Posts by

Buzz Brown

Education, Fiscal Health, Municipal, Opinion

Has Inflation Made You Rethink and Retool Your Budget?

Persistent and historically high inflation is dramatically impacting municipalities nationwide, in some cases completely altering prior projections and forecasts. Some municipal leaders are finding it necessary to completely rethink and redraft their budgets in order to reflect the new realities. And if they’re forced to do things the old way, they’re also doubling down on time, resources and labor already expended to repeat work they thought was once complete. Munetrix can introduce you, your team and your processes to advanced technology and new methodologies that can inject greater confidence and flexibility into budgets and forecasts, even accounting for dynamic, ever-changing scenarios.

Municipal, News, Press Releases

Dynamo Metrics Joins the Munetrix Family

It is with great enthusiasm that we share with you the exciting news that Dynamo Metrics, a leading provider of planning and analytics software for government and public sector entities, is joining the Munetrix family! While this announcement will have no immediate impact on our existing relationships with clients, vendors and others, we are extremely optimistic about what this means relative to our ability to better serve municipal governments going forward, with more solutions, deeper resources, and broader expertise.

What brings us so much optimism about Dynamo Metrics joining Munetrix is that Dynamo Metrics provides a distinct but complementary solution set and domain expertise that will only enhance what we are able to offer the communities we serve. Founded in 2014, Dynamo Metrics shares our mission of making data-driven governance easy, so communities can better communicate with their constituents, delivering a culture of community through trust, transparency and compliance.

Co-Founders Nigel Griswold and Ben Calnin, who are joining our management team, founded the company on the premise that better data drives better decision making. For nearly a decade, they’ve been working with local governments to deliver metrics, insights, and reports that help demonstrate impact, increase collaboration, and support strategic decision making. To learn more about the company and its team, please visit www.dynamometrics.com.

Buzz Brown, CEO of Munetrix, commented: “We appreciate the value Dynamo Metrics and their team brings to the Munetrix family. We see tremendous opportunities to create unique insights for customers using the robust property-level Dynamo Metrics solution. Together we will help leaders improve communities through neighborhood revitalization and other programs using comprehensive, easily digestible data and tools that help to analyze where to make investments that will be most rewarding.”  

Nigel Griswold and Ben Calnin, co-founders of Dynamo Metrics, added:  “Partnering with Munetrix will allow us to accelerate the growth of Dynamo Metrics and better serve our customers, through a broader platform and enhanced resources and investment.”

Dynamo Metrics provides software that delivers insights about neighborhood health that helps municipalities target, maximize and communicate the impact their work has on the community, down to the parcel level, adding a more granular level of specificity to the data and insights Munetrix has been delivering for more than a decade.

We will be sure to keep you updated as exciting developments emerge, such as new products and services or additional data and integrations that will be available to you and your peers going forward.

K-12, Municipal, News, Press Releases

Munetrix Announces Investment by Essex Bay Capital

Investment and expertise will fuel next stage of growth and further advance the forecasting, transparency and performance analytics company’s mission to help K-12 schools and municipalities make smart decisions.

Munetrix, a provider of municipal and school district data management tools and proprietary performance analytics applications, today announced it has received a growth equity investment by Essex Bay Capital, a private equity investment firm that partners with middle-market companies and management teams to help drive growth. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Mich., Munetrix empowers municipal leaders, school administrators and finance leaders to make more informed financial, strategic, and academic decisions.

The investment allows Munetrix to expand its resources in areas like product development, customer support and sales. Essex Bay will continue to support Munetrix’s unique expertise, excellent customer service, as well as their extensive partnerships like Ed-Fi Alliance and data integrations like the one it has with Michigan Datahub to provide best practice guidance and resources to clients.

“I could not be more proud of the Munetrix team for living our mission and delighting our customers every single day by helping hundreds of K-12 school districts and municipalities on financial planning, budgeting, transparency and academic outcomes” said Buzz Brown, Cofounder and CEO of Munetrix. “We are excited to work with our new partners at Essex Bay who understand and appreciate our core values, and who will support our vision for product innovation and growth, both organically and through acquisitions.”

Franklin Foster, Partner at Essex Bay Capital, said, “Munetrix’s reputation as a leader and innovator in the financial planning and academic analytics realms is well-earned, as evidenced by its winning of a 2021 CODiE award, an EdTech Breakthrough Award, its ongoing GovTech100 recognition, and the clear demand for the solutions it brings to market. We look forward to partnering with the Munetrix leadership team to continue the company’s fast-paced growth and further support its mission, culture and customers.”

Additionally, as part of the transaction, Munetrix has added serial GovTech entrepreneur Steve Ressler to its Board of Directors. Steve has held numerous GovTech executives roles, including as President of Callyo, which was recently sold to Motorola Solutions, as well as serving as Chief Marketing Officer of Granicus and Founder of GovLoop. Steve will bring his experience growing GovTech companies to the next phase of growth at Munetrix.

About Munetrix:

Munetrix, among the nation’s largest aggregators of municipal and school district data, promotes municipal wellness and sustainability through its cloud-based data management tools and proprietary performance analytics applications. In partnering with Munetrix, municipalities and school districts are able to manage their data and access cost-effective products and advisory services to make meaningful and reliable budgets, financial projections, academic achievement metrics, trend reports and better-informed forward-looking decisions. More than 300 clients across the country use Munetrix’s tools to make more informed financial and business decisions and improve student success.

About Essex Bay Capital:

Essex Bay invests in small to mid-sized private companies, partnering with management to accelerate growth. With over 20 years of investing experience, and 70+ completed acquisitions, our team brings more than just capital to the equation. We are long-term investors, focused on creating sustainable value.  We build companies, organically and through add-on acquisitions to become market leaders. Partnership and alignment are at the core of everything we do. We pride ourselves on being transparent and supportive with resources, insight and expertise to create win-win opportunities for our partners. Learn more at www.essexbay.com.

Education, Municipal, Opinion

Etiquette and Other Best Practices for the New Normal

Perfecting the Two-Dimensional Meeting in the Age of Virtual Conferences

It’s been an unusual few months, getting used to Zoom and similar technologies. Users have had fun with virtual backgrounds, emojis and other gimmicks. Guess what? Summer is almost over, and the remote collaboration environment is here to stay for many. We are hearing a significant percent of the workforce will not return to the office in any foreseeable future. The two-dimensional meeting is here to stay, and it’s important to learn how to use it.

Create a Profile

Make sure you get a presence in each app you find yourself using. Whether it’s Zoom, Teams, or GoTo meeting, get an account (even if it’s free) and create your profile. Make sure you have a proper picture to display when your video is off. Consider including your organization’s name and job title. For example, stop to consider if your meeting environment deems it acceptable to have the Millennium Falcon as your background.

Plan Your Workspace

It was fun for a while hearing your colleagues’ dogs bark, the occasional cat on the keyboard, grandkids Zoom bombing, or critiquing home decor. As I said, summer is almost over. It’s back to work or school time. Plan to have a proper location, depending on the nature of your audience. Be careful of what’s in the background. I’m sure you may be passionate about your politics, religion or other endeavors. Be mindful of your audience. They may have conflicting views and get distracted from your input as they are focused on reading book titles on your shelf.

Test the location and quality of your camera. Make sure it appears as though you are looking into the camera, otherwise you appear aloof. If you are using multiple monitors, you may need a camera that is not attached to your laptop or screen. The camera should be located behind the monitor you will be using on the call. Make sure the camera is located slightly above your face, and not below your face.

Avoid Joining with Links

Now that you have taken the time to create a profile in the app, do not lose it by joining meetings through links. Sometimes the link brings you in the meeting as a generic user. Launch your app first, log in as you, and then join the meeting with the meeting ID.

Live Etiquette

When you are live in the meeting, make sure your tile includes your name and not some generic title like “Mom’s iPad.” How many times have you been in a meeting and wondered who someone was? This is your chance to always have your name and affiliation posted for all to read. Reading body language in a meeting is important but sometimes difficult sitting around a table. The two-dimensional tiles can make it easier, as long as the cameras are on. Similarly, if you are not going to pay attention to the presenter, turn your camera off. It’s obvious when you are doing something else.

Consider having your mic muted at all times until you are ready to speak. Background noise can be distracting to others in attendance, and even disruptive to the meeting in general.

Guest Speakers

There’s been a paradigm shift in two converging directions from which you can benefit. Attendees are much more willing to attend a virtual event now with a guest speaker, and guest speakers are much more willing to stay home. Nationally known speakers that would have cost in the five-digit neighborhood with travel expenses are now willing to spend an hour on your call for $1,000 or less. Use this as an advantage to engage your audience and significantly enhance the quality of your material.

Camaraderie

Here you will need to be creative, but this part can be the most rewarding. Some of your attendees may have limited contact with other humans. New hires don’t have the option of chatting over the water cooler with colleagues in an office building. You need to create that human contact and build that team virtually.

Members of the Munetrix team were presenters at a recent association board meeting, and the Board Chair always included a team event at her meetings. She wanted to continue that tradition virtually. We used a game show app with topical trivia questions to engage all attendees. Amazon gift cards were awarded for most points.

“MASFPS board members were able to enjoy a round of Kahoot with our friends from Munetrix during our summer leadership and learning academy,” says Sara Shriver, Executive Director with MASFPS. “This was a great way to engage all members during a virtual learning event! It was fun, competitive, and a unique way to build camaraderie as an organizational team!”

ADA Compliance

Lastly, remember and consider the hearing and visually impaired community when conducting meetings, to make sure you are staying compliant with ADA guidelines and requirements. The Center for Hearing and Communication has issued guidance on this matter, and Zoom itself offers its own disability compliance tools and disclosures. Check out Zoom’s library of resources and documentation here, but be sure to frequently check and update your policies and procedures, as both technology and regulations change frequently.

No one can state with certainty how “normal” this “new” reality will last. But we can all take measures now to make the best out of an imperfect working, learning and collaborating environment, until such a time that we all get back to the old normal.

Buzz Brown, Co-Founder, serves as Vice President of Customer Engagement and Chief Data Officer with Munetrix. He can be reached via email at buzz@munetrix.com or by phone at 248.499.8355.

Education

Can Michigan Teachers Afford to Live in the County Where They Work?

By: Buzz Brown

“Can Michigan teachers afford to live in the county where they work?” An interesting question and the answer is yes…and no.

First, some background. Following teacher walk-outs in West Virginia, (soon followed by Oklahoma and Arizona) last spring over low teacher salaries, a National Public Radio (NPR) story aired that asked a similar question, identifying Michigan as having the highest paid teacher salaries in the country. Needless to say, that claim raised a few eyebrows among those involved with teaching, school administration or providing advisory services to Michigan public school districts.

Education, Municipal, Opinion

The Talking Database: Giving Voice to Government Data

Munetrix Blog - The Talking Database

Advancements in data analysis technology can help school districts and local governments identify and thwart financial crises.

Government data tells a story that can only be read when it’s written in a language we all understand.

Transparency in government is an oft-used catch phrase that’s defined differently from one person to the next. States regulate what data must be provided to the public and sometimes how that data is displayed, but for the most part it is a free for all that results in communities posting fancy charts that average people — both residents and employees — have little time and inclination to understand. Reading lines on a chart or graph is one thing, but walking away with an understanding of the full picture and what it means down the road is another.

News

Six Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Budget from the Polar Vortex

Surprises.  We all hate them when it comes to budgets.

Most local units of government have been pulling themselves up by the bootstraps since the impacts of the Great Recession.  But the uncertainty of Mother Nature has thrown many for a frozen loop this year.

How do you budget for snowiest January ever?

Most local units have used 60-70 percent of their road salt half way through the winter, not to mention overtime hours, wear and tear on equipment, water main breaks, and potholes.

And the worst is not over.  Regardless of how much snow we will still get, and no matter how cold it stays, the eventual spring thaw will wreak havoc on the condition of the roads come April showers and May flowers.

So what’s an administrator to do?  Here are six best practices that might make your winter doldrums more palatable.

  1. Monitor your departmental budget monthly to actual expenses so there are no fiscal surprises.
  2. Develop budget recovery plans now, using up to a three-year outlook on where to pull the revenue from.
  3. Communicate with residents before the roads turn to mush.  Let them know that this will be a rough spring when it comes to road conditions, and to use as much caution as possible (and to be patient).
  4. Pool resources (collaborate) with neighboring communities to avoid any overlap in maintenance of lane miles.  If your trucks have to travel over a neighboring community’s road to reach a destination, consider working out a financial arrangement to be able to cover each other’s area and avoid duplication.
  5. If you are not already doing so, consider brine solutions to slow down the consumption of your salt.
  6. Develop an asset management plan so you know ahead of time which roads may be most problematic, and which water mains may be suspect due to age or materials.

At the end of the day, roads and infrastructure maintenance are one of those “must perform” services that any local government has to do regardless of the circumstances.

Munetrix can help you understand where you stand in relation to other local governments’ operating expenditures for your DPW expenditures.  If you see that a peer has a lower operating cost per capita, or other measure, consult with them to find out what they are doing that might help you dial in your services or costs to become more efficient.  We all need to learn from each other, and Munetrix is an enabler in that regard.

Also, use data to tell your story, and make sure you understand what your residents must have, would like to have and could care less about by conducting bi-yearly citizen surveys.  Munetrix can steer you to services that perform these surveys.

In any event, over-communicate and drive the story.

Why? Because nobody likes surprises.

Author: Bob Kittle
Bob Kittle is the President and Co-founder of Munetrix.com

News

Grading Schools: Letters, Colors or Numbers?

According to an Oakland Press’ editorial in the November 10, 2013 Open Forum, Michigan Republican state Rep, Lisa Posthumus Lyons is proposing legislature that would change the color-coded method Michigan currently uses to rate local schools to a single letter grade matching the report card formats used on K-12 education.

In today’s world of tablets and technology, visualization is an effective way to communicate performance management. Michigan’s Governor Snyder has instituted visual dashboard metrics into virtually every department within the state, municipalities and schools notwithstanding.  People understand red = bad and green = good, and gradients in between are somewhere between good and bad, so long as the scale is shown in context to the scoring system.

Munetrix, a fiscal measurement and grading transparency website for local governments and schools, uses this methodology quite effectively.  From a fiscal stability standpoint, the Munetrix scoring methodology translates complicated financial data into a simple, visual snapshot that anybody can understand – even using the “lime green” that Ms. Posthumus Lyons believes will confuse parents.

Grading SchoolsWe use this method because people easily understand simple color-based data representations and we would suggest, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, the Michigan Legislature look at successful implementations of standardized metrics and work with data in the way people digest information today: with their eyes.

Besides, when kids go beyond the K-12 education system, letter grades go out the window and are replaced with a 4.0 scale.

Bob Kittle, President & CEO Munetrix

News

Four subjects we need to focus less on in school

Are we failing the youth of this nation?

No, this is not a POD song tribute… more of a commentary on the education system as a whole. It is my humble opinion that the attempts at making students more “well-rounded” have most definitely had the reverse effect.

The argument for the past 20 or 30 years is that introducing students to a greater variety of topics will increase their ability to get a better job, contribute to society, and/or possibly be a better person.  I do not necessarily disagree with this sentiment. The focus on it has become far too great, much to the detriment of those exposed to it.

Trust me, this isn’t a fun argument to have. You try telling people that their kid should learn LESS. Very few positive reactions, let me tell you. Even so, I believe it is a conversation worth having.

News

Don’t waste your internship

internshipI’m just going to let it all out and say that it is a hard life for a 20-something intern. We are anxious, broke, and usually lacking experience. We are struggling to find a balance between the stereotypical ‘party every weekend’, social network-addicted college life and that of a working professional.

Student loan payments are just around the corner as we try to pass those last few required courses, all while still trying to impress our bosses and get our mothers to do our laundry just this one last time.

Okay, maybe it’s not that difficult, but it can still present a challenge. For all you interns with piles of creative energy and ideas but no one to share it with, there is hope!

1 2 3