GovLove - A Podcast About Local Government

In Governing and Living Cities' 2018 Equipt to Innovate survey  the City of Fayetteville, North Carolina was chosen as the top overall performer. Rebecca Jackson, the Strategic Performance Analytics Director, joined the podcast to talk about her work and what it means to be chosen as the most innovative city in the nation. Rebecca shared Fayetteville's approach to strategic planning, how they incl...

Why not Dodge? Melissa McCoy, Assistant City Manager/Public Affairs, joins GovLove to talk about the tourism industry and the old west. The City of Dodge City, Kansas turned around the old phrase "get the heck out of Dodge" into an effort to bring people to the queen of the cowtowns. In 1997 residents of Dodge City voted to approve a dedicated portion of the sales tax to fund projects to encourage...

Managing change and investing in dignity in Mississippi's state capital. Dr. Robert Blaine joined the podcast to talk about his role as the Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor Chokwe Lumumba in Jackson. He shared what it's like setting up an administration and what they've dealt with in the first year in office. Dr. Blaine described his path into local government, he was a trombonist, conductor...

Trends in civic technology. Andrew Kirk, the Chief Revenue & Operations Officer for CitySourced, joined the podcast to talk about civic technology from his vantage point as a vendor. Andrew shared his path to civic tech, how he sees government changing, and CitySourced's efforts to build a mobile City Hall.

Two Innovation & Technology staff from the City of Boston, Massachusetts joined the podcast to talk about their work. Laura Melle is the Sr. Procurement Lead and Stefanie Costa Leabo is the Interim Chief Data Officer, both shared how they are using their positions to be a resource for city departments. They discussed how Boston is doing procurement differently (including more RFPs), how they are u...

The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati was the inaugural winner of ELGL & The Atlas' Water You Waiting For Award, recognizing the best water project. Reese Johnson, Principal Engineer for the sewer district, came on the podcast to talk about their smart sewers project and his passion for wastewater. Reese explained how smart sensors are helping to keep wastewater out of local stream...

From municipal bankruptcy to universal basic income. Kurt Wilson, the City Manager of Stockton, California, has managed the city through a lot of change. Kurt came on GovLove for a wide ranging conversation that covered his path into public service, principled policing in Stockton, working for Governor Schwarzenegger's administration and more. He described what it's like to manage a City through t...

Performance and analytics in the City of San Diego, California. Almis Udrys, Deputy Chief of Staff for Innovation & Performance, and Maksim Pecherskiy, Chief Data Officer, joined the podcast to discuss their work solving problems and improving customer service using data. Each talked about their path into local government, why pandas are their department's mascot, and what San Diego did to earn a...

A podcast on technology in the public sector. Civic Tech Chat is hosted by Ryan Koch and explores everything from open data to innovation. Ryan joined GovLove to talk about his path into public service, which started in the Army and included a deployment to Iraq. He also explained why he started the Civic Tech Chat podcast, what they are hoping to achieve with the podcast and even his dream guest....

From public records requests to emergency communications we talk with two local government attorneys about all the legal questions that come with Police body cameras. Dan Bolin and Ellen Emery, two Partners at the Ancel Glink law firm in Chicago, Illinois share their expertise and experience on the issue. They share common concerns from working with Police Departments, the hidden costs of body wor...

Three Parks and Recreation professionals from across the country joined GovLove to talk about their work. They talked about how they are working to be more equitable, from serving the Spanish speaking community to building parks for residents with disabilities or engaging young people. Learn how all three organizations are being innovative and using partnerships to provide better services. Kylie B...

Building capacity and empowering employees through the use of data. Joy Bonaguro, the Chief Data Officer for the City and County of San Francisco, California discusses her path to local government, her approach to data and scaling solution. She also shared why San Francisco went for the What Works Cities Certification, which she describes as something that was missing from the field because it pro...

Talking housing segregation and public policy. Richard Rothstein is the author of "The Color of Law," a book about a forgotten history of how the government segregated America. Rothstein discussed his book and how the segregation in our cities was caused by different government policies, not the preferences of residents. From the federal level down to local zoning and urban renewal decisions Roths...

The genius behind City Council Chronicles, Michael Karlik, is back with a new podcast. Tear It Down tells the story of North College Hill, Ohio and a "small group of outsiders wanted to change their city for the better." Michael shares why he started the City Council Chronicles, what he's learned from watching Council meetings around the world, and why he spent 10 months looking into a small Ohio...

From data to policing, the impact of demographics. Three panelists shared their expertise on how Kansas is changing: Sergeant Amy Rhoads, from Lawrence, KS, Ileana Serrano, from the US Census Bureau, and Cathy Boyer-Shesol, from the Mid-America Regional Council. Each shared their perspective on how the workplace is changing, how Kansas is changing and more.

From the NFL to the campaign trail. Aaron Rouse, former Green Bay Packer, is running for City Council in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He talked about why he's running for office, how local government needs to change to be more inclusive and representative of the people it serves. Aaron shared his vision for Virginia Beach, collaborating regionally and serving all residents in the city.

Local Government IT in Silicon Valley. Jonathan Reichental the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer in Palo Alto, California shared his perspective on procurement, recruitment and civic tech. He talked about his path into local government, how cities can do a better job of making technology a part of their strategy and what he sees as trends in the field.

Christine Edwards, the Community Relations Coordinator for Mecklenburg County, NC, and James Gaston III, a Budget Analyst for Petersburg, VA, join the podcast to talk about the work of NFBPA and making local government more diverse. They discuss ELGL's diversity dashboard and the importance of measuring how diverse our workplaces are. They also share how to start a conversation about diversity and...

Talking public service, partisanship and policy. Mickey Edwards is a vice president at the Aspen Institute where he leads a bipartisan fellowship program for elected officials. Mickey was a member of Congress for 16 years, serving on the House Budget and Appropriations Committees and as a chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. Mickey discussed his path into public service, the importan...

Organizing to solve our nation's problems. Jenn Brown the Executive Director of Civic Nation joined GovLove to talk about her work fighting for social change and organizing. Civic Nation runs organizing and public awareness campaigns to empower people to address some of our biggest problems. Prior to working at Civic Nation Jenn led Battleground Texas and the Obama campaign's efforts in Ohio. Jenn...

Making the world better. A father-son duo join the podcast this week,  Tom Barwin is the City Manager of Sarasota, FL and his son Connor Barwin is an NFL defensive end and Pro Browler. They talked about their influences, giving back to the community and more. Connor also shared the work of his non-profit Make the World Better and how his father's career impacted him.

A new program from Bloomberg's What Works Cities is recognizing and celebrating the local governments that are leading the nation in the use of data. Simone Brody, the Executive Director of What Works Cities, and Jennifer Park, the Associate Director, came on GovLove to talk about What Works Cities Certification. They share why cities should pursue certification, success stories from the first 9 c...

The procurement process often frustrates local governments and vendors alike, but it seems like a process that will never change. Mariel Reed the Founder and CEO of CoProcure wants to rethink that. CoProcure is  a startup that helps local governments improve procurement to promote economic development. She came on GovLove to discuss her work, the potential for a ' Common App ' for procurement and...

The CEO and Co-Founder of SeeClickFix, Ben Berkowitz, joined GovLove to talk about civic technology and innovation. Ben described how the SeeClickFix story started with graffiti and has resulted in over  1,000,000 community members,  300 local governments and  3,000,000 issues fixed. Plus Ben and Kirsten reminiscence about how SeeClickFix helped give birth to the GovLove podcast. 

Balancing work and life, recruiting the best and brightest, and preparing future leaders. Three guests joined GovLove to talk about the workforce of the future and their perspectives. The panel included: Joey Garcia an Administrative Analyst in Torrance, CA; Peter Castro the Assistant to the City Manager in Indian Wells, CA; and Kristen Nelson a Sr. Executive Assistant in Indian Wells, CA and Dire...