The Connecticut State Comptroller, Sean Scanlon, oversees the municipal pension plan covering workers in 107 of Connecticut’s 169 towns. To address major financial challenges that resulted in costs going up for towns and cities in the plan by 75% in the previous 5 years, the office convened a working group of Democrats, Republicans, labor, and management to tackle the issues. Over six weeks of in-person collaboration, the working group developed and reached an agreement on a series of win-win reforms that both labor and management could support and that would save millions this year and $740 million over the next 30 years.

Impact:

Scanlon believes that the data and numbers will demonstrate the effort’s impact. Towns began realizing some savings on July 1, 2023 but the bulk of savings will begin in 2025 and happen over the next 30 years.

New legislation, sponsored by Oregon Representative Janelle Bynum will provide a cause of action to recover damages for disclosure of private information such as personal contact data or social security numbers. Known as Doxxing, or publicly sharing information with the intent to intimidate or silence an individual or organization, this nefarious tool can stem public discourse and threatens individual privacy. With the support of a broad coalition of stakeholders ranging from journalists, constituents, to law enforcement personnel, Btnym narrowly tailored the bill to provide effective deterrence against doxing without chilling free exercise or other first amendment rights.

Impact:

The cause of the action is novel, and lawyers are just learning how to use this as a tool to protect privacy rights. Bynum hopes the doxxing cases that are just now being filed will strike a balance to ameliorate the impact of aggressive doxxing activity while also protecting free speech.

Current programs established to provide benefits and services to veterans often struggle to find and engage the veterans they are meant to serve. Veterans falling through the cracks to the point of homelessness, unemployment, marriage breakups, higher suicide rates only get help when they hit the bottom.

Solution

Mayor Warren proposed a municipally-sponsored Veterans Center, which combined socializing/networking, activities, and speakers along with the opportunity to speak to service providers. This has been a successful model for Newton to better serve the veterans in their community while providing a comfortable environment for them to engage with other veterans.

As traditional funding from the federal government has become increasingly uncertain, state and local governments are struggling to invest in the roads, power grids, and other kinds of infrastructure that we need to ‘build for the future’ in the changing economy. Without a standard set of rules around private funding for public infrastructure, it becomes much more difficult for both the government and private companies to fill this critical void.

Solution

Public Private Partnerships (P3s) are structures to essentially share resources to reduce the cost of construction, and therefore enable more projects, create the associated jobs, and literally build the kind of modern America we want to live in. Senator Keller is working to develop a standard set of best practices for public-private partnerships in order to untap private funding that can lower the cost and speed up infrastructure improvements while still ensuring accountability to the public.

Problem

Currently the City of Chattanooga has very limited data made public to its citizens, hindering citizen engagement and trust in government.

Solution

Mayor Berke is working to release unprecedented amounts of public data in the city to spur civic innovation and economic growth. From interactive budgeting tools, to applications that show where road closures are — open public data empowers the local development community to help solve difficult civic problems. Through a strong partnership with the Public Library, Chattanooga is also investing in an independent platform to host all community data (nonprofits, private businesses, community organizers)– not just government. The Library will also be an independent advocate for high-quality open data, which is invaluable for the long-term future of government transparency in Chattanooga.

Government often relies on outside experts and hiring consultants to improve city systems and advise city employees on how to do their jobs better. By focusing only on this outsider, top-down approach, government is spending more money on solving its problems and not inspiring a culture of innovation and trust in government amongst city employees.

Solution

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock launched Peak Performance to invest in Denver’s employees by giving them the tools to solve city problems. Peak offers classes to city employees to help them identify areas for improvement and embrace a new culture of innovation to provide the best service possible. By empowering city employees to find their own straightforward reforms, Mayor Hancock has restored public trust in government, while making city projects run more efficiently and save money.

Government budgets are often updated each year based on historical trends rather than adjusting for current needs. This antiquated system of budgeting does not allow governments to find the most effective and efficient ways to serve the needs of their citizens.

Solution

Zero-Based Budgeting with a Mission uses the budget development process to focus government activities on core missions, establish performance measures, and align the organizational structure to the mission, resulting in a transparent, efficient, and effective blueprint for the delivery of services. Each County Department is asked to identify their core mission, identify and eliminate current activities which are outside the mission, and build budgets from the bottom up to meet identified goals.

Many business owners are burdened by the need to comply with numerous regulations, spending too much time filling out duplicate information for various forms/permits and taking time away from managing and expanding their business.

Solution

Rep. Short believes that utilizing cloud computing can streamline Delaware’s permit process to support existing businesses and further business start-ups by helping them identify what they need to be in compliance. He is proposing to allow state, county and municipal governments to download information for a business that is common in their applications for licenses and permits. This common information could be filled out once by the company and then uploaded for retrieval by authorized entities that would then be able to have their required forms/permits/licensing auto-filled, saving time and resources.

More than half of Burlington’s waterfront is currently underutilized. Previous attempts for redevelopment have stalled for over a decade because of a lack of political consensus and constituent agreement.

Solution

Over the course of 2013 the City of Burlington ran a public, transparent, interactive competition to determine how to invest nearly $10 million in TIF investments for the redevelopment of their Lake Champlain waterfront. The competition — open to all individuals and organizations including City departments and private businesses — generated 120 new ideas, new partnerships, and public excitement and consensus about the five selected projects that will be enacted this year.