Local CIOs Deliberate on Technology

When it comes to local governments, gauging their pulse on information technology isn't always easy. Widely dispersed and having few forums to discuss their problems and showcase their projects, cities and counties often appear more concerned with potholes and sewers than with PCs and servers.

Actually, localities are as busy as state and federal governments when it comes to integrating IT with the business of governance; they are just a little more quiet going about it. That was one of the revelations to surface when two-dozen local-government CIOs met in May in Fort Worth, Texas, to deliberate on the challenges and opportunities of using technology in neighborhoods, on the streets, and in courthouses and city halls.

For the first time, local governments presented the highs and lows of what it's like to manage technology at the community level today. From small but sophisticated Milpitas, Calif. (population 50,000), to high-flying, fast-growing Phoenix (population 1 million), IT directors discussed how their localities are rolling out new applications, laying down information infrastructure, grappling with a host of management issues and experimenting with new technologies.

The group of local IT leaders met as part of the Public Technology Inc. (PTI) Urban Consortium Telecommunications and Information Task Force, which serves to assess new technologies, conduct research and advise PTI on ways to help local government with technology-related issues. Under the direction of current chair Michael DiPaolo, information systems and services director for Fort Worth, the task force has set itself a busy agenda of sharing information and helping localities strategically manage technology.

According to DiPaolo, the days when cities could naively ask vendors for a leading-edge technology that has been installed in at least five places and for at least five years are long gone. "We don't want to wait for the traditional local government approach anymore. We're trying to work beyond that, realizing that that's just not the case anymore," DiPaolo said.

New Directions

Proving that the form of government closest to taxpayers is sometimes the most responsive, task-force members showcased a long list of applications that are designed to meet taxpayer expectations as well as deliver efficiency. A notable example was the number of Internet projects intended to merge geographic information systems (GIS) with Web sites. Orange County, Fla., and Scottsdale, Ariz., have both opened up public access to their GIS through the Internet. Winston-Salem, N.C., and Oklahoma City, Okla., are pursuing similar projects.

Milpitas is about to start a pilot project to automate its permitting process -- from submission through inspection. Some of the technologies the city will use include the Internet, interactive voice response, GIS, and the city's financial system. Oklahoma City and Cincinnati/
Hamilton County, Ohio, are also developing fully integrated permitting systems. Other taxpayer-oriented applications in the works include a constituent tracking system (Oakland, Calif.) and integrated court management systems (Orange County, Fla., San Joaquin County, Calif.)

For years, local governments have been hearing the mantra that information is infrastructure. Now they are building the infrastructure to support it. A host of cities and counties reported hefty investments in fiber optics, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and frame relay communications lines. Scottsdale reported its local cable provider is rolling out high-speed Internet access to home subscribers. Cities are also investing big bucks in 800Mhz trunked radio for public safety, wireless-data and voice communications. Some jurisdictions are experimenting with public wireless networks, such as cellular digital packet data (CDPD), to lower public safety communications costs.

Besides showing they can build creative applications, local governments are also refuting the notion that they don't plan very well. Several jurisdictions, including Bellevue, Wash., and Oklahoma City, announced they were working on strategic plans or Internet strategic plans.

According to Dianah Neff, CIO for Bellevue, the city has been using the Internet primarily as a