B&G Report

With the advent of mobile apps and easily accessible web portals, there’s growing potential for improved communication between governments and residents. They can also help to foster improved customer satisfaction, if residents find it easy to voice complaints, seek service improvements and get some idea how long their neighborhood is going to have to wait for that (expletive deleted) axle-twisting pothole to be fixed. That potential is diminished, however, if the app, itself

Increasingly, the old days of town hall meetings is giving way to electronic means for getting input from residents. Though this means of bridging the gap between decision makers and the people they represent first became common during the pandemic it’s here to stay. With that in mind, we found a new report from PublicInput, a leader in community engagement software for government, to be of particular interest. It showed the findings of a survey conducted in May and June 2022

Yesterday afternoon, at the #ICMA’s annual conference in Columbus Ohio, an announcement was made about an exciting collaboration to advance the use of data in local governments through a new partnership and data network called Government Performance Action and Learning. (GPAL). Its principal founders are #Polco, an on-line community and employee survey company and the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s think-tank, COWS. Additional partners joining GPAL will include: the Inte

By Chris Adams, CEO of Balancing Act, a creator of simulation-based online engagement tools. ​ ​ ​ With the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (which is really more about climate than inflation) this is an important moment for local governments to take advantage of the opportunities of the day to preserve clean air and water for generations to come. In order to do this, they will be best served by getting citizen input in a variety of ways. ​ The last few years hav

by John R. Bartle, University of Nebraska at Omaha and Can Chen, Georgia State University John Bartle Can Chen Modern life cannot exist without good infrastructure. Travel, water, toilets, electricity, internet, and heating and cooling for buildings all rely on good infrastructure systems. The wealth of cities depends on public investments in infrastructure. Right now, it might seem as though there is all the money

By Joshua Avila, MPA, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, City of Providence, Office of Mayor Jorge O. Elorza ​I joined the City of Providence in the fall of 2019 as a Mayoral Fellow, optimistic and eager to advance a career in public administration. That initial optimism and enthusiasm quickly transitioned, however, into uncertainty and anxiety as the world drastically changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ​ What would we do? How would we serve our constituents during a once-in

We often talk about performance auditors on this website. These dedicated professionals may be appointed or elected. They use well-accepted auditing standards to assess risks, uncover management problems and gauge how well programs perform, providing valuable insight and oversight throughout the country. Then there’s California. In addition to the traditional kind of performance auditing, which takes place in many of the state’s cities, and counties, it also has an unusual ap