Ep 75: Digital Service Teams at City Hall
As various public and private services adapt to evolved consumer expectations, local governments around the country are themselves adapting with in-house "digital service teams" to deliver in a modern, convenient way. In fact, these teams are becoming ubiquitous. But let's back up. What is a digital service team in the context of local government? What do they do? How are they assembled? And are they feasible for towns of all sizes? Joshua Pine of the National League of Cities joins us to discuss digital service teams, which some observers say aren't just a trend, but are here to stay. Related reading: https://www.nlc.org/article/2022/09/14/the-growth-best-practices-of-municipal-digital-service-teams/
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Transcript
This episode of Municipal Equation is brought to you by MedCost. MedCost balances the care of your employees with the financial health of your local government by offering flexible administration, best in class care management, cost containment strategies, health and wellness programs, access to a broad provider network, and exceptional customer service. MedCost. This is Municipal Equation from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. So one thing to point out about this podcast, Municipal Equation, is that when we're exploring ideas, we're just doing that. Nothing is prescriptive or necessarily even endorsed. We primarily endeavor to take an idea or a concept being talked about in the space of cities and towns adapting to change, as we're all trying to do, and take a closer look, Add context and texture to whatever idea that is. On this episode, we're looking at something basic, but certainly right in the wheelhouse for local governments adapting to change. Digital service teams. What they are, how they're growing through all kinds of local governments, and why it matters, along with some emerging best practices for digital service teams. The bottom line is pretty much that local governments endeavor to deliver great customer service. People increasingly interface with the world digitally. That creates an expectation that local governments will rise to that. And that's led to the formation of digital service teams to offer that, to improve access to government. A while back on this podcast, years ago, actually, we talked with Dana Birchman, the chief digital officer for the city of Gilbert, Arizona. Not a tiny town, but not a huge city. It has an office of digital government, even a podcast called Government Gone Digital that comes out of the city of Gilbert. And for them, it's all about working digital services into their approach as a city government, sort of making it a cultural core. To flesh this out from a basic level, what a digital service team is and does, we're about to talk with an expert.
My name is Joshua Pine. I work for the National League of Cities as a program manager for city innovation and data.
And so what is a digital service team put simply?
Sure. Digital services teams, at all levels of government work to transition government services, onto digital platforms, in order to make those services more accessible to the general public.
And so let's set the tone here. You know, local government isn't necessarily historically known for being the, at the cutting edge with technology or at least in delivery. You know, there there's a lot of tech in government, and government is actually the origin of a lot of tech in in history. But thinking about local government versus, say, the private sector historically, there's not always that reputation. Am I kind of right?
That's correct. Yeah. I think it's certainly been something I think governments has, struggled with at times. And I think, especially over the past several years, in the context of the pandemic, we've seen a lot of governments kind of both kind of facing the challenges of of the new world with the pandemic, but also a lot of cities rising to the occasion and adopting technological innovations. They might have been quite hesitant to do so previously. So we're excited to see, a lot especially, yeah, a lot of local governments taking that stand and and especially on the digital services front, being able to kind of innovate and upscale their workforce and kind of achieve some level of technological innovation that we haven't seen before.
Right. And, you know, we're at the point in history where, you know, customers just generally speaking demand digital services, and this is forcing things to change. And, the the pandemic, you know, certainly had an impact on the kinds of digital services people expect. Was that one of the big, pieces over the past? I mean, it it seems to have affected everything, but in terms of getting us to talking about this right now, here today, digital services and, say local government, pandemic seems to be a pretty big player in that.
It does. It does. And I think especially as you were referencing within the private sector and certainly customers in general, having this expectation, whether it's online shopping or being able to, over the course of the pandemic, access a lot of kind of previously brick and mortar or in person services online. So I think local governments with their kind of customers being the the broader public have certainly had that expectation to be able to have that level of transparency, accessibility of services. I think one of the key areas that we've seen early on in the pandemic was just kind of being able to provide that baseline public health information, whether it was passing along information that the CDC was sharing, a lot of city governments standing up data dashboards and other types of tools, tracking COVID case numbers. I think especially kind of being a few years in now, we've seen a lot of cities build off of that digital infrastructure that they stood up, with specific pandemic related information and begin to transition that to other subject matter areas, a lot of services that would previously require residents coming into city hall. Cities are now experimenting with being able to provide those services in a digital platform to make it easier for for residents to access.
It's it's also been pointed out that, you know, trust in government has been on the decline for some time now, and that's speaking generally. You know, local government typically enjoys higher levels of confidence than, say, federal over the past, handful of years and maybe longer. But, is this another thing that's that's propelling the maybe demand for or or at least style of, may maybe we're changing services to make customers happier and and to to kind of build trust in government. Is that a factor in this? Yeah. Very much so. I think especially thinking around the trends towards open data portals as one dimension of digital services. I think a lot of cities are
kind of both on their own initiative, but also I think certainly this demand piece of wanting to be transparent with what services are being provided, which certainly factors into the trust. I know here in I'm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of our most popular municipal digital services, is a snowplower tracker. Mhmm. Over the summer, it provides a live location of where snowplows have gone, what streets they've covered. There's always a good amount of controversy whenever the tracker experiences technical issues. But I think that's just one example of of residents wanting to be able to see oftentimes in real time, but also in other ways being able to see kind of what are the services that my city is providing, and how can I, feel confident and trust that with the taxes that I'm paying and with the the level of kind of engagement that I'm having with the city that they're responding with appropriate level of service provision?
So in this piece, you list out three emerging practices in building digital service teams for municipal service, delivery, starting with the understanding and importance of digital service team leadership. Could you talk about that for a bit?
Sure. Absolutely. I think certainly building off of kind of in some respects as being a new emerging trend, but I think especially for a lot of cities that have been pioneering this work long before, the pandemic began. And through this piece, we had the great opportunity to chat with, leaders in in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other places as well. And one of the key insights that emerged with some of our engagement with some of these pioneering cities was this key leadership factor. I think certainly having the staff with technical capacity to build out these digital services is a key component. I think that kind of gets, flushed out a little bit later on in the piece. But I think starting with leadership being central to kind of this guiding vision connected to the principles of transparency, of trust. And I think cities that we've seen that have done a really good job around this work have had leaders in senior positions that have been strong advocates in pushing for the importance of of digital services throughout the city.
And so another piece of this is establishing an organizational culture, and that that seems like a trick. How how is something like that achieved in, in local government?
Yeah. Absolutely. I think one of the points here that we really enjoyed diving into, I think with a lot of areas within city government in particular, I know kind of not unique to city government, but the the challenge of silos and having kind of distinct workflows that don't often speak to each other well. Mhmm. I think what we've seen is is digital services has this real capacity to be cross cutting in nature and bringing people from different departments together, not just seeing it as a kind of technical IT only for people who are really advanced in their technological skill sets. But thinking around this culture element that it's everyone's job and everyone has the ability to participate in making government services more accessible to the public. People have the ability within their various departments, whether that's public service, whether that's health, whether that's transportation. There's opportunities for everyone to be involved. And I think that transition from having strong leadership to guide the vision of the work, but also being able to empower staff from across the organization and being able to see digital services as one of of many strategies to be able to to break down silos and bring together, staff from across the organization to achieve is really important function of government.
And it seems like, when it comes to building public trust in government or just just individual trust in government, being able to see something like that work would go a long way, I would imagine.
It would. Yeah. And I think seeing seeing government done work done well, I think, to your earlier point of, I think, kind of traditionally, there's been this kind of narrative around governments. And and local governments in particular often has not being at the cutting edge of technology. But I think the degree to which cities are able to kind of participate in this digital services trend and being able to build that capacity, it doesn't mean that that local governments have to have the same level of technological capacity as as a as a Google or other cutting edge company. Sometimes digital services can just be kind of providing notices for public meetings or sharing public health information. It doesn't have to be rocket science. But it does go a long way towards this trust piece of where government doesn't seem like a black box that residents can't access. So there's this transparency of a clear understanding of what's going on inside government and what what budget money is being spent on, how services are being provided, and what's that connection between government and the residents.
And and that kind of demonstrates how cities and towns of all sizes can participate in this. You know, you could be a a town of 500 people, but be, you could make some advanced moves that are not necessarily that difficult with, with digital services.
Oh, absolutely. We're in a small suburb right outside the Cincinnati area, Gulf Manor, and sorry to harp on on the Ohio examples. There's a lot of other examples out there. But even as I mean, a small town of exactly a thousand people. Gulf Manor, Ohio has a great kind of city website, has great services provision, provides notices to community events, public hearings, a variety of city services. Yeah. And having it be accessible on a digital platform is not it's not rocket science. It's it's a great way for cities of all sizes to get involved in, improving that level of transparency and accountability.
And so on the list of, the three emerging practices and building digital service teams for municipal service delivery. Build capacity, how is that done?
Yeah. That's a great question. I think it looks really different for for different cities, and I think building off of this theme of different sized cities, I think there are certainly cities. I think a lot of the cities that we talked with had a bit more robust teams and staff certainly being larger communities. So I think for those, I think it looks like bringing in technical staff who can balance out the skill sets on your team, being able to emphasize the importance of diversity both in terms of demographic backgrounds, but also skill sets that kind of digital services, once again, harping on this point, but it's not just the realm of of tech and IT people that factors into this level of trust. People who are community leaders and being able to see kind of what's the best way, what are the best platforms to get information out bringing community advocates, other types of people, I think, is ways to build capacity. And then I think especially for for smaller communities that might not have the kind of a designated digital services team or even have kind of many full time employees at all. I think building capacity can look like learning from other cities. I think especially being able to plug into networks like, the National League of Cities or State Municipal Leagues is a great way for smaller communities to learn from other smaller communities who have already been pioneering this work and to be able to build capacity to build one's network and to learn what others have done. Certainly no need to reinvent the wheel with certain kind of templates and models that are already out there that a lot of cities can learn from.
And good point about, inclusion and and diversity when it comes to, when it comes to services like this and and who we how we build capacity and who we bring on because I remember, you know, a a few years ago when we were still you know, smart cities weren't a brand new concept, but we were still, you know, kind of learning about the ethics of it and a smart city for who and maybe what's the difference between a smart city and a wise city. And if we're if we're gathering data, you know, how do we make this, how do we make the information we're bringing on and then making decisions unfair for everybody? So it that that's that's definitely a great point about, ways that we can build capacity and who we can bring on. And and, you know, there may be some people listening to this, from, you know, what we just addressed, the issue of small towns, but, you know, thinking like, well, you know, we we we don't have the capacity or they're I I'm not hearing the demand from our people, here for that kind of thing. But I I think the point of this piece is that, that these digital service teams are really becoming a fact of life,
for government of all sizes. Would that be a fair thing to say? Yeah. I think so. I think it's certainly yeah. It's it's for everyone to get in on. There's a low barrier of entry, especially with the level of technological tools that are out there. I think one quick piece to add on to the the diversity piece. One thing that we've been really interested in, I think this factors in to build capacity, but also a broader trend. I think, certainly over the pandemic, I think these dual trends of lots of services going digital online being a primary platform, but then also the sobering reality of of digital inequity across our country and recognizing the fact that it was certainly an accessibility ad for many who had access to both, smart devices and the Internet. But for a lot of people in our communities who didn't have access to the Internet or to devices that could connect to the Internet, And if the shift to digital services was, a challenge for access. So I think within the framing of build capacity, I think the importance of bringing a lot of different perspectives on board is making sure that kind of simultaneously as you're building out more digital services for local governments, there's also a concentrated effort to make sure that all members within a community are able to access those digital digital services and being able to promote digital equity. And I think that that piece in particular and how those two elements come together, I think, is a place that we're really interested in exploring further and are excited to see a lot of cities kind of dive deeply into that that tension and that, those goals. But, yeah, just wanted to to raise that point as well within the context of diversity and making sure equity considerations were taken into into thought at all stages of the process.
Was there anything I didn't ask that you think is important about, about the the the presence of digital service teams or the the the development or maybe some of the unanswered questions that we have? Or, you know, I just wanna make sure we're we're we cover the points before we get away from it.
Yeah. No. Very much so. I think these are a lot of the key area. I think one of the the factors with the piece, I think, really speaks to the the emerging field that this is. I think we're certainly seeing a lot of exciting developments come out, but also recognizing there's a lot more innovations that are come coming down the road. So I think for us here at the National League of Cities, we're really excited to continue diving into exploring this topic, and we're really excited to to hear from cities and communities on the ground that are have either been pioneering this work for a long time or just entering into this space. And we'd love to to hear from folks to be able to continue to build out our knowledge base, to be able to share best practices as communities large and small are finding innovative ways to pursue things. How can we, the National League of Cities and state municipal leagues and others can continue to to amplify those best practices? So just say, certainly, the piece is is is fascinating and certainly encourage folks to check it out. But I think it's one of those kind of ever evolving pieces that we hope to continually update moving forward as more examples come out.
Well, that's definitely what we like, especially on the podcast is, is is idea sharing. And when we see something that works for a town that may be comparable to mine, you know, that that may be good for me to know or good for me to see. Because, you know, just just having these case studies is just so important.
Yeah. Absolutely. And we're yeah. Love to always love to share examples. Lots of great NLC resources out there with, our resources. NLC just started its own podcast as well to give a shout out to to Clarence Anthony, our CEO, who started that. So always great great ways to check out more resources, and we'll be always on the lookout to share more great examples.
And that would be the, the City Speak podcast, which is great. Yes. Yes. Well, Joshua, thank you so much for your time. This has really been great and, you know, excited to, to track this as it go as it goes and and and to see these examples on the ground for maybe, city halls that, hadn't really had this in your menu before.
Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. Thanks for inviting me to come talk on this. It's a very exciting development that we're seeing in cities and we're excited to to keep exploring more.
In closing, I'll quote from a short piece by Louisa Schoeller, who was a graduate research intern at NLC's Center for City Solutions. Louisa writes, for many municipalities, resourcing and staffing full digital service teams, or even hiring a handful of new employees might not be realistic or feasible. In addition to the listed best practices of being created with roles and positions, more work can be done to give municipalities of all sizes technical assistance to design a digital services team that works for their needs. Opportunities that help support the preparation and resources for new employees could benefit municipalities interested in making digital services a priority. Despite these challenges, one thing is clear. Digital service teams are here to stay at all levels of government. Their impacts are the result of dedicated public servants and innovative leaders who are grounded by the principles of what government service provision can and should look like. There will be more lessons to learn as these teams continue to grow and expand. And that's from a Louisa Sholler. In a short piece that inspired this episode, thank you for listening to this episode of Municipal Equation, the podcast from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. Some questions as we head out the door. Is this something your government is interested in expanding? Are expanded digital services something you're now offering, maybe as an effect of the changes we had to make to service delivery per the pandemic? What are maybe some barriers you see to the expansion of digital services at city hall? Give me your thoughts. My name is Ben Brown, and you can email me at bbrown@nclm.org. NCLM stands for North Carolina League of Municipalities, working as one advancing all, and we will talk to you again soon in another episode of Municipal Equation.