« CSAC 2011: County Governments Prioritize Transparency »

This week Granicus attended the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) 117^th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. It got me thinking about how counties are using technology to make government more open and participatory. Did you know that 50% of all counties in the state of California use Granicus technology to achieve this? One thing we know for sure, county leaders in CA and across the country are not afraid of thinking differently or applying new techniques and technologies to achieve their community goals.

This year’s CSAC theme was all about reform. Many local governments are going through critical transition points. They must adapt their policies and programs to support our rapidly changing political, economic, environmental, and technological environment. Health care, renewable energy, fiscal reform, pensions, and public safety are just a few of the topics being discussed. Amidst all these priorities, one thing remains clear: county leaders strongly believe that they need to keep evolving their open government and public participation strategies.

Nowadays, citizens should have fingertip access to everything they need to know about the policies their county leaders are making that could impact them. At CSAC we learned just how important it was for counties to embrace new tools like video or social media to strengthen their connection with citizens. Empowering citizens to understand and even influence the outcomes of these decisions was clearly a top priority among attendees. Luckily, Granicus was in the exhibiting hall the last couple days to showcase how nearly 200 government counties use Granicus solutions to address these priorities. In fact, recently, we wrote about the fact that 50% of all Digital Counties Winners were Granicus customers including Dakota County, MN, San Diego County, CA, Placer County, CA, Montgomery County, MD – and many more.

One county in particular is really evolving their open government strategy with Granicus. Monterey County has been a video streaming customer with Granicus since 2008 – broadcasting all their board meetings online, both live and on-demand. While at CSAC, we ran into Gail Borokowski, Clerk of the Board from Monterey County. She was thrilled about their recent addition of our Legislative Management and Citizen Participation suites, which will make their agenda and policy-making workflows completely automated and paperless, as well as, enable them to collect citizen comments on agenda items prior to the meeting which opens up an entirely new way for the county to learn and respond to public opinions.

Nice work, Monterey County!

Gail Borokowski (Montery County Clerk) with Sofie Peedu (Granicus) and Erin English (Granicus)

Certainly, these kinds of advancements are exciting for Granicus as a company; our vision and direction align perfectly with what governments of all sizes are recognizing as the next generation in open governing. On a personal level, this is the building of a new paradigm in government which will be a legacy to the next generations… and that’s what gets me going every morning.

Learn More

• Check out a few pictures we took while at CSAC click here
• Learn more how county leaders are accelerating transparency with Granicus click here

Comments

[Brochure Printing]

Congratulations Granicus for being part of this event! Another one step higher to the ladder of your success! Thanks for sharing the experience!