NOTE: This is the second article in this series. Artificial intelligence did not introduce a new problem to local government. It simply made an old one impossible to ignore. Long before anyone embedded a chatbot on a county website, local…
Artificial intelligence is entering local government the way most consequential things do: politely, without knocking, and claiming it will save everyone a little time. It appears as a chatbot on the city website. A tool that summarizes ordinances. A quiet…
Note: This is the third article in this series. For more context, it might help to read the first two (When GIS Wasn’t Really GIS and When AI Went to Work). The Pragmatic Truth: AI Won’t Take Your Job, But…
Author’s Note: This is the second article in a short series documenting my journey from just being “The GIS Guy” to a broader strategic role. If you haven’t read the first installment I encourage you to start there. The rest…
The Unexpected Beginning of a Transformation When I took over the GIS Department for St. Joseph County, MI, in 2016, I assumed I understood the terrain. After nearly twenty years running a private GIS consulting company, I figured a rural…
Notes from the messy middle of local government modernization. For most of my 30+ year career, I assumed GIS was perched on the edge of a grand evolutionary leap. The sort of leap that would reveal itself any day now,…
The GovAI Coalition Summit wrapped a couple of weeks ago. Like many of you living in the quiet limbo of small local government travel budgets, I couldn’t attend. Fortunately, the organizers released the full recap and session notes. Twenty-five PDFs,…
Why the Plumbing Matters More Than the Chatbot: The Diagnosis Introduction: The Efficiency Gap Local governments across the country are hitting a familiar wall. The excitement around Artificial Intelligence rises like steam from a freshly opened manhole cover, yet the…
Author’s Note: Some of this is specific to Michigan local government, but it likely applies in your neck of the woods as well. Most of us have watched this scene unfold with the same resigned familiarity we reserve for potholes…
When Van Buren County was established in 1829, it was named for then Vice President Martin Van Buren. Nearly two centuries later, that name lives on, on our maps, our signs, and now, in a new way, in Marty, the county’s…
