Weekly Roundup: November 16-20, 2020

Submitted by on Fri, 11/20/2020 - 08:12

John Kamensky

What Are the Chances?

Submitted by on Wed, 11/18/2020 - 09:41

And this happened just two years after it was similarly devastated by -- a one-in-one thousand-year flash flood. But this isn’t an anomaly.

How Localities Continually Adapt Enterprise Strategies to Manage Natural Disasters

Submitted by on Wed, 11/18/2020 - 09:00

The authors of this report delve into city-level surveys of hundreds of communities, conducted by the International City/County Managers Association, to learn firsthand what challenges face local leaders and how they prepare in advance to blunt the effects of natural disasters.  They interview dozens of local leaders for their advice and insights and then used these insights to develop a framework that can guide local leaders as they strategize ways to minimize the effects of natural disasters on their communities and economies in the future.

Sarah Beth Gehl

Submitted by on Tue, 11/17/2020 - 17:05

Sarah Beth Gehl is the Research Director of the Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP), a fiscally-sponsored project of the Roosevelt Institute. She has served as policy director for a gubernatorial campaign, deputy director and tax policy analyst for a state-level think tank, and nonprofit consultant focused on policy and advocacy. Gehl has taught public administration and political science courses at the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Agnes Scott College and holds a Ph.D.

Komla D. Dzigbede

Submitted by on Tue, 11/17/2020 - 16:58

Komla D. Dzigbede is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at Binghamton University. His research interests include state and local public finance and economic development. Dzigbede has recently published research in Municipal Finance Journal, Public Finance and Management, Public Administration Review and Policy Studies Journal. Dzigbede has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Ghana, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the Georgia State University.

Weekly Roundup: November 9-13, 2020

Submitted by on Fri, 11/13/2020 - 08:53

John Kamensky

Why the Phrase Best Practices Makes Us Jittery

Submitted by on Thu, 11/12/2020 - 09:47

There may be cases in which best practices can apply from city to city and state to state. Best budgeting practices, for example – such as those developed by the Government Finance Officers Association – can certainly be useful. It’s a universally accepted best practice in budgeting, for example, that entities should cover current year expenditures with current year revenues -- not revenues borrowed from the future.

Who can argue with that?

Addressing Open Questions About the Future of CXOs and Mission Support Functions

Submitted by on Wed, 11/11/2020 - 10:13

Co-Author: John Kamensky, Senior Fellow, IBM Center for The Business of Government

Statutory and non-statutory mission support functions have evolved over the past three decades, as described in an earlier post.  Over the years, there have been calls to resolve some open questions, for example with a proposal to update the 30-year-old Chief Financial Officers Act.  These include:

The Road to AGILE GOVERNMENT: Driving Change to Achieve Success

Submitted by on Tue, 11/10/2020 - 09:00

Agile delivery approaches support government goals of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness by improving agency capacity to manage their budgets and delivery dates.

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