on food.
In the midst of a fiscal crisis, many states are betting on the
legalization or expansion of gambling to boost their revenues.
The demise of the federal estate tax will take with it billions in
state revenue--unless states distance themselves from the feds.
Commuting by water was all but dead a decade ago. Highway gridlock has
brought it back to life.
California's Coastal Commission was down--but now it is not necessarily out. Despite state and federal court rulings that deemed the agency unconstitutional, the California legislature is reviving it.
It was a coveted deal, and Delaware's Department of Economic Development landed it in 1999: Two merging pharmaceutical companies-- Astra and Zeneca--were looking for a place to relocate, and they chose Wilmington.
What, exactly, does a pilot's ability to right a plane after the tail fin snaps off have to do with the prosperity of Roswell, New Mexico? Plenty. The small city has landed a flight safety training center that will boost its image as an aviation hub and help attract more aviation-related businesses to the area.
Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas, is as amiable a fellow as most governors, and normally spends a good deal of his time traveling around the state and mixing with his constituents.
Despite universally tough budget environments and the wait for Congress to reauthorize transportation spending, states are initiating new programs geared toward saving them money in road construction, repair and maintenance.
Boston's regional commuter rail system has chosen a company other than Amtrak to run its trains, signaling new competition for the commuter railway business.
New IT leaders don't have ready access to the outside support and
expertise that other government leaders do.
There comes a time in the life of every tax system when it needs to be
reassessed to see if it's doing the job it's been sent out to do.
States are beseeching the White House for some dollars to tide them
over while they get back on their feet. The White House isn't going
for it.
Mississippi is moving ahead by marrying GIS data to a host of state
and local social indicators.
Illegal immigrants find new friends in statehouses--and get a break at
state colleges.
Even minor mistakes can be deadly when an agency applies for a grant.
Advances in technology can fix the paperwork pitfalls.
States Won't Find It Easy To Resolve The Gay Marriage Issue. The
Federal Government Could Make The Task Even Harder.
With his county heading down the 'smart growth' road, Bruce Tulloch
moved in to strong-arm a turnaround.
What's the big deal about living in a loft? The classic New York lofts of the 1970s, which were illegally converted factory spaces in a neighborhood called SoHo, were dingy, drafty and cheap. But sometime in the late 1980s, the idea of living in big undivided spaces with brick walls and exposed heating ducts overhead caught on.
Some agencies don't gather data that could help them manage better--
because it might make them look bad.
Governors and mayors learn to love the give and take of governing
interactively.
States have a fiscal link to the obesity crisis--it accounts for 5
percent of their overall medical spending.
Creating a more efficient government first requires breaking open the internal silos that hamper collaboration and productivity.
Michael Carney and Bill Davignon thought they had experienced the ultimate election cliff-hanger in 2001. Their race for a seat in the Niagara County, New York, legislature was so close that it was thrown to the courts, eventually taking 38 days to decide.
In the San Francisco Bay area, law-breaking motorists have to worry not only about red-light cameras taking pictures of their illegal behavior but also about fellow drivers doing the same.
Is performance measurement living up to its promise? When it comes to measuring the impact of government programs and services, its potential is now widely accepted.
Technology grabs headlines each time some new gadget or software package promises to let us do things more easily, conveniently or cheaply. But problem solvers in government know that it takes more than technology to run infrastructure better.
