Efforts to Balance Local Government Budgets May Lead to Shortchanged IT (Opinion)

I recently played golf with an old friend and colleague who is a local government IT veteran. He told me his organization is struggling, as most are, under the burden of significant tax revenue shortfalls and budget reductions. He also said something I found even more disturbing: There's an increasing siege mentality from his community's elected leaders.

The mayor and city council members struggled to balance the city's budget through service reductions, program eliminations, unpaid employee furloughs and increased taxes and fees. They also considered operational policy changes that I believe demonstrate how quickly leaders can become inwardly focused in difficult times.

For example, one proposal would mandate that all city purchases of $25,000 or less be made locally. Rhetorically that may sound like a good idea, but it doesn't consider what will happen if necessary products, tools or services aren't available locally. This "only local" approach may also lead to overpaying by eliminating the option to make bulk purchases available through state, federal or association contracts. There's also the likelihood that years of standardization and consolidation -- and the associated benefits and efficiencies -- may be undone in a matter of months. This is but one example of many I've heard lately of local government leaders taking their eyes off the horizon and giving up the long view, hoping they can keep the engines turning for another day and pacify constituents.

I know it's a difficult time for many communities, but government shouldn't turn inward and succumb to a siege mentality. Now is the time to look outward, to find new partners, new collaborators and community members who want to participate in the governance process and who can bring new ideas, approaches and resources to the table.

The good news is many of the necessary tools to make that happen are already in place. The Brookings Institution released a report in June 2009 that compares technology innovation in the public and private sectors. It isn't surprising that it found the private sector sometimes does a better job of taking advantage of technological innovation than the public sector. The survey's scope covered the private sector and state and federal government Web sites, but there's much that can be learned and applied to local government too.

Some of you will be tempted to quickly dismiss a public sector/private sector comparison as unfair given it's generally recognized that the private sector has more money to spend on technology. But the report found the average difference was just slightly more than one-half of 1 percent. Is that significant? Perhaps, but it's hardly a reason to dismiss the more far-reaching findings.

The report cites Beth Simone Noveck, the point person for President Barack Obama's open government initiative, who wrote in her book Wiki Government that "Technology can be a tool for making government better and democracy stronger." And the Brookings researchers went on to conclude: "For public-sector agencies to improve, their Web sites need more interactive features, greater customization and inclusion of visitor feedback. Government departments also need to become more collaborative in their decision-making processes. There are ways to add citizen judgments to policymaking that draw on the expertise of those outside government. Broadening citizen participation and involving more people in key decisions helps the public sector take advantage of 'crowdsourcing' and draw on the wisdom of outside people."

I can hardly think of a better description of an engaged, healthy community.

Times like these that challenge traditional government operations are precisely when government should look outward and work to engage the broader community. I encourage you to look at the Brookings report and visit our Web site for ideas on how to improve public service in your community.