By Andy Pederson, Village Manager, Village of Bayside, WI

In defining a vision, adjusting to the New Normal after the Great Recession, or simply using data, metrics and information to move your community forward, The GIS Guide for Elected Officials is a must read.  It’s a must read for not only Elected officials, but for every employee from the public works technician to the chief executive officer. 

The book is a comprehensive collection of thoughts, ideas, and examples of how GIS can be used.  It is a unique balance of very specific case studies on how communities have successfully implemented GIS to the conceptual foundation of how GIS can allow your community to operate more effectively.   The many case studies also illustrate how GIS can be utilized to enhance transparency, education, and planning in a community. Most importantly, as the Book states, “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide a comprehensive framework for discussing public issue and challenges.”

The diversity of case studies in the Book on the uses of GIS really opened my eyes to ways in which our community can and now will expand our utilization of GIS as a front line tool. I was very intrigued by how the Book made the economic case and business justification for the utilization of GIS.  While it will take resources to further implement and enter into new areas of GIS, that return on investment is multi-fold in reducing staff time, asset management, performance management, economic development, and much more. 

Immediately upon completing the book, our community began utilizing our GIS system as a citizen engagement tool.  We were struggling with ways in which to communicate with the general public on the possibility of expanding municipal water to those who wanted it.  The community in the past has struggled with the education portion of harnessing the community desire into a coordinated effort. Through the use of GIS, we were able to developing new mapping, identify areas of potential development based on resident feedback, and more importantly identify properties within the Village that we had not reached.  Coupled with our communications program, GIS has allowed us to now reach out to those individuals in a very short period of time.

As a local government chief executive officer, I like probably most of you, are being asked to do more with less.  As we are asked to do more with less, we are also being asked to more, faster in the instantaneous society we live in.  GIS is a crucial tool and this Guide provides valuable tools, lessons learned, and examples from other communities how they have developed platforms to meet these competing demands.  

Last year, I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in a white boarding exercise at the ESRI campus to discuss how GIS could assist local government.  While our group was able to come up with numerous examples of things we would like to see that could exist today, we also thought about where GIS could take local government and the tools it could provide to solve problems we don’t know exist yet through forecasting, strategic planning, and knowledge sharing.  

In Bayside, we have four strategic values:  Fiscal Integrity, Service Excellence, Civic Engagement, and Sustainability.  Our mission is based in part on providing innovative, service based solutions.  Our GIS program, while in its infancy, has become a vital tool.  In the coming months and years, it will transition from vital to an essential tool for our elected leaders and executive staff to assist in defining our service delivery and financial stability.  From our capital planning program, public works infrastructure and maintenance programs, consolidated dispatch center, community policing, economic development, and electronic communications, GIS will play an integral role in our operation and our future. 

After finishing The GIS Guide for Elected Officials, my only wish was I would have read it five years ago to allow GIS to be an integral tool to “develop a new vision based on the realities of the recession.”