Many departments at the City of Asheville have worked hard to invest in and work with technology to improve efficiency, mitigate citizen tax burden, and increase service levels for citizens. Important projects and initiatives that have taken place over the last few years are listed below.
City of Asheville Adds High-Tech Enhancements for City Council Meetings
In April 2010, the City of Asheville premiered two new high-tech enhancements for Asheville City Council formal meetings. Now, City Council meetings will be streamed live via webcast, and meeting attendees will find more access to wireless internet while in Council chambers. See the April edition of Asheville E-News for more information.
Technology Fee Benefits Developers at No Cost to Property Owners
In fiscal year 2009, Asheville’s City Council approved a 4% technology surcharge on all development services, to be used to upgrade development services functions and make service improvements for our customers.
The new development services center (DSC), recently retrofit into the City's Public Works building, offers significant process improvements to the developer community, including: a single point of contact throughout the development process; a streamlined development process; and a reduced customer service time. The DSC officially launched on September 25th, 2009.
Link to Citizen Times Coverage
$40,000 from the technology fund, paid into by the developer community, was used for the technology aspects of the DSC’s first phase at no cost to property owners. We look forward to more successes at the DSC.
Utility Franchise Fee Tax Mitigation
City Council has recognized employees from IT, Public Works, and Budget, who worked to correlate the City’s data systems with utility company data systems. Because of this higher quality of data, the City was able to accurately reflect state reimbursement for utility franchise fees. This resulted in funding the City’s general operating budget by $300,000 over three years, and providing an ongoing revenue stream for city services, which mitigates the need for revenues from tax collection.
Business Technology Improvement Project (BTIP) Kickoff
Link to City of Asheville Neighborhood E-News January 2009
This project, now in process, will replace the City’s aging mainframe-based basic software (estimated completion December 2010) while pursuing business process improvement. Areas affected include core financials, human resources, contract management, purchasing and inventory, and utility billing functions. Project goals include:
- Develop a system that is user-friendly and empowers departments to analyze and improve their business processes.
- Improve quality and accessibility of information for decision support and business planning.
- Eliminate paper-based workflow processes and forms.
- Reduce redundant “shadow systems”, data entry, storage, and paper processing.
- Improve operational effectiveness and productivity.
- Enhance customer service and web self-service.
- Reduce the number of systems and related costs and inefficiencies by retiring existing legacy and back office systems and tools.
Telecommunication Tower Budget Mitigation
The City of Asheville owns and operates several telecommunications towers that support a public safety radio system, a critical asset to our officers in the field. Over the lifetime of the towers, the City has leased extra tower space to cellular and other wireless operators in order to underwrite a cost savings plan for the City’s, thus saving tax dollars. Over the course of years, this has supplemented the general fund with hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for operational expenses – which did not come from citizen tax dollars.
Asheville’s mapAsheville Effort Recognized as Model Geographic InformationSystem Program in North Carolina
Link to NCGICC Award Letter
Developed and deployed from 2006-2009, mapAsheville benefits citizens with its award-winning easy-to-use web interface with the following services:
- Neighborhoods can easily track nearby developments and bring up relevant city documents with just a mouse click.
- Citizens can view crime trends in Asheville and Buncombe County, featured on WLOS-TV in March of 2008.
- Economic development tools for business.
Street Closure Online Listing
Advance warning of roadwork improves driver safety and convenience. Transportation and Engineering, in cooperation with IT Services, created an online listing of all permitted street closures. The listing is available on the City of Asheville website.
The listing provides advance notice of local road closures, enhancing roadway safety and notifying the community of possible delays. It's also a convenient resource for business owners to plan for deliveries and impacts on parking.
Recognition of Priority Places mapAsheville Application
City Council recognized employees involved in the award-winning mapAsheville “Priority Places” application, which is an online for economic development decision support, helping businesses to easily make investments in the City of Asheville.