Collaborative Government Blog

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): The Kansas Collaborative’s Role
TeamTech, Inc., founders and project managers for The Kansas Collaborative, was asked by Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson (not yet Governor as of the writing of this article) to assist Kansas with implementation of parts of the Recovery Act.

Our role? Linking and Leveraging efforts to maximize the dollars Kansas receives and to maximize the benefits to Kansans of these dollars.

You will recall that The Kansas Collaborative is a joint effort between the state of Kansas, the Kansas Association of Counties and the League of Kansas Municipalities focused on cross-government collaboration. The KAC, as the fiscal agent for The Kansas Collaborative, serves as the contracting entity for this work.

The parts of ARRA we have been asked to assist with are those that the Governor’s Office designated as having potential for “collaborative opportunities.” These are as follows:

Grants that are being awarded by Formula:

• Community Development Block Grants
  
• Employment Services, WIA, Dislocated Workers, Community Service for Older Americans
  
• Energy Efficiency and Conversation Block Grants
  
• Homelessness Prevention
  
• Public Housing Capital Fund
  
• Weatherization

Grants that will be awarded Competitively:

• Broadband Technology Opportunities/Distance Learning, Telemedicine
  
• Brownfields Projects
  
• Clean Diesel Emission
  
• Community Policing (local only)
  
• Electronic Health Record Incentives/Health Information Technology
  
• Energy Efficiency and Conversation
  
• Infectious Disease Reduction
  
• Lead Hazard Reduction
  
• Neighborhood Stabilization
  
• Public Housing Capital Fund
  
• Rural Business Program (local only)
  
• Rural Community Facilities Program (local only)
  
• Rural Water and Waste Disposal
  
• Watershed and Flood Prevention
  
• Watershed Rehabilitation Program

What can you do?
1. Let us know if you are applying for competitive grants. We are not trying to control applications but rather would like to have a comprehensive picture of what Kansas is submitting…plus we may know of some collaborative linkages that could strengthen your application.
2. Let us know if you see opportunities for collaboration within ARRA.
3. Let the KAC know if you are aware of monies that locals can apply for, i.e. FEMA will have a program for fire stations. Randall Allen is thinking about creating a link on the KAC website for sharing this type of information.

You can contact either of us as follows:
Kathleen Harnish-Doucet
913-706-8797 or
kathleen@teamtechinc.com

Joel Wright
816-914-5344 or
joel@teamtechinc.com

Until next month…
Kathleen and Joel

KDOT has contracted with The Kansas Collaborative to bring the Breakthrough Team Process to Public Transit
The challenge is to make public transit more efficient and effective. The Kansas Collaborative and KDOT need the involvement of county leadership to meet this challenge. KDOT has asked The Kansas Collaborative to launch four regional Breakthrough Teams. We hope you will take the opportunity to read this article and, if appropriate, consider joining one of the Breakthrough Teams.

Background Information
The T-LINK Taskforce is recommending pilots to examine the possibility of a regional transit approach to expand and improve delivery of rural transit service. The following passage from the Draft Recommendation of the T-LINK Taskforce describes the faults with the current system:
“The CTD delivery system sometimes hinders efficient regional service because most operators are small, focused on single communities and they do not have the authority to consolidate and coordinate services. This approach limits travel outside of the providers’ borders, even if that is where riders need to go. Poor coordination can cause duplication of administrative functions, service connectivity gaps between communities, and missed opportunities to invest in technologies like “one-call” ride dispatching that improve service efficiency. An expanded, regional transit approach would bring greater efficiency by leveraging rural transit funding to provide a more modern, comprehensive, strategic way of providing service.”

Four Pilot Sites for Regional Breakthrough Teams
The T-Link Taskforce recommended the creation of one or more pilot projects that look at regional transportation options in Kansas. To that end, KDOT Office of Public Transportation with the assistance of the Kansas Collaborative used the month of February to meet with the following providers who have been identified as potential regional managers: OCCK (Salina), DSNWK (Hays), Reno County Area Transportation (Hutchinson) and Finney County Council on Aging (Garden City). These four locations were identified as potential regional manager locations because they possessed the following attributes:

• Maintenance Facilities: transit-only maintenance facilities, constructed using Federal Transit Administration and KDOT funds.
  
• ITS pilot projects: DSNWK and Reno County are currently part of the KDOT Rural Dispatching pilot project. OCCK and Finney County are the next two sites to join the pilot. This pilot uses computer-aided dispatching and technology upgrades in vehicles to improve efficiency.
  
• Fixed Route Transit: Finney County, Reno County, and OCCK currently operate fixed route transit services. DSNWK is currently in the process of establishing a fixed route transit service. Having a fixed route program as the backbone of a regional transit service will be important to providing effective mobility in the region.
  
• Regional Centers: Each of these locations serves as regional centers where individuals from surrounding communities visit in order to receive necessary services (medical, shopping, etc.). Having the regional center as the manager will create efficiencies because many of the trips will have the regional center as the destination.
  
• Capacity for Regional Service: Each of these agencies has the professional capacity to act as a stand-alone regional transit agency. Many of the other KDOT providers offer transit as part of a menu of services or do not have the staff capacity to operate a major transit operation. While OCCK and DNSWK are non-profits that have transit as only a portion of their service menu, they have proven that regional transit is an important part of their mission.

Additionally, KDOT and The Kansas Collaborative intend to meet with Riley County ATA (Manhattan) to discuss the option of identifying regional needs in the Ft. Riley area. Because of the workforce transportation needs in this region, along with the emerging Fixed Route operating in Riley County, this is an important location to explore. Also, it will be important to define a market boundary between the Riley County region and the Salina region.

Timeframe
Time is of the essence in creating pilot projects in the aforementioned locations. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (Stimulus Bill) has passed. KDOT has been allocated $14 million for rural public transportation capital projects. According to the language of the bill, 50% of that funding would need to be spent within 180 days of award. The best utilization of these funds is toward supporting a regional mobility framework, i.e. vehicles, maintenance facilities, ITS equipment and fixed route amenities that will support the recommendations of the T-LINK Task Force.

What does all this mean for you?
County leaders need to be involved in the Breakthrough Teams in each of the four pilot locations. Team members are being identified right now with a kick off date in late April/early May. All it takes to sign up is to email Lisa Koch, Public Transit Manager, at lisak@ksdot.org and tell her why you need to be on the Breakthrough Team. You can view the draft team charter by visiting the Resource Center at www.kansascollaborative.com.

Looking forward to working with you.

Until next month,
Kathleen and Joel

Networking Leaders
The Kansas Collaborative is a state/county/local partnership that provides a “vehicle” for facilitating collaboration between units of governments. The Kansas Collaborative strives to achieve three primary objectives with its work through Breakthrough Teams:

• Solve problems
  
• Save Money
  
• Network Leaders

In our January article we shared some of the problems that have been solved by Collaborative Breakthrough Teams as well as noted the $22 million that has been saved so far. This month we had the opportunity to meet and network with 86 commissioners at KAC’s Leadership Academy for County Commissioners as part of our “networking leaders” objective.

To share some data, 89 new commissioners were elected in November 2008, 70 of whom were in attendance at this 1-1/2 day workshop. As the workshop opened, participants were asked what they were most looking forward to learning. Following is a sample of the responses:

• Hearing insights about how to work well with others especially as it relates to working with elected and non-elected officials.
  
• Ethics…it may be legal but is it right?
  
• Innovative ideas for cutting costs and sharing services with others
  
• What liability are you taking on as a county commissioner? What can you do/not do?

This workshop included a number of informational presentations including open meetings and open records, dealing with the media, ethics, disaster planning, managing risk, building an effective county team, The Kansas Collaborative, local health department accreditation and the Kansas County Government Institute. Participants also had the opportunity to hear from former and current commissioners who shared their insights about what this role requires. Following are a few of the highlights from the experienced commissioners:

• You have a great chance to be a leader and set a positive tone for your county. One way to do so is to bring people in to be part of the solutions when a challenge needs to be addressed.
  
• The smartest thing we did was put together a staff team to write an employee handbook.
  
• There is an ongoing need to communicate with the public regarding what is/is not possible and where tax dollars are being spent.
  
• There can be a tendency to run with the first story you hear. There is a need to get both sides of any story.
  
• In terms of economic development it seems we were always trying to chase smokestacks. I found in the later years that it made more sense to try and help an existing business to expand.
  
• Keep an open-minded perspective with your constituents. Be approachable, get out and see what people are thinking and experiencing.
  
• As a commissioner you are constantly going through the balancing act to decide the importance – do I look at this from the individual, neighborhood or community standpoint?

As the workshop came to a close, those of you that have worked with us know that we like to ask participants to reflect on their experience. When we asked, “What will you tell people you have been doing the past day and a half?” some of the responses included:

• Learning how to be a commissioner
  
• Networking
  
• Working for those people that elected me
  
• Attending a KAC meeting and it is the best one I have ever attended
  
• Wondering what I got myself into
  
• Getting retraining on what I had forgotten
  
• Learning how to pull things together more effectively

We certainly appreciated the opportunity to be part of this introductory workshop and we look forward to working with each of you during 2009. You can always visit our website for more information at www.kansascollaborative.com

Until next month…
Kathleen and Joel

Randall Allen shared with us an important piece of data that shaped this column…in the 2008 general election, nearly 25% of the 400+ county commissioners in Kansas experienced turnover with newly elected individuals coming into office. With this data in front of us, we want to say “welcome” as well as provide a brief bit of history about The Kansas Collaborative.

The Kansas Collaborative is a formal structure or vehicle that “eases the way” for more effective cross-government collaboration (local/county/state). The Kansas Collaborative was officially launched on November 22, 2005 at the KAC annual conference with the signing of the Declaration of Commitment to the Kansas Collaborative by Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas Association of Counties and the League of Kansas Municipalities. We at TeamTech, Inc., (a Kansas-based strategic facilitation firm) founded The Kansas Collaborative and serve as the project managers. In addition, the Kansas Association of Counties, through a signed agreement, serves as the fiscal agent of The Kansas Collaborative.

The Kansas Collaborative has saved over $22 million to date with 47% of these savings accruing to local jurisdictions. Harder to quantify, yet easy to experience, are the significant savings realized by streamlining processes and utilizing existing resources more effectively and efficiently.

The Kansas Collaborative works through a Steering Team that includes representation from each member organization (Kansas Governor’s Office, Kansas Association of Counties and the League of Kansas Municipalities) as well as representation from TeamTech. Breakthrough Teams are officially chartered and launched when three factors are in place:
1. A pressing need has been identified that requires a cross-government/collaborative approach to solve.
2. Funding is secured to pay for strategic facilitation services and project management.
3. Top-level sponsorship is identified so the team charter can be developed and team membership recruited.

Over 130 local and state leaders have participated on one of the Breakthrough Teams. Without their willingness to roll up their sleeves, share ideas and make implementation happen, The Kansas Collaborative would not be possible. Each of them deserves a special note of recognition. These individuals have come together through a facilitated process utilized in the Breakthrough Teams to find ways to:

• Reduce health care costs for inmate populations (this effort received the Council of State Government’s 2006 Innovations Award),
  
• Coordinate multiple previously uncoordinated efforts to implement GIS (geographic information systems) across local and state governments,
  
• Pilot local government’s role in promoting healthy lifestyles (Harvey County and KDHE),
  
• Coordinate transportation purchasing and road surface overlay projects,
  
• Pilot and find 2-year funding for the local road engineer position (Norm Bowers) at the KAC,
  
• Innovate ways to use data and GIS to improve human services case management, and
  
• Explore avenues for addressing the shortage of health care workers for the correctional environment.

To discover more about The Kansas Collaborative or to ensure your jurisdiction is utilizing all the breakthrough team solutions, visit us at www.kansascollaborative.com (the Resource Center tab is the most popular) or contact Kathleen at 913-706-8797 or Joel at 816-914-5344.

Until next month,
Kathleen and Joel

KAC Conference Unity Breakfast Report from the Regional Breakout Groups

We enjoyed some great discussion during the Unity Breakfast breakout session. The common response was that KAC participants found the panel discussion and the examples provided by the panelists to be both interesting and thought-provoking. What follows is a pull together of the thinking from the five Regional Breakout Groups.

Common Themes

• There is great value in counties working to create a Council of Governments like Harvey County has done.
  
• Counties need to take the lead in rethinking all the various regional districts. Many counties belong to more than 20 different regional configurations.
  
• There is a strong concern that regions need to figure out how to work for a fair appraisal.
  
• Counties need to place greater emphasize on the use of interlocal agreements.
  
• Counties need to be more inclusive of townships. Dickinson County cooperation with 24 townships has been impressive. Townships are able to purchase materials at County prices.
  
• Counties are stronger when they advocate as a group rather than as individual counties.
  
• Counties are stronger as a group when advocating with the State.
  
• Landfills provide a good example of a way to collaborate more.
  
• The issues are too complex and expansive to be limited to specific government jurisdictions.
  
• We need more than cooperation or compromise we need collaboration.
  
• If we collaborate now we can avoid consolidation later.

Suggestions for KAC

• Counties would like the KAC to bring together Commissioners with agency Secretaries as well as House and Senate members to help with the legislative agenda. Commissioners could help the KAC staff in this effort and move this activity beyond just KAC Board members.
  
• The KAC could create an on-line directory of data sources so when we are completing grant applications we can reference it to see where to locate available data/statistics.
  
• The KAC could think about doing a database on what counties are doing across Kansas. Participants felt strongly that more was happening than being reported.
  
• Counties need some common form to the wages and salaries in the regions. Participants express their preference for the old Wages and Salary Booklet. They find the one that is now being done online by Sedgwick County hard to read and know what the data means. They feel that the data is not always apples to apples. It was also suggested that data from the Department of Labor could be checked.
  
• Counties would like the KAC to find out if the new appraiser training could be done in the regions rather than in Topeka.
  
• The KAC needs to think about helping counties become a vehicle for promoting sales tax issues. People were very interested in the successful sales tax effort in Harvey County.
  
• Counties need to share information on wind energy so we all can be consistent across county lines.
  
• Counties need the KAC to serve as a sort of clearinghouse for wind energy information.
  
• The Southwest Region would like KAC to host a one day meeting where there are resource people that present what they know and have already learned about wind energy.
  
• Counties would like to know who has what surplus equipment available.

Unique Opportunities

• It is now time to promote the success of the Correctional Boot Camp for youth in Labette County.
  
• Counties need to be able to access data on prison populations, recidivism and rehabilitation rates to determine number of beds needed and when or if prevention programs are more cost effective.
  
• The planned process changes to property assessment and vehicle registration will have a huge impact on county employees and services.
  
• Counties need to increase the use of GIS and educate others regarding its applications.

The Kansas Collaborative enjoyed working with Randall Allen on the Unity Breakfast. We also enjoyed working with and want to thank panelists Tom Winters, John Waltner, Betsy Gillespie, Joe Nold and convener Joe Connor.

Until next month….
Kathleen and Joel

GIS Regional Pilot Project is Moving Statewide
In our March and May 2008 articles, we shared our work on a regional GIS (geographic information system) strategy that started with a pilot project funded by the South Central Region Homeland Security Council.

The goal? Obtain critical GIS data layers region-wide, backed up in multiple locations, and accessible to emergency responders when needed.

Why? GIS data is vital when disasters strike and critical infrastructure needs to be located (sometimes by responders from other jurisdictions) for response and recovery.

Now what? Because of the success of this pilot project, similar projects have recently been approved by three more Regional Homeland Security Councils: Northwest, Southwest and North Central.

Each region-wide GIS project will begin to create a critical information network about infrastructure, assets and key populations for use by the Incident Management Teams (IMTs), first responders and decision makers. The information will then be available to aide in timely response to any event, natural or man-made, across the region and eventually statewide.

Each project will utilize the regional Homeland Security Council’s allotted grant dollars to work on eight objectives:

• Complete a county-level GIS Inventory of all related data, equipment and personnel (State-level GIS data is provided during the inventory visits. Inventory visits to the 18 Northwest counties are set for the week of December 1.)
  
• Encourage the use of the free back-up service for GIS data at DASC so when needed for responders, the data will be available regardless of the destruction at the local level.
  
• Form a GIS Technical sub-committee in each homeland security region to facilitate discussions between decisions makers, responders and GIS personnel. The South Central region found this committee improved cooperation, communication and networking among responders and GIS personnel.
  
• Hold Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Meetings to introduce the project to local responders and GIS personnel and allow them the opportunity to identify their disciplines’ critical data needs.
  
• Complete a GIS Data Gap Analysis to determine what data gaps exist in the region and to develop a plan to close these gaps.
  
• Develop Region and Statewide GIS applications for use by the IMTs, Emergency Management Managers and decision makers at all levels of government.
  
• Provide GIS and GPS Training opportunities at no charge to participants (except travel expenses).
  
• Purchase GIS Equipment (ArcGIS Software, mapping-grade GPS units, etc.) for use by GIS professionals to support emergency management activities.

We look forward to seeing you at the Kansas Association of Counties conference, November 16 – 18, in Wichita! More information on this and other Kansas Collaborative projects will be available at our six booths in the Exhibition Hall on Sunday. You can also hear more about our work at the five Educational Workshops that are scheduled for Monday.

Until next month…

Kathleen and Joel

Where to Look for The Kansas Collaborative at the 33rd Annual KAC Conference
The KAC Annual Conference will provide several opportunities to interact with The Kansas Collaborative. We wanted to take the opportunity of this article to provide you with an overview of what will be available.

It all starts at 2pm on Sunday when the doors open on the 33rd Annual Exhibition Vendor Showcase. Here is the line up of booths under The Kansas Collaborative banner.

The first three booths represent the work of Kansas Collaborative Breakthrough Teams:

• Booth 59 will introduce you to a new Breakthrough Team. KDOT has asked The Kansas Collaborative to work with them in public transit. Three pilots are in the process of getting started and you will want to stop by and see first hand. You can follow up your interest in Public Transit by attending a workshop at 10:15 am on Monday where additional details of the transit pilots will be shared.
  
• Booth 58 will highlight the work of the Local Road Engineer and the Transportation Breakthrough Team. There will be the usual info on 1R projects and state contracts but in addition a chance to talk to Norm and benefit from the experience he has had over the last year. The Monday (8:30am) workshop will give everyone a chance to continue the dialogue on Transportation.
  
• Booth 57 will share the results of the SouthCentral Homeland Security GIS Breakthrough Team. 19 counties have been working to complete a GIS capacity audit. You will want to hear about the gaps they discovered and what they are doing about them. The GIS conversation will continue on Monday at 8:30am when the GIS and Emergency Management workshop highlights the work of Dickinson County in the Chapman F-3 tornado and the GIS/Emergency Management coordination efforts beginning in western Kansas.

The second three booths represent the work of Kansas Collaborative Partners:

• Booth 56 will be staffed by the Data Access and Support Center (DASC). This is the third year DASC has been a part of the vendor showcase. DASC continues to be a critical partner in the statewide GIS effort. Stop by to learn more about their free GIS data back-up services and view their new (and free) web-based applications.
  
• Booth 55 will introduce a partnership with Johnson County Government. This booth and the Client Coordination for Health and Human Services workshop (10:15am Monday) will showcase the work of the JoCo/State HHS Breakthrough Team to link information and processes across agencies and units of government to streamline HHS client service processes and increase client success. Come and hear more about their vision, process and achievements.
  
• Booth 54 will be staffed by KALHD. You will want to visit this booth to hear first hand about the work of the Public Health Summit held on September 24th and 25th of this year. KALHD and the State of Kansas are receiving national attention. Hear more at the Public Health workshop, Monday at 8:30am.

So what do you think about the line up? We are excited and look forward to seeing you in the booths and at the workshops.

Until next month….Kathleen and Joel

Johnson County/State HHS Breakthrough Team is launched
The Kansas Collaborative has another new Breakthrough Team effort underway…this one in Health and Human Services (HHS) in partnership with the Governor’s HHS Cabinet Team and Johnson County. The Johnson County/State HHS Breakthrough Team officially launches on September 26th, though a number of strategy meetings have already taken place.

Team purpose: To explore opportunities for coordinating human services within Johnson County provided to individuals and families by state agencies, local governments and non-profit organizations for the purpose of increasing client and client family success; To share lessons learned, information sharing models, and service delivery models with other counties or groups in Kansas.

How this team started: At a Strategic Information Management (SIM) Plan focus group we were facilitating this spring, Hannes Zacharias (Johnson County’s Deputy County Manager) mentioned the work they were doing to build a GIS based map of HHS services, linked to United Way 211 data, and their exploratory work to create a common HHS client database. Hannes also stated that he was interested in being a pilot site for innovative projects. As you would expect from The Kansas Collaborative, we followed up to see how to leverage these points of innovation.

The Johnson County/State HHS Breakthrough Team is sponsored both by the HHS Cabinet Team and Johnson County’s Human Services Coalition. We believe this effort will break ground in helping local/state HHS information systems “talk” to one another so dual entry becomes a “thing of the past” and caseworkers receive a more comprehensive picture of the client and their family so client success is increased. As we have learned in the collaborative, innovation that happens closest to the point of service delivery has the greatest chance of helping the citizens it serves. When this innovation is supported by the state, it has a greater chance of being leveraged and sustained.

We wish to thank Hannes Zacharias for sharing his vision, the HHS Cabinet Team and their agency staff for their support and SRS Secretary Don Jordan for funding this Breakthrough Team.

Look for a workshop and additional information at The Kansas Collaborative booth at the KAC Annual Conference, November 16 – 18 in Wichita.

Until next month…
Kathleen and Joel

$4.00 Gas Confirms Need for Transit Talks
In the early days of The Kansas Collaborative we did a series of “Sharing Approaches That Work” meetings around the state. The morning agenda focused on getting the word out about the potential savings on prescription drugs for the inmate population. People came, listened and chose options. It was these initial meetings that paved the way for the nearly $21 million saved to date. In the afternoon, we met with commissioners and county staff to brainstorm other issues that required the attention of The Kansas Collaborative. Transit needs were very high on everyone’s list. Well here we are three years later and transit is having its day. It does not take long for gas to be at $4.00 a gallon before real attention can be focused on making transit more efficient and effective in serving the needs of Kansans.

The Kansas Collaborative has been working with KDOT to identify a small number of pilot projects that could show promise for many parts of the state. The pilots are still being determined but what can be shared are the project types. Here is a run down.

1. Workforce Transportation
Transportation is a key issue to both employers and employees. KDOT has had interest from major employers around the state. Further, this pilot will provide a concrete example of the role transit can play in supporting economic development.

2. One Stop Call Center
This pilot would test using a large provider as a one stop call center for smaller specialty providers in the region. This would allow for effective use of scarce resources by assigning customers and trips while balancing needs and resources. Chaining trips instead of providing demand response service (often less than two riders) could heighten efficiency. An additional value of this pilot would be to gather information on the transportation needs of people.

3. Rural Coordination
Coordination is key to being efficient and effective. This pilot would seek to create coordination in two arenas.
a. Maintenance: Creating a center for specialty maintenance that is able to provide potential savings to all transportation providers in the geographic region.
b. Beyond County Rides: The challenge—learning how to coordinate systems across jurisdictions i.e. between counties and cities.

KDOT plans to announce the pilot project locations in September. Once that is done The Kansas Collaborative will share through the County Comment much more detail on each of the pilots. We welcome your feedback. Feel free to email Joel Wright with comments or questions.

Until next month…
Kathleen and Joel

Over $20 million Saved
With the start of the new fiscal year it is time for an accounting of the results achieved through the Breakthrough Teams of The Kansas Collaborative. As you will recall, there are three primary goals of any Breakthrough Team effort:

• Solving problems,
  
• Saving money, and
  
• Networking leaders.

In this article, we are focusing on the money saved.


Saving Money
Over $20 million has been saved to date.

41% or $7.8 million of these savings accrued to county governments.

The savings breakdown as follows:

• Prescription drug for inmate populations: $14.4 million saved
  
• HB 2893, Medicaid rates for medical services for inmates: $5.9 million saved
  
• 1 R projects: $575,783 saved
  
• State contract purchasing: working to document these savings

We are focusing on documenting the savings from the 1R projects and state contract purchasing for FY09 so please let Joel know or call 816-914-5344 if you have realized savings.

It is harder to document the “savings” from our efforts to coordinate activities, for example in the area of GIS implementation. We are confident that efficiencies are being gained and resources are being utilized more effectively as local and state governments work together.


A Special Thank You
We want to extend a special “thank you” to the agencies and organizations that have provided funding for the Collaborative’s efforts in FY08 and those that have already committed funding for FY09.

• Don Jordan, Secretary, Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, for FY08 and FY 09 funding
  
• Deb Miller, Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation, for FY 08 and FY09 funding
  
• Information Network of Kansas’ Board of Directors for FY 08 funding
  
• SouthCentral Homeland Security Regional Council for their support of the regional GIS effort for FY 08
  
• Kansas Association of Counties’ Board of Directors for providing office space for FY 08 and FY 09

When you see these individuals, please tell them “thank you” for their on-going support.

Until next month….

Kathleen and Joel

As many of you already know, The Kansas Collaborative was nominated last year for the IBM Innovations Award in Transforming Government. This was an international competition and though we did not win, the efforts of The Collaborative caught the attention of the Ash Institute at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. As a result we were invited (as the founders and project managers of The Kansas Collaborative) to participate in the second international meeting of the Global Network of Government Innovators March 31 – April 2, 2008. Kathleen attended as the representative of The Kansas Collaborative and was joined by over 450 participants from the private and non-profit sectors, as well as federal and sub-national governments from more than 50 countries.

This was truly an international event including presentations from Vicente Fox Quesada, former President of Mexico, and Thomas Vilsack, former Governor of Iowa.

There was so much information to absorb so here is just a sampling of the insights from this gathering of global innovators.

• It takes both market-based economics and transparent government to grow the economic prosperity of countries. Corruption and lack of transparency in government are the biggest obstacles to development. The rule of law is a critical precursor to transparency and freedom of information.
  
• Citizen participation in government is key. There are important differences in citizen engagement between developing and developed countries. 68% of participants felt their country’s local governments engage citizens effectively or moderately effectively with 31% reporting minimally effective engagement or none at all.
  
• Facilitating innovation within government requires a mindset that encourages reasonable risk-taking and allows for mistakes. How these are handled in an atmosphere of transparency is important to determining if innovation continues or not.
  Certainly The Kansas Collaborative and your involvement provide one avenue for transparency and reasonable risk-taking.

We are committed to using these insights as well are our membership now in the Ash Institute’s 7,000 member network of Global Government Innovators to inform and share the work of The Kansas Collaborative with a global audience. Thanks to each of you for your support and continued participation.

Until next month…

Kathleen and Joel

Regional Project Brings over $71,000 of Assistance to Local GIS Efforts

In our March article we shared the five key goals and outcomes for the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council GIS project. In this article we want to share how a majority of the funding is being spent.

The goal for this regional GIS project is to make available critical GIS data layers to emergency responders (especially Incident Management Teams) so important landmarks, streets, infrastructure, shelters, etc. can be quickly located in an emergency by both those familiar and unfamiliar with the effected area.

We have finished the data inventory and gap analysis. These results will aid counties in determining priority GIS data layers that need to be developed. During this process, a consistent theme has been the need for software, equipment and training to help local governments “build” critical GIS data layers. Following is how help is being provided through a grant from the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council:

Equipment purchases:

• Eleven counties will receive single-use ArcView software including two additional years of maintenance
  
• Two counties will receive an ArcReader Extension
  
• One county will receive a Maplex Extension
  
• Four counties will receive Mapping Grade GPS units
  
• ArcView software with the two additional years of maintenance is being provided to the regional 911 back-up site and the Incident Management Team trailer
  
• The region will acquire four additional Mapping Grade GPS units that will be available to counties within the region to use in building critical GIS data layers
  
• Two 1 terabyte external hard drives will be acquired to provide regional data layers to the Incident Management Team and the regional 911 back-up site
  
• 24 USB flash drives will be purchased so that the critical GIS data layers can be made available to emergency responders literally “at their fingertips”

Training opportunities:

• Beginning hands-on GIS training is being provided throughout the region. 13 individuals attended the 2-day training in Pratt. 24 individuals are set to attend this same training in Wichita in May.
  
• A one-day “hands-on” GPS training is being provided three different times within the region.

The 19 counties in the South Central region are Barber, Barton, Butler, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Marion, McPherson, Pawnee, Pratt, Reno, Rice, Sedgwick, Stafford and Sumner.

What can you do?
If this information piques your interest as being important to your jurisdiction, take a minute and share this article with your county’s representative on your Regional Homeland Security Council. This is a project that can be easily replicated in other Homeland Security regions. For more information on replication, please contact Jessica Frye, Kansas Adjutant General’s Department, Geospatial Technologies Section.

Joining The Kansas Collaborative in this South Central regional GIS collaborative effort are the following state and federal partners: Kansas Adjutant General’s Department – Division of Emergency Management, State GIS Policy Board, Data Access and Support Center (DASC) and the U.S. Geological Survey. Shelly Abbott-Becker, KAC Board member, was also instrumental in gaining local buy-in for this effort. Documents related to this project can be found here.

Until next month…

Kathleen and Joel

Hamilton County Saved $250,000 on a 1R Paving Project.

The Kansas Collaborative has been saying for some time that the 1R Project could mean real savings to counties. Now we are beginning to get the documentation to back up this belief. As you read this article remember that KDOT has well over fifty projects every year that can produce savings if the road superintendent and the commissioners are willing to do their homework. The Kansas Collaborative and KDOT will do everything we can to let you know when KDOT will be in your county. Now enjoy reading about how Hamilton County took advantage of such a situation.

Delmar Hammond, Road Superintendent of Hamilton County, used the information provided by the 1R Project Notification Initiative of the Kansas Collaborative to save the county $250,000 on an 11 mile paving project located approximately 9 miles south of Coolidge. This initiative involves the advance notification of KDOT highway projects so that locals can take advantage of the economies involved in having a highway contractor move into the county.

Hamilton County is located next to the Colorado border west of Garden City, and has a population of 2,600. There is rarely a highway contractor set up in the county, so it is difficult to obtain good pricing on county projects. If a contractor bids a county project he has to include the mobilization cost of moving his operation to the county for just one project. Hamilton County needed to overlay 11 miles of road to some dairies that was getting heavy truck traffic. The estimated cost of the paving project was $2 million.

In 2006 Delmar was informed of upcoming KDOT projects in Hamilton County and he began forming a plan on how to use this knowledge to reduce the cost of the county’s paving project. He worked with his consulting engineer, Jon Halbgewachs of Kirkham Michael, to schedule the letting at the optimum time to receive the best bids. There were actually two highway contractors working in the county when the bids were received for the project, and they received 6 bids. The low bid was from APAC at a bid price of $1,750,000, APAC was one of the contractors working on a KDOT project in the county. This bid was $250,000 less than the initial estimate made two years earlier. This was a win-win situation, with APAC not having to include mobilization for the county project they could do the work cheaper and still make a profit.

Hamilton County also utilized the State Transportation Revolving Fund to finance the project rather than selling bonds locally. Use of the revolving fund resulted in a lower interest rate as well as legal fees involved in selling the bonds.

We want to congratulate Delmar Hammond and the County Commissioners on the success of their project. We hope that many other counties will take advantage of the 1R Project. Please feel free to call Norm Bowers (785-272-2585) or Joel Wright (816-914-5344) if you have questions.

GIS: Shifting to a Regional Focus for 2008

Last month we mentioned that our GIS (geographic information systems) efforts would be taking a regional focus for 2008. This turn follows funding that has been provided by the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council in response to a proposal by The Kansas Collaborative. This South Central project is already getting some attention from other Homeland Security Councils as they begin to recognize the importance of GIS information to disaster planning, response and recovery.

This regional GIS project has five key goals and outcomes:

1) Inventory current GIS efforts (software, hardware and data layers) within each county in the region so policymakers and responders know what is available where.
With this web-based information, you would know what information is available not only in your county but in the neighboring counties as well. You can’t actually view or download data, you will be able to tell, for example, that “street centerlines” are in GIS format in a neighboring county and who to contact for more information.

2) Provide on-going education about the power of GIS as an information management system supporting responders.
Four sub-regional stakeholder meetings are being held within the region for responders, GIS personnel and other policymakers. One of the primary purposes is to identify the information (and thus, data layers) that are most important to have available to responders.

In addition, two “Introduction to GIS” courses (ArcView-based) are being provided (April 15 and 16 in Pratt and May 12 and 13 in Wichita). This training will be provided at no cost to participants, though travel costs will need to be covered by participating counties. Entities within the South Central region have enrollment priority but open seats will be given to counties outside the region. For more information contact Jessica Frye, Kansas Homeland Security GIS Coordinator, at 785-274-1426.

3) Identify gaps in critical data layers.
A project support team, facilitated by The Kansas Collaborative, will compare the region’s current GIS inventory results with that of “critical data layers” as identified through the sub-regional stakeholder meetings. A report on the “gaps” in data layers will be provided to the regional council along with recommendations of how to close the gaps.

4) Make recommendations on closing gaps in critical data layers.
Funding was provided by the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council to provide for the purchase of some software and hardware to help county governments close important data gaps. We anticipate GIS software and GPS units will be the primary items purchased.

5) Provide for the purchase of a regional server so GIS data that needs to be shared across the region can be easily accessible to Incident Management Teams and others when an emergency situation arises.


What can you do?
If this information peaks your interest as being important to your jurisdiction, take a minute and share this article with your county’s representative on your Regional Homeland Security Council. As Adjutant General Tod Bunting has noted, the goal is to have “critical data layers statewide backed up in multiple locations.”

Joining The Kansas Collaborative in this South Central regional GIS collaborative effort are the following state and federal partners: Kansas Adjutant General’s Department, State GIS Policy Board, Data Access and Support Center and the U.S. Geological Survey. Shelly Abbott-Becker, KAC Board member, was also instrumental in gaining local buy-in for this effort. Documents related to this project can be found here.

Until next month…

Kathleen and Joel

One additional note, The Kansas Collaborative: February 2008 Overview is available on the KAC website.

GIS: What’s New To Help You

“GIS (geographic information system) is the next important information management system for government.” A bold statement and one that captures the conclusion we have reached in our roughly two year journey in facilitating state/local GIS efforts.

The power of this technology to “knit together the courthouse” was demonstrated at the KAC annual pre-conference workshop, “Maximizing Your Use of GIS.” Thanks to a collaborative effort between The Kansas Collaborative and Jefferson County, this workshop highlighted uses of GIS in planning and zoning, emergency services, road and bridge and beyond. In fact the real power was in seeing the connections between departments and the efficiencies gained when information was shared and paperwork eliminated. Four county commissioners also discussed their county’s journey and experience with GIS (Coffey County Commissioner Kimberly Skillman-Robrahn, Dickinson County Commissioner Joe Nold, Jefferson County Commissioner Dave Christy and Rooks County Commissioner Pat Hageman) with each concluding in their own way that this technology is important to an effective courthouse and is worth the investment.

An important and lasting resource came from this workshop, the Map Book as we all fondly refer to it. The Map Book again was the result of a collaborative effort with the Jefferson County GIS Department and is now available via download from our web site. Visit the Resource Center, GIS and click on the link called “Maximizing Your Use of GIS – Map Book.” You will then be linked with the Jefferson County GIS home page. At the bottom of their home page in a blue box is the file for the GIS Map Book. It is worth the time to download and worth the time to study.

There are a couple other new resources in the GIS portion of the Resource Center to assist you in your GIS efforts. Check out the Aerial Imagery Guidelines and the Digital Color Orthoimagery Scope of Work documents. The first document provides a good overview of aerial imagery and the second provides a document you can utilize as a contract with an aerial imagery vendor if you are acquiring 6 inch color imagery. Your resulting imagery will meet national map standards. The E-911 Board has been provided both documents.

In our March article we will talk more about our 2008 GIS efforts. Suffice it to say that the funding for our statewide GIS efforts has come to a conclusion. We have, however, secured some funding for a regional strategy in partnership with the South Central Homeland Security Regional Council. We think these efforts will prove to be an important pilot for other Homeland Security regions. Stay tuned next month for an update on what we are doing there.

Until next month…

Kathleen and Joel