Miscellaneous

Shared Services: DHS Tests Multi-Band Radio Solution for First Responders

Breakdowns in communications are hurting first responders. And one of the reasons for the communications breakdown is that their radio’s aren’t on the same bandwidth. That means that during an emergency firefighters can’t talk to EMS or law enforcement on their radios. It slows down reaction time and operability. The solution seems simple, give everyoneRead… Read more »

Heroes of Excellence

Excellence.gov Awards were created to recognize government programs that provide substantive improvements in government activities. But that is not the whole story – At a time when government employees were singled out at the cause for everything wrong in the world, we felt that it was important to put faces on the great things thatRead… Read more »

1099R Statements, Replacement Copies, & Upcoming Changes

My 1099R arrived from OPM this week and annuitants should have also received their Notice of Annuity Adjustments, Form R1 20-53 (REV. 12/12), that outlines your new 2013 status and payments. The annuity adjustment statement includes the 1.7% COLA increase and lists any changes to your insurance and elective payments. Each year we receive manyRead… Read more »

The Ten Truths I Learned While Serving In Local Government

After having spent what many might refer to as lifetime in government service I came to the conclusion that there are ten incontrovertible truths local government officials and senior public employees should subscribe to and remember. These ten truths apply equally to Townships, Villages, Cities, Counties, Boroughs, Parishes and School Boards, etc. Ten Immutable TruthsRead… Read more »

Is March the Armageddon for federal budgets? Sequestration, CR, 2014 and more

March may go down as one of the worst months ever for federal budgeting. Take a look: Sequestration goes into effect on March 1st. 1.2 trillion in across the board cuts. Continuing Resolution expires on March 27th. In order for a budget to be passed by April 15th the House and Senate need to beginRead… Read more »

Top 7 Tips on Teleworking

Teleworking is awesome…but there are tricks to the trade. Whether you are teleworking all the time or just 1-2 days a week, there are some common tips to being a great teleworker. Here’s the top 7 tips on teleworking: 1. Provide updates – nobody knows what you are up to so you need to provideRead… Read more »