In a quiet corner of Southwest Michigan, the sort of place where road names double as genealogical records, something unexpected is unfolding. Amid the cornfields and committee meetings, a pair of rural governments are attempting what might best be described as a digital moonshot. It’s called the Digital Innovation Collaborative Exchange, or DICE: an acronym with just enough swagger to sound like it belongs on a startup slide deck, but built on the kind of substance that might actually help small governments survive the 21st century without spontaneously combusting from unmet expectations.
“This isn’t about chasing shiny objects,” says Jerry Happel, Director of Digital Information for both Van Buren and St. Joseph counties and the quietly determined architect behind the DICE initiative. “It’s about giving local governments the tools, people, and support they need to do their jobs, without waiting around for a magical budget windfall that never shows up, not even fashionably late.”
What Is DICE?
At its core, DICE is a regional collaboration model currently piloted by Van Buren and St. Joseph counties. Rather than each local government heroically reinventing the wheel on a shoestring, DICE offers shared access to modern technologies (AI, automation, GIS, data analytics, and digital communications) all delivered through a hybrid nonprofit/interlocal entity. Think of it as a kind of digital civil service with the soul of a mission-driven nonprofit and the legal scaffolding of the Urban Cooperation Act.
Put plainly: it’s the digital department your township can’t afford on its own, but might just get by teaming up with the townships next door, ideally the ones with working broadband and a mutual dislike of inefficiency.
A Quiet Revolution (That’s Already Working)
This is not a theoretical utopia where dashboards bloom and AI sings lullabies. It’s already happening. In under a year, Van Buren and St. Joseph counties have deployed automation and AI tools that are quietly saving hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours.
“Marty AI” (named, with mild irreverence, after President Martin Van Buren) now handles thousands of resident inquiries, preventing small questions from metastasizing into long phone calls and mild existential crises. Internal workflows for things like records requests, address changes, and HR forms have been digitized and automated, reducing human error, paperwork pileups, and the general sensation that time is a flat circle.
“The question isn’t whether it works,” says Happel. “It’s how to scale it without losing our minds.”
Why This Matters More Than You Think
In large cities, tech upgrades are often buzzwords in a press release. In small governments, they’re the difference between delivering services or quietly drowning in the deep end of legacy systems and Excel spreadsheets with names like Final_Final_v3_Revised.xlsx.
DICE is an alternative to that slow administrative entropy. By pooling digital expertise and standardizing high-impact tools, DICE lets member governments:
- Automate tedious workflows (think permits, FOIA, onboarding)
- Launch and manage modern websites that don’t look like relics from 2004
- Build AI tools to answer resident questions — politely, and ideally with fewer typos than a human
- Train staff to not only use digital tools, but to understand them
- Leverage GIS and analytics to inform actual decisions
This isn’t transformation for transformation’s sake. It’s a slow, deliberate walk away from burnout, delays, and digital embarrassment. And the results are measured in real terms: reduced processing times, cost savings, happier residents, and staff who are slightly less ready to mutiny.
A Governance Model That Might Actually Work
To avoid the usual fate of promising initiatives (i.e., committee-purgatory followed by budget-related asphyxiation), DICE is structured intentionally. Legally anchored in Michigan’s Urban Cooperation Act, it’s operated through an intergovernmental agreement for transparency and accountability. Plans for a nonprofit arm would allow it to chase grants and reinvest surpluses (yes, surpluses) into service expansion.
And they’re not building in a vacuum. The W.E. Upjohn Institute, WMU’s Center for Excellence in Public Research and the Southwest Michigan Regional Planning Commission are co-developing the framework, bringing real-world policy chops and enough economic data to keep things honest.
Still, Happel is quick to note that the hard part isn’t the tech. It’s the alignment.
“Everyone loves innovation,” he says, “until it asks them to change how they do things. The hardest part is agreeing on what success looks like and how we’ll know when we’ve actually achieved it.”
The Road Ahead
The intergovernmental agreement was finalized on July 22, 2025 with services beginning shortly thereafter. Phase One includes AI communications, shared GIS, workflow automation, and digital training, with more to follow by fall of 2025. Additional governments are already eyeing the model.
Long-Term Vision
DICE is both a solution and a prototype…a structural response to a structural problem. If it works in Van Buren and St. Joseph, it might work across the state. Maybe beyond.
“We’re not scaling a product,” says Happel. “We’re scaling a model.”
The goal? A network of regional DICE organizations, each serving local communities but sharing knowledge, tools, and strategy. A kind of open-source public service platform, with fewer buzzwords and more uptime.
Because the real alternative isn’t maintaining the status quo. It’s five counties buying five different overpriced systems that can’t talk to each other, each of which ends up on a shelf after one staff turnover and a missed password reset.
“We’ve done that,” says Happel. “Let’s try something that lasts.”
DICE by the Numbers
- 2 counties (so far): Van Buren and St. Joseph
- 7 technology focus areas: AI, automation, GIS, data analytics, digital communications, website modernization, and staff training
- 1 mission: To bridge the digital divide for small local governments
- Summer 2025: Target date for full launch
- Statewide potential: Designed for replication across Michigan
If DICE succeeds, it won’t just modernize a couple of counties. It will quietly prove that rural governments can modernize — not by buying more stuff, but by collaborating on the hard parts.
And for every county still on the fence, it offers a simple proposition:
The tools exist. The model is real. All that’s left is the will to try it — together.