B&G REPORT.

Any day of the week, in hundreds of states, cities and counties. there are staffers engaged in brainstorming efforts. Often, they’ve been brought together from different programs or divisions to provide a cross-section of opinions. The idea is that brainstorming will be satisfying – a positive experience that will lead to innovation and solutions to outstanding problems. But brainstorming isn’t just a matter of bringing a bunch of people together in a room and hoping that ma

Over the course of the last few years, we’ve found ourselves writing increasingly about the challenges and accomplishments of towns, small cities and counties. In the past, it’s been a real temptation to focus on the work of large cities, as they tend to wind up in the news – and are more inclined than smaller places to publicize their accomplishments. But about one out of three incorporated communities in the United States has a population of under 50,000. We were inspired t

We’re happy in our work life (and our home life as well). In fact, two of our favorite things we do professionally are writing the column you’re reading now and building this website. Yet barely a day goes by when something doesn’t frustrate or annoy us – often during our research – and we thought we’d share a few of these impediments to workplace bliss with you. We wonder how many of you are confronting the same challenges – and we invite you to send us any frustrations of

We’ve just come across a study titled “Best and Worst States to Be a Police Officer by WalletHub. This is just the kind of study that we like to follow for use on this website. In the study, California was ranked as the best. Then we took a moment to reflect on the findings of this research, and it struck us that it may not make sense to look at the best place to be a police officer by state when this is really a local issue. It could well be that it’s terrific to be an offic

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who works in state or local government to hear that many of our interviewees suggest – notwithstanding what ails their employer – that they’re going to solve many issues with new and improved technology. And to be sure, technology is increasingly an important part of any formula for success, and cities, counties and states that aren’t involved in improving their high-tech profile will be left behind. Still, as a state CIO characterized