Browsing by Subject "local government"
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Item Cybersecurity 2016 Survey Summary Report of Survey Results(UMBC and International City/County Management Association (ICMA), 2017-04-17) Norris, Donald; Mateczun, Laura; Joshi, Anupam; Finin, TimIn 2016, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), in partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), conducted a survey to better understand local government cybersecurity practices. The results of this survey provide insights into the cybersecurity issues faced by U.S. local governments, including what their capacities are, what kind of barriers they face, and what type of support they have to implement cybersecurity programs.Item Cybersecurity Challenges to American State and Local Governments(2015-06-18) Norris, Donald; Joshi, Anupam; Finin, TimIn this paper, we examine cybersecurity challenges to American state and local governments. In particular, we address the extent and magnitude of cyberattacks against these governments, the problems these governments face in preventing attacks from being successful, the barriers internal to their organizations that make cybersecurity difficult to achieve, and actions that they believe should be taken to improve cybersecurity practice. Our research method consisted of a focus group of information technology (IT) and cybersecurity (CS) officials from one American state. Among other things we found that cyberattacks, mostly in the form of malicious emails, are constant, 24/7/365, and can number in the tens of thousands per day (at least among state government and larger local governments). The participants in our focus group noted that while they weren't perfect at it, they felt that for the most part they had the technical side of cybersecurity under good control. These governments’ biggest cyber challenge is human error; that is, end users who (mostly by mistake and without malice) open an attachment or click on a link in a phishing email that then allows an attacker into the government’s IT system. We also found that the probability of a successful phishing cyberattack is relatively high. These governments face several barriers when attempting to prevent cyberattacks and when endeavoring to mitigate successful ones, including: insufficient funding and staffing; problems of governance (namely, lack of control over all actors within a governmental unit due mainly to the federated nature of government); and insufficient or under-enforced cybersecurity policies. Our participants also noted that there are several common sense ways that state and local governments can improve cybersecurity. Among others, these include: frequent vulnerability assessment, continual scanning and testing, securing cybersecurity insurance, improving end user authentication and authorization, end user training and control, control over the use of external devices (flash drives, etc.), improved governance methods, sharing information about cyberattacks and cybersecurity policies and practices among governments, and, finally, creating a culture for cybersecurity in governmental organizations. Areas for further research into state and local government cybersecurity include: the types of cyberattacks that state and local governments typically face; the types of actions that these governments should take to prevent the attacks from being successful and to mitigate the results of successful attacks; gaps between these governments’ need to prevent and mitigate cyberattacks and their ability to do so, including barriers to effective state and local government cybersecurity and best cybersecurity practices; and recommendations for improving state and local government cybersecurity.Item Local Government Action and Antitrust Policy: An Economic Analysis(Digital Commons) Brennan, Timothy J.Item Local Government Decision Making(2022-01-01) Cannizzaro, Vincent; Edwards, Lauren; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyMost of the theoretical foundations related to the public policy process and public policy decision-making are rooted in the experiences and processes within the federal government. While some theorizing is based on state-level systems, there has been little to no theorizing based on local governmental structures. This three-paper dissertations aims to add evidence, information, and context to the literature on the public policy and decision-making process of local governments. Through a systematic literature review using the Cochrane-Campbell procedure, Understanding Local Government: A Systematic Review of Political Decision-Making distills the published research on political decision-making of local governments to create a more unified understanding of the factors influencing local governmental policy action in the United States. In addition, this paper provides an analysis of the application of these themes to common theoretical public policy frameworks and models, creating a new theoretical model to define and predict local government policy action�the Municipal Action Framework. Utilizing an autoethnographic methodology, The Heavy Weight of Policy Inaction: An Autoethnographic Analysis of a Lead Hazards Ordinance provides a first-hand account of attempted policy action at the local level. Through the personal experiences of the author, this paper retells the events and circumstances creating both a hospitable, and eventually unhospitable, policy environment for momentous policy change. Through this writing, this paper applies the theoretical model of the Municipal Action Framework to better understand its applicability and practicality. Through quantitative methodologies, Showing Up: An Analysis of Uncontested and Write-In-Only Elections on Local Policy Action seeks to understand the policymaking implications of uncontested, write-in-only, and write-in winner elections for either executive or legislative seats within small local governments in York County, Pennsylvania. Findings suggest that winners of uncontested elections may increase the likelihood of policy actions, while winners of write-in-only elections have a decreased or null-level effect.Item Performance Management Practices in Local Governments: Motivations, Challenges, and Evolution(2023-01-01) de Leon Dinglas, Rudy; Hamilton Edwards, Lauren; School of Public Policy; Public PolicyLocal governments engage in performance management practices due to popular use and advocacy. Such practices are often employed to create satisfactory public goods and services for citizens. This research takes an in-depth view to understand the motivations around the practice of performance management and the role of transparency within those motivations. These insights are crucial to supporting and augmenting the use of performance management practices and will inform how these practices are shared, replicated, and sustained for the improvement of local governments. This dissertation used a sample taken from a network of cities and local governments affiliated with government innovation and performance practices. In this research, semi-structured interviews (n=28) and a brief survey (n=70) were completed with elected and/or appointed officials, upper, middle, and front-line management, and non-managerial employees from local governments. The findings justify further exploratory studies on the motivations of local government administrations in engaging in performance management practices. The analysis in this dissertation uncovers the motivations of local government administrators who use performance management practices because of the ideals of civil service, accountability, and communication. There is also interaction present with the idea of transparency to these motivations, largely tied to the themes of accountability and communication. The findings also suggest that organizational and leadership culture present within the organization have some influence in these motivations. These findings provide implications for research, practice, and policy on how to meaningfully engage in performance management practices, and how the ideas of civil service, organizational, and leadership buy-in, along with the underlying themes from transparency of communication and accountability, are central to such practices within local governments.Item Pursuing the Promises of Social Media? Changes in Adoption and Usage of Social Media by the Top 10 Police Departments(Information Polity, 2016-07-01) Edlins, Mariglynn; Brainard, LoriRecent academic literature highlights the potential benefits of social media use by government agencies, such as police departments (PDs). This study builds on previous work to explore whether and how the top 10 U.S. police departments changed their social media use between two points in time. To do this, we examine what, if any, changes have occurred in PDs' use of social media, their use of it for interaction, as well as their use of the platforms for dialogic communication. Our findings suggest that there is change, yet the change is slow and not always in the direction of hype.Item Tenants at will of the legislature : an exploratory case study of Michigan's emergency manager statues(2016-02) Jones, Matthew R.; Henderson, Lenneal J.; Gibson, Ed; Naylor, Lorenda A.; University of Baltimore. College of Public Affairs; University of Baltimore. Doctor of Public AdministrationIn July 2013, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy, representing the largest filing for municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States. The public administrator behind the filing, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, was not a resident of Detroit, or the state of Michigan, and was never elected by residents of Detroit or Michigan to any public office. However, under Michigan law, Mr. Orr possessed the roles of both the executive and legislative branches of government for the city of Detroit. Orr was not the first emergency manager in Michigan, where an experiment in state intervention of local government financial emergencies has taken place since 1988. Unelected emergency managers have become a sole source of power in financially distressed cities across Michigan. The experiences and results of these emergency managers have important implications for the study of intergovernmental relations and public administration. This dissertation research project will present a qualitative, exploratory case study and theoretical inquiry that will examine how the actions of public institutions and key policy players account for the placement of emergency managers in local governments in Michigan, culminating in the state takeover of Detroit. The intergovernmental implications of the complete state takeover of local governments in financial emergency will be analyzed. The study will also seek to understand how the placement of an emergency manager in a financially distressed local government accounts for the larger socioeconomic causes for the local government’s financial crisis. The values of local government democracy are pitted against the values of local government fiscal sustainability. This presents a challenging question - in a local government financial emergency, who should rule? This case study is exploratory, with the objective to provide a foundation for future research in this emerging field of inquiry.