Climate protection plan, drug market strategy among government innovation winners

Almost 1,000 applicants submitted examples of innovative programming to a national selection committee for consideration. Both the winning and non-winning entries have the potential to offer benefits to all citizens and are capable of being copied in local governments across the United States.

“We congratulate the 2007 Innovations in American Government and IBM award recipients as well as the nearly 200 award-winning government programs honored over the past 20 years,” said Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. “These programs demonstrate that government on all levels can achieve scalable solutions to pressing global issues.”

The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government began the awards program 20 years ago.

The seven 2007 Innovations in American Government Award winners are:

• Automated Community Connection to Economic Self-Sufficiency (ACCESS), state of Florida—Florida redesigned and modernized its process for determining eligibility for public assistance. The ACCESS Florida model is streamlined, cost efficient and nationally recognized for excellence.
• Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR), city of Chicago—CLEAR is the enterprise information system for the entire Chicago Police Department.
• Climate Protection Initiative, city of Seattle—The Climate Protection Initiative accelerates climate protection action citywide and in hundreds of other cities, catalyzing grassroots action around the country and promoting essential state and federal policy changes.
• Community Care, state of North Carolina—Community Care is a physician-led Medicaid managed care program of local provider networks serving 750,000 patients. The networks improve quality and access to care while saving millions of dollars.
• Electronic Court Records, King County, Wash.—Electronic Court Records gives court-case file-users electronic access. Scanning and E-filing have eliminated paper files, resulting in faster processing, desktop access to documents and better security.
• Overt Drug Market Strategy, city of High Point, N.C.—The Overt Drug Market Strategy is a law enforcement/community partnership that collapses drug markets, reduces violence by directly engaging dealers and their families, creates predictable sanctions and offers a range of services.
• Urban Land Reform Initiative, Genesee County, Mich.—The Urban Land Reform Initiative is a self-sustaining economic model that connects tax foreclosure with management and disposition of vacant and abandoned property to stabilize neighborhoods and improve the value of urban land.

The selection committee also presented the IBM Award in Transforming Government to the Institute of Technical Education in Singapore. Formerly a last resort for low-achieving students, Singapore's Institute of Technical Education (ITE) underwent a 10-year reform plan revamping irrelevant curriculum, upgrading learning environments and prescribing new academic requirements for current teachers.

Purchasing innovations have been honored in the past

Past Innovations in American Government Awards have honored public purchasing and procurement innovations, including:

• Competition and Costing, city of Indianapolis, 1995—Since the Competition and Costing program began in 1992, Indianapolis has lowered its annual operating expenses by $26 million, or about 5 percent. The number of city workers (excluding those in public safety) has been cut by 33 percent. The savings generated by the program, about $135 million so far, are being reinvented in improved public safety and in the largest infrastructure program in city history.
• Vendor Information Program, state of Oregon, 1993— The Vendor Information Program (VIP) fundamentally changed the way the state of Oregon procured products, trade services and public works. VIP moved the primary responsibility for accessing bid information from the buyer (state) to the seller (vendor). Between Jan. 1, 1992, and the fall of 1993, VIP increased the number of vendors participating in the state’s bidding process by 50 percent and saved in excess of $60,000 a year in paper and postage costs, over $500,000 a year in personnel costs and more than $10 million in products purchased.

For more information on the Innovations in American Government Award program, click here.