Plano, Texas Uses Mobile Tools to Manage Water Restrictions

Mobile technology is changing the way people communicate and engage with their community.  As a result, cities, one by one, are starting to capitalize on this new trend by developing mobile apps and tools to meet the demands and interests of their savvy constituents.  One city in-particular is experiencing this transformation first hand.

The City of Plano, Texas has been revolutionizing the way its community works together to resolve city-related concerns via it's Fix It Plano app. The city enlisted the help of PublicStuff to develop a mobile app and service request system in July, 2011 and branded the system Fix It Plano. The app allows residents to report and submit city-related requests in real time from anywhere. Requests, normally centered on maintenance issues, are sent directly to the correct city department to be resolved. Since launching Fix It Plano in July 2011, the city has closed out more than 1,489 service requests. But what's truly fascinating is that half of those requests focused on water-related issues.

Why? Well when Fix It Plano was first introduced, like many other North Texas cities, Plano was under outdoor watering restrictions. A water supply issue related to an invasive species of Zebra Mussels in the cities main water supply, was compounding its drought issues after a dry, hot summer, that extended into the fall. In October, water concerns heightened as the city prepared to move into enhanced Stage 3 Water Restrictions on Nov. 1, taking residents from once- a-week watering to once-every-other-week watering. From the beginning of these heightened restrictions, residents were eager to continue their participation in water conservation efforts. City phones were buzzing with reports of wasteful watering practices and unscheduled watering. It became obvious as restrictions tightened; Fix It Plano could divert this barrage of additional calls into a more unified system. On Oct. 12, a City press release announced watering violations could now be reported via Fix It Plano. In the 19 days that followed 71 water violations were reported.

Nancy Nevil, Plano’s director of sustainability and environmental services said, “Our residents are very technologically savvy and Fix It Plano was a tool that empowered them to be involved in the solution of saving as much water as possible. More important than violations, they reported water leaks, broken sprinklers and other water-related issues that required repair.”

As weather forecasters predict another grueling Texas summer, Fix It Plano will continue to support water conservation efforts in Plano. The Fix It Plano app is free to download and accessible via the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Blackberry and Android applications. Citizens may also submit services via telephone, through SMS text, and directly through the City’s website. To access any of the Fix It portals, please click on the links below.

Online Portal

iPhone App

Android App

Blackberry App

Technology: A Silver Bullet that Cuts Costs, Improves Services, Enhances Revenue and Engages Citizens?

Technology has long helped private enterprise do things faster, cheaper and better. Want to ship a package? Fed Ex has a site where you can ship your package, track it and even print labels. You can also figure out how much it will cost to ship your nephew his new Xbox without talking to a person. Have suggestions for new products or services? Businesses like ModCloth enable their customers to vote on which clothing items they will make available in their online store. The solution solves two problems – which items will sell quickly and won’t have to be discounted due to lack of demand and customer engagement. The bottom line, technology has the power to solve business problems.

What are some business problems that local government is faced with? According to a recent article in Washington Technology — state and local government officials are faced with cutting costs, improving constituent services and even increasing revenues. The article points out that IT departments in the state and local government are looking beyond traditional IT solutions to solve these problems.

In his first day memo, President Barack Obama wrote “Government should be participatory. Public engagement enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions.” The idea of open government and civic engagement is not new, however. In the early 1800’s historian Alexis de Tocqueville said that nothing was more important in the early history of the United States than civic engagement as a way of connecting communities and building a government that would be key to the nation’s success. It is interesting that the concept of civic engagement seems to be the key to building a strong and successful government. Looks like not much has changed, at least philosophically, since the early days of our nation.

Walk down the street in any city, town, or county and most folks won’t be able to tell you what their local government is voting on in a given week or where exactly their tax money goes. They will be able to tell you all the things that they see are wrong in their neighborhood, such as a broken street light, potholes, problems with trash collection. And they’re likely to call any number of government employees to complain about it if they have time between shuttling their kids to soccer practice, working, or living their daily lives. Without a singular forum for public works issues, when local governments can communicate with constituents and citizens can communicate with the government, communication can break down between both sides resulting in inefficiency when numerous citizens report the same issue as well as the associated expense in man hours as well as dissatisfaction in government.

Fortunately we live in a world where technology can help to solve many of the problems that local governments face. Nick Grossman who runs the Open Planning Project for TOPP Labs (TOPP), an incubator for civic technology initiatives, recently participated in an open forum at MIT. He state that, “Government services are potentially a gateway…to civic engagement. It’s not just about politics and government, but about the city and how we use it.” The bottom line is that technological evolution has the power to transform the way that local governments do business on a day-to-day basis.

At PublicStuff we agree that technology has the power of technology to change government. We’re proud of our newest release due out later this month. It will provide governments and citizens better ability to engage, solve problems and increase the effective of municipal services. We look forward to sharing the details in the coming weeks and months.