“It was a huge challenge because the city and county were in pretty much different technology directions,” Niblock said. However, the successful union is an accomplishment she looks back on as “great fun.”
Today the Louisville Metro government is a smooth-running organization that consistently ranks in Government Technology’s Best of the Web Awards and Digital Cities Survey. In 2010, Louisville Metro took second place for its population category in both awards programs. Mobile apps and the posting of financial details on its website through services like Louisville Checkbook and How the City Spends Your Money embrace the call for transparency.
Niblock said her goal is “to have government operate efficiently and financially responsibly, and be accessible to our citizens.” One way she’s fulfilling that is by upgrading the metro government’s 311 system and adding more Web-based services like online permitting and plan review to elicit citizen comments. In 2009, the metro government consolidated police, fire and emergency medical services dispatchers onto the same computer-aided dispatch system, a move that makes the dispatch process more efficient for both citizens and the government.
And the projects won’t stop there. 2011’s goal is to implement a program similar to Baltimore’s CitiStat that measures efficiency levels in government. “Getting timely information both internally to do process improvement and externally so citizens can see what government is doing and how well we’re doing it, on a consistent, real-time basis is a big push,” Niblock said.
View all Top 25 Honorees for 2011
