According to a study by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Chicago is the most corrupt city in the nation and New York State is the most corrupt state. Since 1976, 2,522 people have been convicted of federal public corruption charges in New York State (70 per year). SinceRead… Read more »
Monday City hall looks like Charlie Chaplin’s studio. It was built as part of a WPA project. Peter Koht, our city contact introduces us to everyone. They give us coffee mugs and an office in IT. We call it the fish bowl because it has windows that don’t look outside. Downtown Santa Cruz is inRead… Read more »
As the number of agencies and businesses choosing to host video-conferences rather than in-person meetings grows, so do the savings, as well as the environmental benefits. Oregon has been boosting its video-conference efforts, and has a lot to boast about regarding the benefits of the conferences. In total, it’s estimated that Oregon has saved $2Read… Read more »
A team is working on a project through the UT School of Architecture where they are building a Historical Survey wiki. The idea is that the open source software is comprehensive grassroots survey of historical resources. It is in beta stage and hasn’t had an official launch. But she is focused on recruiting and trainingRead… Read more »
Very few town board or city councils actually set goals or involve the community in goal setting and reviewing the accomplishment of goals. Bay City Michigan (population 35,000), does all of the above. As reported in the Bay City News , the City Commission invited the public to participate in a Saturday meeting to setRead… Read more »
The City of Reno Nevada (population 220,000) has created an Open Government Team, which on their web site is described below as: Open Government Team We are currently forming an internal Open Government Team led by our Web Services Manager. Team members will come from all departments and all levels, with the intention of supportingRead… Read more »
The office of the New York City Comptroller has a great web site that provides a comprehensive look, updated daily, at nearly every check issued by the city. The current Comptroller web site is being updated to provide detailed information about the contracts related to each individual payment, city vendors and the contracts they’re workingRead… Read more »
As an engagement strategist still recovering from chronic burnout as a result of my organizing efforts for the Boston Police Department and Neighbors for Neighbors (facilitating 250+ meetings a year for many years), I avoid spending entire Saturday afternoons at civic events like the plague. To my surprise, something extraordinary happened yesterday. I ended upRead… Read more »
You know when you start to see or read more about a topic as soon as you start focusing on it…well I’m getting that feeling with content strategy and in particular content strategy in local gov and the public sector. I’ve come across 3 great posts today, one of which was highlighted via my contentRead… Read more »
Tweet Each year since 1982 every person who has been a resident of Alaska for the previous year and indicates an intention to remain gets a Permanent Fund Dividend check from the state. Everyone receives an equal share of the appropriation from the earnings of the Alaska Permanent Fund with parents responsible for the checksRead… Read more »