MUNICIPAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
08/27/02 COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Time and Date: 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Location: UVM Continuing Education in Montpelier City Center
In Attendance:
Peter Brownell, VT Department of Education (VT-DOE)
Jill George, Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT)
Dennis Roberts, Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT)
Carl Rogers, Barre Town
Chip Sawyer, Center for Rural Studies (CRS)
Gregory Sanford, VT State Archives
Fred Skeels, City of Montpelier
Kim Zaletta, UVM Extension
Agenda Items:
1) Introductions
2) Planning for 2003-04 E-Government Conference
3) Online Town Officer Training Calendar
4) Committee recruitment
5) MIT Committee website
6) Other business
Meeting Summary:
Introductions.
The Committee was very happy to welcome new faces – Peter Brownell, VT-DOE; Dennis Roberts, VLCT; Carl Rogers, Barre Town; Gregory Sanford, Archives; Kim Zaletta, Extension – as well as returning faces – Fred Skeels, Montpelier. Dann Van Der Vliet (UVM-CE), an active cmte member, regretted not being able to attend due to conflicts. Chip Sawyer introduced Kim Zaletta as someone who will be employed by CRS to help bring the MIT Cmte’s initiatives, like the E-govt Conference, and the training calendar, to fruition.
Planning for 2003-04 E-Government Conference.
Chip Sawyer (CS) raised the question of what priorities should guide the E-Govt conference and asked attendees to share their opinions and expertise.
Gregory Sanford (GS) stated that the conference should seek to cover what he likes to consider the major issues: (1) WHY more E-Govt/I.T. and (2) HOW to do it. He raised the priorities of I.T. risk management and accounting for continuing I.T. costs (in addition to initial), including data migration and such. He identified legislative/administrative “resource allocators” as a primary audience. Also stated that it would be useful to help town officers think outside their municipal boundaries, recognize the very important system that they’re all part of, and act in ways to maintain the integrity of that system.
CS stated that there seems to be a dichotomy between the priorities raised by those who view the whole picture of E-govt in Vermont and the priorities raised by the town officers, who seek much more applied, hands-on training that will help them get their jobs done. He said that the trick would be to provide applied, job-specific workshops that will attract town officers to the conference and also include them in discussion on the more over-arching issues that will ensure the proper management of E-govt and municipal I.T. in Vermont.
In the more applied vein, Peter Brownell (PB) suggested a priority on municipal website issues: what websites can do for towns, what other towns have successfully accomplished with website to various degrees, and what the overarching issues are.
Jill George (JG) added that VLCT has helped many towns successfully create website with the Gov-Office application.
CS suggested the possibility of one or more workshops that show towns how to use Gov-Office, but also addresses many important website issues, including the public vs. published issue.
GS said that workshops should be designed with a framework of tracks that, in the example of websites, show BEGINNING towns how to put them up, help ADVANCED towns add more features, and address the over-arching issues that should be considered by ALL towns.
PB also offered interactive television as a topic that should be raised with town officers. The Vermont Interactive Learning Network (ILN) is a partnership among Verizon, the Vermont Department of Education, the Vermont Institute of Science, Math and Technology (VISMT), and 55 public high schools. The plan of ILN is to install interactive television capability in all 55 schools (see http://www.viln.org/. Currently 30-40 schools have the capability. This would be a very useful tool for town officers to communicate and train. A very good future resource for the MIT Cmte as well.
As another priority, Fred Skeels (FS) suggested use and management of the new E-911 data. There are many different software formats to consider, and E-911 has given birth to efforts to use more GIS technology in many town offices. A discussion of these issues would help many towns, especially emergency, fire, police, and planning/zoning departments.
JG also suggested the integration of town office departments as a priority. Helping towns to share more resources and responsibilities within their municipal offices will certainly facilitate better use of E-govt. She also mentioned vendor issues as a good priority. Also central to E-govt and I.T., vendors supply many services to towns, and they are also a primary source of I.T. education for municipal officers, with various positive and negative results. Example RFP’s and best practices for dealing with vendors would be very helpful.
GS concurred. He knows of a few “horror stories” of instances between municipalities and vendors.
Carl Rogers (CR) concurred with FS that GIS issues could be a good priority, especially in terms of technology for road departments and assessor’s offices. He also concurred with JG on the vendor issue and added that he has been present at a vendor workshop given by a woman (unknown) from Vermont Technical College.
On that point, PB mentioned that VTC may be a good site for the conference. CS had already mentioned Capital Plaza in Montpelier as a very viable site. General consensus seems to agree with a site in Central Vermont.
To help determine an audience, GS asked FS and CR which town officers they would most likely send to an E-govt conference. They replied, in order of mention:
Clerk
Zoning/Planning
Engineer/Public Works
Book-keepers
Legislative/Administrative position
Department heads
Law enforcement/Fire dept.
GS mentioned that VMCTA’s certification efforts may point to important issues that the conference should cover. CS concurred, saying that he would contact VMCTA members to ask how the conference could best fit into their scheme.
CS also lamented that he had received no replies to a posting on Muni-Net for municipal officers to make their suggestions for a conference. It was suggested that a survey be put together. CS stated that he has already been roped into attending the annual VMCTA meeting, the Lister’s meeting, the VLCT Town Fair, and the MOMS this fall. He could bring the survey with him. [On a related note, CS returned to his office after this meeting to find the one and only reply to the Muni-Net posting. It was a suggestion from a town officer that the MIT Cmte put together a survey.]
GS suggested conferring with state college entities for suggestions on how-to options and best practices. For regional issues, he shared that VT, RI, and CT are the only states that keep land records on the municipal level. There is potential for many shared experiences. He suggested contacting the CT public records office for a possible presentation. He also mentioned the VMCTA New England meeting and the New England Archivists meeting, both in October 2003, as good venues for gathering ideas.
While mulling over possible keynote speakers, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz was mentioned. She has a lot of recognition and respect among municipal officers, and she is well versed in E-govt and I.T. issues. No ideas came up for a speaker on a more national level. GS also suggested Sean Rounds (sp?) from the Minnesota Historical Society, where many E-Govt and I.T. issues have been dealt with.
PB mentioned that more towns that are considered advanced in terms of I.T. could be encouraged to attend if they were asked to present how they have addressed E-govt issues.
For the next MIT Cmte meeting, a major goal is to identify
keynote speakers and workshop providers, so that contact may be made well
before “crunch time” arrives for putting the conference together. Nailing down a workable conference date or
another existing annual municipal officer conference to pair up with is another
goal.
Online Town Officer
Training Calendar.
CS stated that one of the original initiatives of the MIT Cmte was the development of an online resource for town officers to checks for ALL available I.T. and E-govt trainings going on in the state and other resources. This would require the coordination of many resources, as well as training providers. The key would be to develop a useful tool that wouldn’t be a hassle to either use or update. Kim Zaletta (KZ) is available to build the website, but the cmte must sit down to design it.
CS stated that VT DHCA is leading an effort to create a similar resource targeted at planning and zoning issues. At the next meeting, he will bring in the plans for this site as an example.
Committee
recruitment.
CS solicited the cmte for suggestions to recruit more municipal officers. Suggestions included:
Planners
Those in legislative positions
Those from towns with less experience with E-govt and I.T.
Those with public records expertise
Those with legal expertise
Those representative of many community sizes
Specifically:
Mike Welch, City Manager at St. Johnsbury
Bridget Collier (sp?) from Greensboro, a smaller community using I.T.
FS suggested that holding cmte meetings in different areas of the state will encourage officers from different communities to attend – e.g. officers from Richmond and Underhill attended a past meeting in Waterbury.
It was also suggested that the MIT Cmte seek partnership with other organizations, including the VT Highway Assoc, VT Local Roads, and VT Emergency Mgt.
CR volunteered to contact someone from the law enforcement community.
[Recent development: JG has made contact with Darryl Smith (Treasurer’s Office and Roxbury Lister), who is interested in the MIT Cmte]
MIT Committee
website.
CS built a website for the cmte at http://crs.uvm.edu/egov/mit and is looking for feedback on how it could best be used to serve the cmte’s objectives.
Other business.
JG mentioned that VLCT is involved with Jack Hoffman and the recently-formed Broadband Council with the aim to provide more broadband internet access to municipal offices and businesses in the state. She suggested that an E-govt Conference survey could potentially be combined with a survey that Dominic Cloud from VLCT will be putting together for broadband issues.
KZ shared that Sig Anderson and the NEK Collaborative have been looking at broadband provision issues in that region as well.
JG also mentioned that, sadly, Jon Groveman will be leaving VLCT’s Municipal Law Center with their blessing. He has been a presence at many town officer training sessions.
Next Meeting: Thursday, September 19. Place is TBA (somewhere in or near Montpelier). CS will be in touch with all cmte members when place is determined. Tentative agenda will be continued planning for the 2003 E-Government Conference and more discussion on features and design for the online town officer I.T. training calendar.
Meeting adjourned
around 11:00 a.m.
MIT Committee meeting summary respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM SAWYER
PROJECT MANAGER
RESEARCH DATA SPECIALIST
Center for Rural Studies
207 Morrill Hall
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
Phone: 802-656-0892
FAX: 802-656-4975
