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Nov

16

Ohio Local Government Innovation Fund Policy, Timeline now available

Filed Under EfficientGovNetwork | Leave a Comment

Check it all out here and please note: public comment on the policy closes this Friday and applications for the first round are set for February 20, 2012 through March 1, 2012 – not a lot of time before, and not a long window of time to submit something.

Please – if you are a taxpayer and want your local government or public entities to consider collaborations and service sharing or even merging, speak up, develop relationships, get going on planning.  The EfficientGovNetwork is precisely the place for doing such things and you can check that out here.  We have podcasts, videos, materials from successful complete collaborations as well as ones that have gone through feasibility studies and are in the decision-making and implementing phase.

No one will suggest that $1.4 billion taken away from local entities can be made up by any amount of collaboration for the incentive price of $45 million. But it is nothing to sneeze at either.

Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:58 pm November 16th, 2011 in EfficientGovNetwork | Please comment 

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Nov

13

CampaignTech Keynote: “Ditch the Fear and Communicate”

Filed Under democracy, Government, leadership, Pepper Pike, Pepper Pike 2.0, Politics, Transparency | Leave a Comment

Nice photo and article about the opening keynote in which I got to participate at last week’s CampaignTech conference (which was really excellent).  There are other articles and photos floating around out there but I’ve not had time to track them down.

Many thanks to Julie Germany, Shane Greer & Shane D’Aprile of Campaigns & Elections, Pete Snyder of New Media Strategies (NMS) and all the folks who put on this event.  It was an incredible honor to be involved in not one, not two but three speaking opportunities there (here’s an article about the Innovators Award speeches and presentation) and I’m sure the message that local electeds and constituencies need to “get it” and now and how got across.

And – in the spirit of political leadership in the digital age, while I was at the event, there was a Road & Safety/Finance & Planning meeting in Pepper Pike which I observed, from my hotel in DC, via Skype. Another first for our city & for our city government.  I wasn’t counted for the quorum, there were no votes taken and even if there would have been, I would not have participated.  But it was great for me to follow along during a very long and content-rich meeting so that at this coming week’s City Council meeting, I can participate fully and well-informed.  Many thanks to my colleague Scott Newell who provided the laptop through which I could view the meeting.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:03 pm November 13th, 2011 in democracy, Government, leadership, Pepper Pike, Pepper Pike 2.0, Politics, Transparency | Please comment 

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Nov

10

Livestream of Opening Keynote & Innovation Award Presentations

Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment

You should be able to watch both here.  Very excited – also tired. Political leadership in the digital age includes following an intense council meeting via Skype from my hotel room – and a conference room in the lobby because I needed a better connection.  Grateful to my colleague for making it happen.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:30 am November 10th, 2011 in Politics | Please comment 

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Nov

8

IT’S 5:38PM – HAVE YOU VOTED YET!!?

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Good afternoon on this gorgeous election day! (I love love love election day – always have – remember the machines with the big black and red levers that had to be pulled!?)

THANK YOU for voting if you’ve already done so, and if you haven’t yet, you can STILL VOTE until 7:30pm (hint hint hint).  It’s not just local candidates on the ballot but statewide issues and the Orange schools levy.  You can find your polling location here and then, please – go vote!

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:36 pm November 8th, 2011 in Voting | Please comment 

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Nov

1

The Cain Takeaway: He Minimizes & Simplifies the Least Reductive of Problems

Filed Under Campaigning, democracy, Elections, Government, leadership, Politics, Transparency, WH2012, White House 2012 | 2 Comments

And that is not leadership.

Whether we’re talking Herman Cain’s economic plan (9-9-9 or 9-0-9) or how he and his campaign are failing to deal with Politico’s reporting on the settlement specifics between the National Restaurant Association (when Cain was its head) and two of its former employees regarding alleged sexual harassment in the workplace, Cain seems to believe that he can reduce, minimize and make disappear whatever complexities he thinks ail others from being able to come up with solutions.

The problem is, whether it’s people who view certain behavior of his as being inappropriate and constituting sexual harassment (even if he doesn’t see it that way) or people saying that his 9-9-9 plan won’t help the poor but would in fact exacerbate their economic standing, he seeks to make the complicating factors – women and the poor – disappear from the equation altogether.

Lucky for women and sadly for the poor, there are tens of millions in both groups.  We won’t disappear and we don’t call people who would like to see that happen, “leader.”

Seriously, Herman. You can claim the leader mantle in a number of ways. Including, leader of the reductionists.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:50 pm November 1st, 2011 in Campaigning, democracy, Elections, Government, leadership, Politics, Transparency, WH2012, White House 2012 | 2 Comments 

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