Digital Services

With the clock ticking on a municipal election, Dallas County officials are moving to ensure electronic poll book software functions as intended. Less than four months remain to resolve a malfunction from last year.

The City of Lakes was recently jointly awarded a U.S. Department of Transportation grant. Officials there will work with their counterparts in Seattle to develop a program assisting package delivery services.

Chief Technical Officer Gregory Scott, who heads the county’s Department of Information Technology, is preparing to retire after nearly six years in the role. He has helped the local government refine its resident experience.

Municipalities around the nation are carefully using artificial intelligence to improve access to documents and public meeting materials, leaders said during the GovAI Coalition Summit in December.

Ohio is investing $83 million on a project to modernize its 20-year-old unemployment system. The new solution promises to provide improved user and employee experiences as well as better fraud prevention.

Collaboration and partnership with other agencies was central to the redesign of the WaTech Service Catalog, to better understand the needs of state departments and deliver a more obtainable product.

When an Internet service provider was unable to comply with contract language, commissioners in Ashtabula County decided to rebid the project. This time, companies can bid on smaller portions of the initiative.

Bob Ferguson, the state’s incoming governor, will keep Bill Kehoe, its CIO and director of Washington Technology Solutions for more than four years, in place. Kehoe was previously CIO for Los Angeles County.

The state has committed to replacing its current campaign finance reporting system with a solution that may be easier to use than its current one. Like the old system, the new one will enable disclosure of campaign contributions and related details.

The Alaska Department of Revenue will work with Saige Consulting to modernize the Dividend Application Information System, by which qualifying residents receive their annual stipend. The new solution is expected in 2026.

The city’s Office of Records Custodians now publishes the reports of vehicle crashes online weekly. This means the public is no longer required to file individual public records requests to gain access.

Several recent initiatives from the Beeck Center are intended to assist the public sector in digital service delivery, including FormFest 2024 and the Digital Government Hub, an innovation-focused fellowship.

Many organizations have incorporated technology into their hiring processes. The Center for Democracy and Technology studied how one hiring technology — digitized assessments — impacts job seekers with disabilities.

As a new federal administration prepares to assume control, the GovAI Coalition Summit showed the local promise of artificial intelligence, from solutions available to the leaders ready to make them work.

Matt Mahan, mayor of San Jose, Calif., politely pushed back on calls to slash government and cautiously answered a question about the planned federal Department of Government Efficiency, during the GovAI Coalition Summit.

In Bexar County, Texas, millions of records are publicly accessible online for the first time with the culmination of a massive, $18 million project to digitize the county's archives.

Gov tech officials have joined the GovAI Coalition, formed late last year, to collectively shape policies and best practices for introducing AI-enabled tools. They're looking to flank the fast-moving technology.

Plus, Kansas will soon open funding applications to expand connectivity, a Colorado county is receiving federal funding for broadband, the economic benefits of improving Internet access in Harlan County, Ky., and more.