May, 2017

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City of Toledo, OH Launches Citizens Priorities Survey!

PBB Center for Priority Based Budgeting

“ What we are hoping is that we're going to have a real overview of the 733 programs that the city performs, what they cost, and then a sense of how much they actually meet our priorities as a city ," Toledo Councilwoman Sandy Spang The City of Toledo is spending money to save money. City council is changing the way they look at the budget hoping to save money in the end.

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Online Engagement vs Offline Engagement: Is one more successful than the other?

Social Pinpoint

Imagine yourself sitting in a town hall meeting discussing the latest traffic project in the city. An individual stands up and angrily expresses their opinion about a problem, but you don’t necessarily agree with them. You might not be alone either. That angry member of the community might only represent a small percentage of the. The post Online Engagement vs Offline Engagement: Is one more successful than the other?

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The Northeast Regional Ocean Council and Maritime Data

Data.gov

When it comes to ocean planning, there are multiple user groups, activity types, natural resources, and physical forces to consider. In the face of such complexity, local planning efforts can benefit from federally funded consistent data collection and sharing, especially when involving … Continued. The post The Northeast Regional Ocean Council and Maritime Data appeared first on Data.gov.

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How the Rhode Island Innovative Policy Lab (RIIPL) works: An interview with Justine Hastings, Director, RIIPL – Episode #147

Andy Feldman's Gov Innovator podcast

In 2015, a unique collaboration was launched call the Rhode Island Innovative Policy Lab (RIIPL). It is a partnership between researchers at Brown University and the Office of the Governor of Rhode Island, with the goal of helping state agencies design evidence-based policies to better serve Rhode Island families. RIIPL’s goal is to use data and science to improve policy, alleviate poverty and increase equity of opportunity.

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How Breckenridge, CO Ensures Tax & Licensing Compliance

Breckenridge’s short-term rental boom—over 4,200 licenses —put intense pressure on the town’s small staff and manual processes. Facing compliance and efficiency challenges, the town teamed up with GovOS to automate its STR licensing. The new system: Cut admin time Reduced errors Improved the experience for property owners and town staff Discover the full impact of automation on Breckenridge’s STR management—download the case study.

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26 May 2017 | Should Public Management be an Experimental Discipline?, By Oliver James

PMRA (Public Management Research Association)

There has been substantial growth in the use of experiments in public management over recent years. The substantive contributions are becoming broad and deep, and span a range of research questions about core topic areas. These observations were part of the motivation for Sebastian Jilke , Gregg Van Ryzin and I to put together an edited book about this experimental turn.

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A Litmus Test for Safety Net Policies

Poverty & Policy

We all, I’m sure, know how people on “welfare,” i.e. receiving virtually any safety net benefit, are often bad-mouthed. We know too that the process of gaining benefits and keeping them often subjects recipients to requirements and hassles that we’d never imposed on better-off people. The humiliations and inconveniences deter some eligible people from applying — a feature, not a bug in some state and local systems.

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5 tips to handle misinformation [public engagement]

Social Pinpoint

Community engagement often involves contentious issues that evoke emotional responses from the community. Unfortunately, these responses can lead to ‘scare campaigns’ that promote misinformation, completely derailing the engagement process by raising unrelated issues. These misunderstandings can spread quickly and lead to the community losing trust in the organization, often before the engagement campaign has even begun!

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Foundations of a successful marketing campaign [increase participation]

Social Pinpoint

Creating a marketing campaign is crucial for any online engagement project. Without one, you could be missing out on many opportunities and lose access to your community and stakeholders (aka ‘customers’), but that does not mean that every marketing campaign is a good campaign. There are a few focus-points of your strategy to keep in mind.

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The importance of replication and validation in evidence-based policy: An interview with Tammy Chang, U.S. Treasury Department, and Nathaniel Higgins, formerly U.S. Social and Behavioral Sciences Team – Episode #146

Andy Feldman's Gov Innovator podcast

In this podcast episode, we explore two real-life stories from the front lines of government performance improvement efforts that highlight the importance of replication and validation in evidence-based policy. In the U.K., the department of revenue and customs, in conjunction with the U.K. Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), tested new versions of the letter sent to people who were late in paying their taxes.

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New Answers to Who Is Poor in America

Poverty & Policy

Recent mail included not only the usual junk, requests for donations and bills, but a magazine from Stanford University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality. Such a surprise, since I hadn’t ordered it. And such an informative and thought-provoking issue. It’s a series of what it terms “blueprints” for ending poverty, prefaced by two framing papers. One presents key facts that reforms should reflect, the other a litmus tests for them.

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Overcoming Operational Challenges in Parks & Recreation

Speaker: Noratek

Maintaining parks and recreation facilities efficiently is no easy task, especially when faced with scheduling issues, aging infrastructure, and inconsistent inspections. Join us for this insightful webinar where we explore the most common challenges departments like yours are facing and how digital tools like CityReporter can help you streamline operations, ensure safety, and make better use of your resources.

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How Massachusetts provides education policymakers with research insights: An interview with Carrie Conaway, Chief Strategy and Research Officer, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education – Episode #145

Andy Feldman's Gov Innovator podcast

Massachusetts is known as a leader in providing education policymakers with research findings that they can use to improve policy and practices. The state’s Office of Planning and Research, within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE), takes a multifaceted approach: Design a proactive research agenda, also known as a learning agenda.

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How Seattle used results-driven contracting to improve homeless services: An interview with Jason Johnson, Deputy Director, Human Services Department, City of Seattle – Episode #144

Andy Feldman's Gov Innovator podcast

Because many of the most important functions of state and local governments involve contracting for goods and services supplied by the private sector, improving procurement processes is an important way to strengthen outcomes for citizens. That is the motivation behind our series on results-driven contracting. Our focus today is Seattle, Washington, whose Human Services Department worked with the Government Performance Lab (GPL) at the Harvard Kennedy School to improve outcomes for its homeles

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How states can optimize their pre-K programs: An interview with Greg Duncan, Professor, UC Irvine, and Member, Pre-Kindergarten Task Force – Episode #143

Andy Feldman's Gov Innovator podcast

Forty-two states and the District of Columbia spent $6.2 billion in state funds on pre-kindergarten programs in 2015, highlighting the emphasis that policymakers are placing on pre-k to help students prepare for elementary school. Research has shown both the success of pre-K as well as inconclusive evidence about the sustainability of those gains as children become older.

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Rehashed Attacks on SSDI, New Rebuttals, Proposed Reforms

Poverty & Policy

The Washington Post recently published a long article on Social Security Disability Insurance benefits in small rural communities. It set off a well-deserved backlash. But it made me wonder whether anyone had ideas for improving the program. Hence this post. Aspersions on SSDI and Beneficiaries. The Post article focused on a former roofer who was suffering chronic pain because he’d fallen to the ground.

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Empower Digital Government: Strategic Workbook for Modern Transformation

Digital transformation is reshaping government interactions, bringing agencies closer to the communities they serve. However, while many have adopted new digital tools, few have implemented comprehensive strategies to maximize their benefits. Our Strategic Workbook for Modern Government offers a step-by-step guide to developing a sustainable digital strategy.

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House Majority Denies Low-Income Seniors and People With Disabilies Choice of Living in Their Homes

Poverty & Policy

Some followers may have noticed a long silence. I’ve just rejoined the networked world after another fall — this one, unlike the first, a complication of a complication of a condition only recently diagnosed. As you might imagine, I’ve been dwelling on health care even more than I would have otherwise. So I was ready to launch a diatribe against major, widely-reported harms inflicted by the House repeal-replacement bill.

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So Much Wrong With Single Mother Stereotype

Poverty & Policy

Posts on single motherhood consistently rank among my weekly top-10 viewed. I’ve published nothing on the issues for quite awhile. So I’ll take a brief break — and give you one too — from the stream of reports, op-eds, forecasts and the like sparked by turbulence in the White House and fractiousness in the Congress. Here’s some of what we learn from the aptly-titled Single Mother Guide , fleshed out from other sources and what’s stashed in my own brain.

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A Slice of the Trump Budget’s Shrunken Pie for the Needs of Low-Income People

Poverty & Policy

Well, we finally have the full version of Trump’s proposed budget for upcoming fiscal year. And we’ve all seen and/or heard news reports, op-eds, social media takes and the like. They generally have one of two focuses — new cuts, both total and by cabinet-level department or cuts to certain specific programs. These tacks are basically the same as when the administration released its skinny budget preview, except that we now have a shift prompted by a range of cuts to safety net programs th