State and Local Government Review

The vast majority of local governments in the United States have populations with less 5,000. Local government research, particular in the area of e-government, has focused on larger cities. This article addresses the gap in the research but examining empirically the factors that influence the adoption and development of Web sites by smaller local governments.

Public concern about urban sprawl has spurred states to offer incentives for land preservation, such as state income tax credits granted to donors of conservation easements. This study examines the effect of these tax credits on conservation easement donations to regional land trust organizations in the lower forty-eight states during the period from 1994 to 2005. Regression results indicate that a state income tax credit has a statistically significant impact on conservation easement donations only during the initial period of implementation. The results also show that donation rates are significantly impacted by the extent of state park land holdings.

This research examines 130 government contracts for legal services, specifically focusing on how decisions to include various accountability clauses are influenced by previous relationships between the government and its private sector contractors. Overall, the findings illustrate that prior positive contract experiences decrease the use of clauses that facilitate disclosure of information but increase the use of contract details. The evidence suggests an important role for relationships in new governance: contracting with familiar contractors may reduce the cost and use of some forms of accountability but not necessarily reduce overall accountability.

Governance increasingly relies on intergovernmental and intersectoral collaboration in providing public services. This research reports perceptions of state representatives to the multistate collaborative Drug Effectiveness Review Project about the importance of factors influencing successful collaboration. Findings reveal state motivation to collaborate is closely tied to project governance and suggest how future efforts might be structured to achieve success. Among other factors, a disconnect between ends and means allows the process to function objectively; objective production of drug effectiveness information and subjective use of information in state policy decisions are distinct processes, reducing conflict that might otherwise jeopardize project sustainability.

The construction of energy facilities, particularly wind farms and biofuel plants, can be of great benefit to local communities. They can generate jobs and provide considerable revenue to local land owners, while at the same time they can contribute to the sustainability of the community's (and the nation's) energy resources. In the US, local communities are beginning to develop both types of sustainable energy sources in an attempt to realize these benefits. However, wind farms and biofuel plants may also have adverse impacts on the existing infrastructure, the environment, the aesthetics, and the safety of neighboring residents in the communities. While a few communities have completed the process of constructing wind farms and biofuel plants, many more are expected to follow. However, there is currently limited comprehensive information on the appropriate policy considerations for local agencies. To that end, the objective of this paper is to provide local agencies with specific financial, community, site, environmental, safety, and infrastructure considerations and concerns, in order to make informed community decisions about the construction and location of these types of sustainable energy facilities.

The experience of Norman, Oklahoma, demonstrates success in sustainability efforts when local leaders focus on incorporating green initiatives into the “ordinary things” of municipal facilities. Two projects highlight Norman's efforts: LEED-certified fire stations and a CNG (compressed natural gas) fueling facility to help transition the city fleet to cleaner burning alternative fuels. The city overcame the initial funding challenges in two ways. A dedicated sales tax for new public safety facilities provided the necessary funding for the fire stations, and a combination of intergovernmental grants financed the CNG facility. Both projects already show important reductions in environmental impacts and savings in energy costs.

In a time of constrained budgets, local governments face increased pressure to justify the value of pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for new construction and building renovations. Since 2004, the Government of Johnson County, Kansas, has made it a practice to LEED-certify the majority of its new facilities and major renovations; it now owns three LEED Gold buildings and is pursuing certification of four new projects. This article will examine the approach that the Johnson County Facilities Management Department took in in planning and constructing its first LEED^® building and the manner in which it developed support from elected officials and the public for the project. The article will also address the perception that LEED certification adds substantially to project costs, focus on the value of pursuing LEED certification versus merely constructing “LEED-certifiable” buildings, and summarize the elements that have made the county's sustainable building efforts successful.

Metropolitan areas are characterized by policy and service fragmentation, not just jurisdictional fragmentation. Studies of vertical and horizontal coordination in metropolitan regions tend to focus on individual services, making them somewhat unrealistic and limiting their ability to capture overall regional governance in a metropolitan world, where individual jurisdictions engage in multiple policy relationships simultaneously. Scholars must address multiplex relationships between governments exchanging and impacted by multiple services in order to provide realistic advice and insights for managers and policy makers. This essay explores the challenges of regional collaboration by examining trends and identifying problems and opportunities that arise from service mutiplexity.