Local Government Services provides a variety of resources aimed at facilitating effective local management.  This page contains reference articles on a range of topics relevant to local government management and operations.

Community & Economic Development

• http://www.letsdobusinessgwinnett.com/ - an effort of public and private sectors in Gwinnett County to stabilize housing prices and stimulate consumer and business spending
• Clean and Lien - Union City's response to blighted foreclosures using City labor and property liens (pdf)
• Foreclosure Cleanup w/ Inmate Labor - Clayton County's approach to addressing the blight of foreclosures (pdf)
• Cleveland Land Bank - HUD and a land bank in the Cleveland area collaborate to reduce blighted housing (pdf)
• Sustainable Infrastructure in Seattle - Leveraging Capital for Sustainable Outcomes.  Manuscript by Steve Moddemeyer (pdf)
• Grass Cutting - Assessing Owners for the Cost of Compliance - an article on an approach to nuisance ordinance enforcement from Cleveland (pdf)

Finance & Budget

• Citizen's Budget Committee - an overview of the City of Duluth's approach to involving citizens in tough budget decisions (pdf)
• Sample Budget Review Forms - exerpts of the Budget Review documents the City of Roswell put in place to facilitate budget decisions.  Includes a "Stop Doing" list, as well as selection criteria linking budget requests to strategic goals (pdf)
• Increasing the Value of Government Spending in a Time of Budget Constraints - an article by Steve Moddemeyer, 2010 (pdf)
• Outsourcing City Services - Wall Street Journal article on the move to outsource services as municipal budgets fall, July, 2010 (pdf)
• Managing the Salary and Wage Budgeting Process (2010) Best practices from the Government Finance Officer Association
• Government Finance Officer Association Best Practices and Advisories - web link to the GFOA website

Health & Public Safety

• ...Technology for Improving Public Safety (web)
• "911...: Past, Present and Future" (pdf) Presentation
• "The Latest in Police Technology" (pdf) Presentation
• "License Plate Recognition Systems"  (pdf) Presentation
• "Red Light Camera Systems"  (pdf) Presentation
• "...Hydrant Data Collection ..."   (pdf) Presentation
• "Marietta Police and GIS: ..."  (pdf) Presentation

Human Resources

• Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation over 20 Years (pdf)
  A Report of the Center for State and Local Government Excellence, April 2010.

    High Performance Organizations - Overview and Sample Documents

• The Building Blocks of HPO - The City of Montgomery, Ohio's approach to HPO (pdf)
• High-Performance Government - an article discussing how the HPO model can help local governments improve their performance, 2001 (pdf)
• In Pursuit of Higher Performance Part I - an article from The Public Manager, 2007 (pdf)
• In Pursuit of Higher Performance, Part II - an article from The Public Manager, 2007 (pdf)
• Frontline HPO Job Description Template - a sample job description template from the City of Montgomery, Ohio, implementing HPO concepts (pdf)
• Frontline HPO Performance Evaluation - a sample performance appraisal document from the City of Montgomery, Ohio, implementing HPO concepts (pdf)
• 360 Peer Evaluation - an example of The City of Montgomery's 360 Peer Evaluation document used as part of their HPO implementation (pdf)

Technology

• Streaming City Meetings Online (pdf)
  An example of a local government launching a service to allow anyone to watch council meetings live online, June 2010.
• Local Government Use of Social Media for Emergency Preparedness (pdf)
  A report by ICMA on ways to incorporate social media into local government emergency response plans, 2010

    Customer Service Technologies:

• ICMA National Study of 311 and Customer Service Technology  (web)
• "Web 2.0 for Local Governments"  (pdf) Presentation
• “Citizen Service Technology"  (pdf) Presentation
• "311/CRM: ...'Best Practices'..."  (pdf) Presentation
• "...Overcoming the Generation Gap in Technology Skills"  (pdf) Presentation

    Green Technologies:

• Gov Tech: Green Initiatives News and Articles (web)
•  "Computer Power Management for Local Government" (pdf) Presentation 
• "Data Center & IT Infrastructure Optimization: Trends and Best Practices"  (pdf) Presentation
• "Greening Government through Water Management Technologies" (pdf) Presentation
• "How to Cut Data Center Energy Consumption" (web)

    Technology in the Public Sector:

• "No Time To Waste" (pdf) Presentation 
• "Seven Trends ... Transform Local Gov..."  (pdf) Presentation 
• "State of the Industry Report..." (pdf) Presentation