B&G REPORT.

There was a long sad stretch during which nearly everything we wrote had some kind of COVID angle in it. The pandemic had so thoroughly thrown all state and local government functions into the unknown that whether we were writing about budgeting, human resources or performance management, COVID was part of the story. Now, in recent months, it’s dawned on us that even though COVID is no longer front-page news, it has altered state and local government management in dramatic wa

“Open your eyes. This horrible mess is your life. There is no sense in waiting for it to get better. Stop putting it off and live it,” wrote Robin Hopp in “The Mad Ship”, a book that was published in late 2003. Though the wording is kind of extreme, we think that a somewhat similar sentiment applies to city, county and state government. As good ideas wend their way to fruition, they’re going to encounter the unexpected, like it or not. If leaders expect a neat predictable una

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

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

As anyone who has been reading our work in the past knows, we’re strong believers in making sure that there’s ample use of evidence when...

When we were attending the most recent Southeastern Conference for Public Administration in Memphis (SECOPA), we sat in on a number of...

A little over a year ago, we wrote a column for Route Fifty about the remarkably ambitious host of efforts that Fort Worth, Texas was...