2011 Annual Report
on the GROUND
By carrying the University of Georgia’s impressive resources and expertise to governments in all corners of the state, the Vinson Institute plays an integral part in UGA’s public service and outreach mission. Institute faculty pride themselves on their ability to respond quickly when state and local governments express a need for assistance or objective information. They work closely with governments on the ground in their communities to provide careful analyses that help inform policies, advance best practices in such areas as human resources and financial management, locate opportunities for improving operational efficiency, and more.
The Institute’s local government experts find themselves in all parts of Georgia providing customized assistance to governments both large and small. This year, they shared their widely acknowledged expertise in the area of city-county consolidation in a number of communities. When leaders from the City of Dalton and Whitfield County began exploring the possibility of consolidation, they asked Institute faculty to conduct a feasibility study and to address issues related to service delivery, personnel, and finances during a two-day retreat. To the City of Macon and Bibb County, the Institute presented a report of case studies detailing the experiences of Georgia's three largest consolidated governments before, during, and after the consolidation process.
No project embodied the Institute’s “on the ground” mission more literally than assistance provided to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to help them comply with Federal Highway Administration reporting requirements. Beginning in August, GIS, or geographic information systems, specialists from the Institute’s Office of Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) hit the road to help the state gather important highway data for the federal Highway Performance Monitoring System. Using video and GPS-capturing technology, the Institute specialists traveled by van over 346 road segments around the state to record data on road characteristics including highway width, pavement condition, number of lanes, signage, and more.
Institute demographer Matt Hauer has a unique perspective of the situation on the ground in Georgia. Hauer has been sharing his expertise about Georgia’s diverse and rapidly changing demographics as he travels the state speaking with government and community leaders at such events as the Association County Commissioners of Georgia or Georgia Municipal Association conferences and the GeorgiaForward Forum in Callaway Gardens. Hauer surprises many audiences with his message that Georgia, with its growing Hispanic, Asian, and aging populations, is the new California. Leaders, armed with a broader perspective on the state’s population characteristics and trends, can approach policy formulation and decision making with more information and a better sense of what the future has in store.
