Inside ELGL's Digital Government Series
November 22, 2021 by Brian Aylward
Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL), an association focused on connecting the brightest minds in local government, recently hosted six innovative local leaders during a digital government webinar series.
The three-part series brought together staff from cities and counties that have seen success in virtual courts, data transparency, and accounts payable automation. Following are a few key highlights of the sessions, as well as links to the free, on-demand recordings.
- Will Virtual Court Hearings Stay Post-Pandemic?
In the series’ first webinar, court administrators Sonya Cates of Alvin, Texas, and Dawn Wilcox of Portage, Wisconsin, joined Tyler Technologies’ general manager of virtual courts, Riley Miles, for a discussion on the long-term impacts of virtual hearings. Virtual courts lessen the burden on defendants and courtroom staff, increase convenience for all involved, and reduce the costs of conducting trials, as Cates and Wilcox explained through engaging examples and practical, scalable ideas.
Increasing access to the justice system for all community members means fully connecting justice partners and bringing court services to the convenience of people's homes. Online dispute resolution helps individuals reach family or small claims case resolution from their own homes, outside of court hours. Virtual courts provide flexible options to handle cases through video technology.
Hear more about what the future of courts looks like and how leaders can leverage technology to remove barriers to access to justice.
- Strengthen Communities, Big and Small, Through Data Transparency
During the series’ second webinar, Stockton, California’s Director of Performance and Data Analytics Katie Regan and Ramsey County, Minnesota’s Open Data Portal Coordinator Kristine Grill joined Tyler’s Director of Recovery Solutions Oliver Wise for a discussion on data transparency. Regan and Ramsey stressed the need to increase transparency to help residents — even those who don’t quite know what they’re looking for — find relevant information and the value in it when interacting with government.
As the presenters made clear, data is the best way to truly measure the impact of public service delivery and to ensure what we do makes a difference to the people we serve.
Learn from the champions who are actively leveraging a data platform to better inform and empower the public with the information they need.
- The Urgency of Accounts Payable Automation
The third and final webinar in the series brought Kathy Lopez, purchasing agent for the Town of Leland, and Jim Smith, chief financial officer for the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Missouri, together with Eric Brown, Tyler’s lead payments consultant. Both Lopez and Leland discussed the unexpected time savings gained from efficiencies created by automated payments. The financial leaders in both jurisdictions have been able to streamline payment processing so they can focus on more complex projects while the technology runs smoothly in the background.
From invoices and orders to payments and reconciliation, automated AP processes yield significant benefits for the finance team and other related departments.
Find out how local leaders have succeeded in digitizing vendor payments and integrating financial workflows, and hear what they’ve done with time saved from eliminating manual processes.
What these six local public sector leaders taught us is digital innovation in government is here and it’s rapidly evolving. From increasing access to justice through digital forums, to telling data-driven stories around equity and process improvement, to digitizing vendor payments, virtual solutions are improving the lives of government employees and residents alike.
It’s an exciting time for government but the current context can also be overwhelming. That’s why stories like these are important for providing not only inspiration, but also practical pathways for governments to follow. With these stories and others like them, success can be repeated in communities across the country.