by Stephanie Beer, Director of Customer Marketing for OpenGov
View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2020 – NJAC County Biz – November
Taking CARES: How Middlesex County, NJ Is Leading in the Recovery
The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop’s Fables, describes the risk of putting off for tomorrow what can and should be done today. With winter approaching, the fable has resonance for local government leaders who worry they haven’t invested sufficiently in workflow technology to enable their teams and support their communities through the next season of uncertainty.
“Local municipalities are struggling because they have not made critical investments in technology,” says John Pulomena, County Administrator for Middlesex County, NJ.
Still there is an opportunity for many local governments to act before the end of the year to modernize technology under the federal government’s COVID-19 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). State and local leaders across the country are validating the use of funds for technology upgrades.
Meeting an Urgent Need in Middlesex County
You’re never properly prepared for a risk event when it hits, since risk is by definition an unanticipated outcome. Yet, New Jersey counties that were hit by Superstorm Sandy may have been better prepared since they could anticipate the magnitude and urgency of needs that would follow.
Learning from its recent past, Middlesex County made decisive moves early to lead its communities to recovery. The County received $144M in CARES Act funding for local businesses and municipalities, and it’s using funds to cover financial shortfalls and bridge technology gaps.
When its main street businesses (generally 1-20 employees) were shut down for nearly 60 days, Middlesex adopted workflow software to efficiently award competitive grants of $30k to help those who were not utilizing federal programs.
One important goal was simplicity. “Making it simple and straightforward, but maintaining a sophisticated back-end to meet strict audit standards enabled us to efficiently process 175 applications in just 14 days,” says Gerry Mackenzie, Head of Community Services, Middlesex County, NJ.
In addition to Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) applications, Middlesex made CARES Act Municipal Fund Applications available through its use of the OpenGov platform.
Anticipating the need to shore up critical technology infrastructure to weather the COVID storm, Middlesex County is instructing its local municipalities to be expansive with their reimbursement requests to help them invest in workflow technology and critical technology upgrades.
Building for a Better Future State
One of the attributes of “home rule” in New Jersey may help municipalities overcome collective action challenges to adopting new technology to fit their needs; however, the result can be 25 towns doing many of the same functions in 25 different ways and using any number of different solutions that may or may not be up to the task, and without a good way to benchmark data to see where there are shortcomings.
“The one thing we realized is that though we have business applications across the enterprise, we didn’t have one to handle something as complex as CARES Act funding… We wanted to be proactive, and we wanted an application that was flexible and served our needs and the needs of our local municipalities,” says Joe Pruiti, CFO & Treasurer for Middlesex County, NJ
When even the very near future remains uncertain, OpenGov provides both near- and long-term value to municipalities across Middlesex County. “We can expand the platform to support other initiatives — distributing additional funding or more straightforward planning and permitting processes,” explains Middlesex County Administrator John Pulomena. The ability to surface data with OpenGov makes it a truly effective economic development tool.
More Powerful Together
Middlesex County was able to move quickly to anticipate the needs of its communities because the team had faced a similar crisis with Superstorm Sandy. While the County is leading to recovery, they are also looking to protect against long-term, IT-related risks regionally.
County Administrator Pulomena suggests that counties across New Jersey look to adopt a regional technology strategy to benefit towns across the state. “When it comes to technology, many don’t have the wherewithal to make smart investments, and even if they do, they may lack the expertise to implement new solutions effectively,” Pulomena points out.
A regional technology strategy would provide cost savings, time savings, and a network of experts across municipalities adopting a common solution. “Municipalities need to come together to reduce costs, risk, and reactivate urgently needed economic growth for their towns, cities, and counties,” advocates Pulomena, “and now is the moment to create a regional enterprise and capture savings and efficiencies.”
Excerpted from an OpenGov case study
About OpenGov
OpenGov is the leader in providing our nation’s state agencies and local governments with modern cloud software to help power more effective and accountable government. Built exclusively for the unique budgeting, financial, and community development needs of the public sector, OpenGov solutions help our more than 1,000 customers plan effectively, increase efficiency, and improve engagement through better collaboration and transparency.