Greetings!  We hope you are having a pleasant summer.  At the LGI, we have been busy following up on our report  A Roadmap for Government Transformation. 

Now we need your help to find even more examples!

The Local Government Institute of Wisconsin is creating a resource directory to identify specific examples of local governments working together to reduce costs, improve services, or to better address regional issues.  We need your help to compile examples from across the state and to identify individuals who are willing to talk about how they did it to folks who are trying to figure it out.
If you have been involved in or are aware of a cooperative effort with neighboring jurisdictions, we would like to hear about it.  We want to make it as simple as possible to let us know about the good work that you or others have done in this regard. One option is to use our on-line form to enter basic information - http://lgicasestudyinput.questionpro.com.  This should only take a few minutes and you can enter as much or as little information as you like.  If you prefer to tell us about it by e-mail or over the phone, please e-mail us at exec_dir@localgovinstitute.org or call us at (608)831-1662 and ask for Gary or Kevin.
 

Energy Independence As An Economic Development Strategy

Join us on August 4, 2010 at the 1000 Islands Environmental Center in Kaukauna for a workshop discussing local government energy independence and economic development.  We'll hear from some economic development leaders who are making energy sustainability a cornerstone of their regional economic development strategy.  This will be followed by discussion of resources and tools available to local governments to help develop an energy independence plan.  Finally, there will be a roundtable discussion from a dozen local governments that are in the process of preparing energy independence plans.
Details and registration information can be found at www.localgovinstitute.org.
 

Other Updates

The Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence and the LGI just released a report Lessons Learned: Local Government Energy Independence Planning.  The report describes the lessons learned from a group of 10 pilot communities that, during 2009, undertook a planning process to achieve 25% of their energy from renewable sources by the year 2025. Many of the 10 initiatives profiled involved multiple local governments working together in a joint planning effort.  Read a summary and download the report at www.localgovinstitute.org.
The Johnson Foundation sponsored a Forum on May 27th at Wingspread where Christine Smith and Dave Varana from Baker Tilly presented a summary of their research.  A panel discussion followed the presentation.  The audience asked a number of questions of both the researchers and panelists.  A complete summary along with full audio (indexed) and photos can be found on our website - www.localgovinstitute.org.
During June we hosted a lunch with Tom Christoffel.  Tom collects news from around the world on local government efforts to collaborate on a variety of issues within their region.  Tom posts this information to a blog and his website.  Visit http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/ to view his blog or subscribe to his Regional Community Development News.