Since March, the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on local governments, forcing furloughs, layoffs and projected revenue shortfalls in the coming fiscal year. But amid the difficulties, there are bright spots—including the widespread adoption of new technology, a trend that government officials say is likely to continue.
“We’re all working from home now, so you have to kind of blow up the process and start all over,” said Luke Stowe, interim director of administrative services and chief information officer for the city of Evanston, Illinois. “And that has been a positive thing.”
More than 95% of state and local government leaders said their agencies used software to maintain service levels as employees began working from home, according to the results of the “Local Government’s Next Normal” survey, a joint project between the Atlas, Engaging Local Government Leaders and SeeClickFix. The survey, conducted online earlier this summer, queried 386 state and local officials on the impacts of Covid-19 on public service delivery.
Seventy-five percent of those surveyed said their organization adopted new technology to maintain community engagement and communications as the public health crisis has unfolded.
A large number of respondents also said that new technology focused on enabling civil servants to do their jobs from home, including virtual desktop software and private networks that allow employees to log on securely to government sites, said Kirsten Wyatt, executive director and founder of ELGL.
“That’s been huge, because it was a way that people could be working from home and still have access to the files they needed without havin ..
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