Blog & Whitepapers

Auburn Hills, Mich. – Jan. 22, 2018 – Munetrix, a public sector solutions provider offering data management, analytics and reporting tools for state and local governments and public school districts, continued to help local governments evaluate their fiscal climate and add to their coffers through a tool available on the expanded Munetrix platform. The Munetrix® Transparency Compliance Report WizardTM simplified the submission process for local governments applying to City, Village and Township Revenue Sharing (CVTRS) and County Incentive Program (CIP)—programs that distribute sales tax collected by the State of Michigan to local governments as unrestricted revenues.

Auburn Hills, Mich. – Jan. 10, 2018 – Munetrix, a public sector solutions provider offering data management, analytics and reporting tools for state and local governments and public school districts, was included on the 2018 GovTech100, an annual index by Government Technology magazine that highlights the top 100 companies in the country serving government in unique, innovative and effective ways. Munetrix has been included on the GovTech100 list since it was introduced in 2016 and is one of only three Michigan-based companies listed for 2018. The announcement of the GovTech100 honor was made by Munetrix President, Bob Kittle.

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.

I get a kick when politicians say they are going to create jobs when there are so many jobs out there now, just not enough people to fill them. In the public sector, this is really going to hit home in the next 3-10 years, when the tail end of the baby-boomers reach the age of retirement, or 65. When I ask local government leaders what percentage of their workforce will retire in the next decade, they tell me at least 30%, which could even be low.

I was reading the just released Augenblick, Palaich & Associates (APA) report titled, Michigan Education Finance Study, commissioned to them by the Michigan Department of Treasury. The report suggests that there is inadequacy in funding to Michigan Public Schools.

Along with my business partner, Buzz Brown, I spend a great deal of time each day mired in Michigan local government and school district data and often ask myself questions about the information the data provides. For example, on the hot-button topic of school funding, the state provides equal state reimbursement for students who attend a virtual school, versus a traditional K12 or charter school. Why? Is this trend filling the coffers of for-profit virtual schools while draining much needed funds from traditional schools?

The recent news in the Oakland Press about the City of Oak Park’s former clerk siphoning $433,000 out of the city’s coffers over a 2-year period made me think … would a higher level of transparency by the city have been able to thwart such an incident? Within the Munetrix toolbox is a Dynamic Check Register that takes the transparency discussion to the next level.

As Mayor Pro-tem for the City of Auburn Hills, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to address the men and women in uniform at the Annual Police Department Awards Banquet Dinner. Below are my my remarks. I’m honored to have the opportunity to share in this important function with you and your families tonight. I’ll work to keep my comments to a minimum.

The digital age has made an abundance of data available to “consumers” but it begs the question, “What information does it provide us?” I recently sat through a presentation on Traffic Crash Results for a local government. As part of the presentation, there was a comparison of two neighboring communities, one with 22,600 crashes and the other with 22,100 (data). I didn’t know if the lower number was better, or not.

There is no shortage of articles and white papers addressing the topic of “Local Government Early Warning Indicators.” However, very few offer a concise methodology to address the issue; and most don’t draw any meaningful recommendations to address the dynamics local governments face in today’s new normal.

In Michigan, the ill fated revenue sharing initiative known as the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP), a “Carrot and a stick” approach to passing down state revenue sharing dollars to local units of government is dead – – or is it?

We commend those who are willing to serve their public institutions, because being an elected official is sure fraught with it challenges. As Mayor Pro-Tem for the City of Auburn Hills, Michigan, I see it first-hand. Why? Because making tough choices is often not very popular. But if decisions are made for the right reasons, using the appropriate data and analysis, it is the job of the policymakers, as fiduciaries for their communities, to do what is in the best interest of the city (or school or library or ??), always with respect to the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.