Local Government

The Luzerne County Council has approved a nearly $500,000 contract for a new ballot sorting system. The new technology will reduce the number of county employees tasked with processing mail-in ballots.

Wittenburg brings three decades of experience to the North Carolina city, which lost its CIO to Texas earlier this year. His four years as Tempe CIO included digital equity and data transparency work.

In a brave new world of hybrid work — or not — IT leaders rethink what it means to work for the public sector and what investments are needed to keep everyone connected.

Bay Area tech officials shared their insights about the changes and challenges facing government IT shops caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to engage with those they serve emerged as a common thread.

Recent earnings reports from Tyler and other tech firms, along with executive and expert comment, illustrate how labor challenges, SaaS revenues, COVID and other factors will influence the industry in the coming months.

The government technology company focuses on managing traffic and curbs — hot real estate in large cities — via data sharing and its platform. The new funding round includes a firm founded by actor Robert Downey Jr.

The grant funding that the Cullman Electric Cooperative needed for its Sprout fiber-optic Internet project was not awarded. The financial setback will mean several communities will not get service by 2023 as originally planned.

The company has scooped up scores of companies since it launched just five years ago, bringing it into a variety of gov tech niches. Now it has a new name as it moves into the post-COVID future of gov tech.

The East Bay city has hired its inaugural chief information security officer in Miriam Mehari. Mehari joined the city in 2005 and most recently served as an information systems administrator.

The city of Danbury, Conn., has contracted the firm CivicPlus to make a more accessible city website for the community. The city hopes the new website will be more transparent with important information.

According to industry experts, the answer varies based on each state or community's needs, and some examples include obtaining federal broadband funding, creating long-term plans and anticipating future challenges.

The Durham City Council has delayed the approval of the final agreement with the gunshot detection company for the second time this month. California-based ShotSpotter is set to begin a year-long pilot with the city.

The Cullman Electric Cooperative is looking for new funding streams to expand Internet service into rural areas. Officials say partial service in some areas has complicated the funding application process.

An incident response team is piecing together the details of a cyber attack against the Fremont County systems. Officials were alerted to the malicious activity last Wednesday and have launched a full investigation into the incident.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has released its annual list of cities that meet its criteria for digital inclusion trailblazers, and this year’s group is the largest yet, featuring 32 local or regional governments.

As climate change produces heat waves and other problems, a handful of cities have hired chief heat officers to help residents cool off. What’s driving this trend and how much say will the CHO have over technology?

So far, the U.S. tropical storm season has been undramatic, but that could soon change. Many emergency response agencies have upgraded their tech, but they still need better mobile and digital tools to weather storms.

Norwich and Stonington registrars reported that multiple machines at polling locations in the two municipalities malfunctioned during the Aug. 9 primary election. Approximately 50 machines were affected throughout the state.