New Orleans City Business reporter Jennifer Larino wrote an excellent article a couple of weeks ago on the reforms Mayor Landrieu will need to tackle… »
Best Practices
Copy-and-paste open government
“Within 120 days, each agency shall develop and publish … an Open Government Plan that will describe how it will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities” (President Obama, Open Government Directive, 12/08/2009).
President Obama has already laid out a robust open government template that can be easily adapted to local government,… »
Ensuring that task force recommendations are implemented
Mitch’s task forces align well with the NolaStat model for engaging departments in collaborative initiatives.
Stat-driven accountability processes work better if they’re focused on the outcomes that can be achieved when various government entities are assembled and engaged in issue areas such as crime, blight, health, economic development, and youth opportunities.
Progress is achieved when… »
Case Study: How NolaStat can improve constituent relations in City Hall
A list of the most common complaints submitted to City Council Members:
1) Street lights.
2) Water Leaks—which go to S&WB, a state run and controlled entity.
3) Potholes.
4) Drainage Problems, i.e. drains not working.
5) Billing complaints concerning S&WB, Entergy, and taxes, e.g., overcharging, late charges, etc.
6) Illegal dumping —- e.g. tires, trash.
7) Zoning complaints, i.e., businesses or… »
Case Study: How NolaStat can improve citizen satisfaction with City Hall
Last week’s customer satisfaction task force hearing offered some excellent boilerplate complaints about how New Orleans City Hall functions, and provided some examples that merit examination as case studies for how problems could be fixed within a NolaStat framework.
Problem: People need a response from city workers right away. They can’t wait until tomorrow for an… »
Whither electronic police reports?
The NOPD said in 2007 that electronic police reports were just months away from being implemented, yet in the MTV Real World drama that recently unfolded is proof positive that the old-fashioned handwritten police reports are still being used.
Currently, handwritten police reports take hours out of each patrol officers shift. Once handwritten police reports… »
How do we eliminate bloated insider contracts?
As demonstrated in recent years by cost overruns and project failures with crime cameras as the 311 system, any investment to modernize and integrate city data systems to support a NolaStat reform will require contract reform to ensure that any outsourced work fits into well-considered, high-priority plans, and to ensure that the work is satisfactorily… »
Like using scribes in the age of the printing press to answer public records requests
There’s something wrong when it takes over three months to obtain a murder listing from the New Orleans Police Department, but you can go to Craig’s List anytime to find a sofa.
Maybe the scribes at the NOPD are overworked, or maybe the city has cut the budget for fountain pens, or maybe the NOPD… »
Mitch: “The best ideas come from people in neighborhoods”
“I understand that often times the best ideas come from people in neighborhoods across the city.”
A refreshingly enlightened perspective on post-Katrina leadership from Mayor-elect Mitch… »
The top 25 government innovators
Government Technology’s March issue focuses on 25 people who cut through the public sector’s infamous barriers to innovation — tight budgets, organizational inertia, politics as usual, etc. — to reshape government operations for the… »
Seattle open data policy will improve public access to city information
Seattle is the next city to follow in the footsteps of open data reforms implemented by San Francisco, New York City, the District of Columbia, and other cities. Data.Seattle.gov is planned as a Web site that will publish city data sets to be downloaded by citizens, or used by citizen programmers to build Web-based applications… »
