In local government, we say collaboration is key.
We say it at retreats. We say it in strategic plans. We say it into microphones at ribbon cuttings for community broadband projects that took four years and six grant cycles to complete.
But when it comes to digital transformation (AI, automation, GIS, data analytics, digital comms) we retreat back into our silos like municipal turtles.
Each town. Each city. Each county. Each department.
Writing its own RFP.
Negotiating custom vendor contracts for every single project.
Reinventing the same dashboard.
Grappling with the same staffing shortages.
Again. And again. And again.
This isn’t madness. It’s muscle memory. It’s exactly what you’d expect in a system that’s risk-averse, resource-constrained, and legally entangled in ways only a municipal attorney could truly appreciate.
Because when you’re a county administrator juggling procurement law, open meetings, union contracts, and seven elected officials with differing views on font choice, “just try something new” isn’t strategy. It’s career suicide. My County Administrator once told me “Innovation doesn’t belong in county government.” He was kidding (sort-of).
So of course we default to large vendors with polished sales decks and the reassuring weight of indemnity clauses. Of course we play defense. The cost of failure isn’t just a busted budget, it’s a headline. Or worse, a campaign slogan.
But What If We Could Share the Risk?
Enter DICE: the Digital Innovation Cooperative Exchange.
Not a consultancy. Not a mandate. Not a magic wand that waves away IT complexity with a flick of jargon.
DICE is something far more radical in local government: a practical idea.
A shared regional model that lives somewhere between “build it all yourself” and “outsource everything to the vendor-industrial complex.”
It’s designed for the actual world local governments operate in:
- Where your GIS analyst is also the 9-1-1 data coordinator and the de facto historian of zoning code revisions.
- Where “data strategy” means “who still remembers the password to the old SharePoint site?”
- Where innovation is a luxury item, somewhere between an updated org chart and an espresso machine.
At DICE, we are bringing local governments together to share digital tools, talent, and infrastructure, because while no single small town can afford its own innovation department, ten towns together? Now we’re talking capacity, not just coffee-fueled optimism.
Shared Problems Deserve Shared Solutions
We all face the same digital dilemmas:
- Automating repetitive, mind-numbing services
- Turning data from a liability into an asset
- Communicating with the public like it’s 2025, not 2005
- Deploying AI safely, legally, and with more transparency than a tinted council chamber window
- Keeping GIS useful beyond the parcel map
And yet, we continue to tackle them in isolation, often paying six figures for systems that are 80% the same and used 10% of the time.
What if we could build once, and share often?
This isn’t utopian. It’s precedent. Our regions already share planning functions, workforce development, transportation strategies, and economic development. DICE just adds a digital layer to that existing spirit of cooperation:
- Shared permitting workflows
- Shared FOIA solutions
- Shared AI infrastructure
- Shared GIS tools
- Shared dashboards, platforms, trainings, and code
We are replacing duplicated effort, not local control. So instead of paying twelve times for the same wheel, we can finally start building a bus.
Start Small. Start Smart.
This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. You don’t need to sign a 42-page interlocal agreement or gamble your reelection on a joint platform strategy.
You can start with one thing:
- A shared Power Automate workflow for license renewals
- A regional chatbot that knows which day trash gets picked up
- A collaborative GIS layer for regional stormwater infrastructure
- A joint training session on digital comms for frontline staff
Low cost. Low risk. High utility. And most importantly, shared.
This is how you test the water without installing a new pool. This is how you show quick wins without burning political capital. This is how you grow capacity without growing your payroll.
We’re Not Disrupting. We’re Coordinating.
DICE isn’t about disruption. It’s about stewardship. It’s about making sure small and mid-sized governments don’t get left behind (again) in the digital divide.
Because the alternative?
Keep going it alone.
Keep paying more for less.
Keep watching your best staff leave for jobs where they don’t need four committee approvals to install a plug-in.
We can do better. Together.
Let’s stop re-solving the same problems in the same isolated ways. Let’s stop pretending local government innovation has to be lonely, expensive, and slow. Let’s build something smarter. Safer. Shared.
And if you’re even thinking about exploring this idea, you don’t need a task force. You just need to say:
“Let’s try one thing together.”
If you’re a local government in Southwest Michigan, consider joining us. If you’re outside our region and this resonates, consider building something similar yourself. Share your ideas. Let’s build a smarter, safer, shared future. Got a better idea? Don’t be bashful, let’s hear it!
Authors note: Yep, I used AI to clean up my ideas and thoughts and communicate them here in a more readable way. Get over it. I’m a tech guy, not an English major. This is what AI is for.