Digital Counties and Cities Best Practice Guide

The e.Republic, Inc. local government program, Digital Communities, together with the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology, present this Best Practice Guide for Local Government. It includes examples of innovative information and communications technology (ICT) systems and programs drawn from award-winning counties and cities across the United States.

For over a decade, the Center for Digital Government, together with partnering organizations, The National Association of Counties (NACo) and the National League of Cities (NLC), has administered a series of surveys about the use of digital technologies by local government to service citizens.

In their first iteration ‘” launched in the mid-1990s ‘” the surveys focused on a central question: What and how many services are being offered online?

The second iteration ‘” launched in the first decade of the new century ‘” expanded the view, asking questions about the architecture, infrastructure and policy framework in which digital technologies were being used.

Survey reviewers have identified some of the best and most innovative programs and systems currently implemented in counties and cities and have assembled them in this document. The brief descriptions are intended to give readers an overview of what their peers are doing so they can determine if a similar approach might make sense in their community.

To that end, examples were selected from county and city responses within seven major categories of service delivery:

1. IT Governance
2. Public Safety, Emergency Management and Corrections
3. Health, Social and Human Services
4. Commerce, Labor and Taxation ‘“ Economic, Business, Community and Workforce Development
5. Finance and Administration, Human Resources, Licensing and Permitting
6. Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, Parks and Agriculture
7. Citizen Engagement, Open Government and Online Service Delivery

Selections were made based on the innovative nature of the approach, its connection to a strategic policy agenda within the implementing jurisdiction, results generated, and the likelihood that the solution may be adaptable and replicable in other communities.

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