Commentaries

Commentaries are contributed, non-commercial and educational articles that subject matter experts write for American City & County. If you would like to submit an exclusive commentary, click here to view our guidelines.

Highlights

Cooperative contracts can be an entryway for small and diverse companies to successfully compete for government sales

Cooperative purchasing agreements are just what the doctor ordered for stretched-thin government...

Electric slide: Mayors form collaborative organization to purchase electric vehicles for cities

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the future in transportation, as the world turns toward ways of...

Preventing cloud data leaks: four key actions city and county government organizations can apply to mitigate risk

City and county governments are wary of mounting security risks, particularly for data they...

Commentary

Cooperative contracts can be an entryway for small and diverse companies to successfully compete for government sales

Cooperative purchasing agreements are just what the doctor ordered for stretched-thin government procurement departments. “One thing all procurement offices seem to have in common (even before the pandemic) is too much work and too little time,” says Christina Nielsen, director, government accounts for Lawson Products. The firm is a distributor of maintenance, repair and operations […]

Commentary

Electric slide: Mayors form collaborative organization to purchase electric vehicles for cities

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the future in transportation, as the world turns toward ways of combating climate change. Car manufacturers are in turn increasing their offerings of EVs for the general public. General Motors (GM) notably announced in January 2021 that it would be phasing out petroleum-powered cars and trucks with a goal of selling […]

Commentary

Celebrating the unsung heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic: Procurement professionals

We look forward to it every year. We rejoice in the celebrations and acknowledgements of all the amazing procurement professionals who create a significant impact in their entities and their communities. March is Procurement Month and our profession rises to the center of the spotlight. However, as this past year has demonstrated, a single celebratory […]

Commentary

Expanding opportunities: Nebraska’s bold procurement Concierge Program

I have been writing columns for this publication on and off for 15 years. And during that decade and a half, I’ve written about countless chief procurement officers trying to make changes in their jurisdictions. Some of those changes were operational like implementing strategic sourcing. Others were organizational as states moved to shared services. Finally, […]

Commentary

Preventing cloud data leaks: four key actions city and county government organizations can apply to mitigate risk

City and county governments are wary of mounting security risks, particularly for data they store in the cloud. Ransomware, phishing attacks and other cybersecurity threats on local governments are hitting the news regularly—such as the recent DoppelPaymer ransomware and Ryuk malware attacks on Chatham County, Orange County and the City of Durham, all in North […]

Commentary

Backup and restore: a powerful data duo

Over the past few years, ransomware attacks against state and local governments have grown both in frequency and cost. Baltimore; Albany, N.Y.; Lake City, Fla.; and New Orleans—these are just a handful of cities that have suffered a public ransomware attack. State and local IT leaders are looking to strengthen their data protection infrastructure. According […]

Commentary

Take the wheel on a driverless future

For the last five years, self-driving cars have slowly begun to enter the public consciousness. As is often the case with new technology, private sector resources and investment allow it to advance quickly beyond most governing bodies’ ability to regulate, let alone develop the technology in partnership. If that trend continues, it will be a […]

Commentary

How local governments can combat the affordable housing crisis

Our country is facing an affordable housing crisis that’s being felt from coast to coast. But unlike the current COVID-19 pandemic, this crisis didn’t happen overnight—it’s been decades in the making with American households continuing to spend an ever-growing portion of their income on rent year after year. One 2020 report found that 37.1 million […]

Commentary

How cities and states can benefit from Biden’s infrastructure, climate proposals

It’s no secret that U.S. infrastructure could use some improvement. Power outages cost the U.S. economy billions annually. Cities like Jackson, Miss., and Flint, Mich., have suffered from a lack of clean water. Climate volatility has made people, property and infrastructure in states like Texas, New York and Louisiana vulnerable to catastrophic storms, while the […]

Commentary

How cities are reclaiming street parking spaces for public use

Cornelius Vanderbilt—one of the richest men in American history—famously said that the best possible investment was New York City real estate. More than 150 years after his death, his words have proven to be prescient: property prices in the Big Apple have risen to astronomical levels that even the Commodore himself could have never imagined. […]

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Commentaries

Commentaries are contributed, non-commercial and educational articles that subject matter experts write for American City & County. If you would like to submit an exclusive commentary, click here to view our guidelines.

Highlights

Cooperative contracts can be an entryway for small and diverse companies to successfully compete for government sales

Electric slide: Mayors form collaborative organization to purchase electric vehicles for cities

Preventing cloud data leaks: four key actions city and county government organizations can apply to mitigate risk

Commentary

Cooperative contracts can be an entryway for small and diverse companies to successfully compete for government sales

Commentary

Electric slide: Mayors form collaborative organization to purchase electric vehicles for cities

Commentary

Celebrating the unsung heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic: Procurement professionals

Commentary

Expanding opportunities: Nebraska’s bold procurement Concierge Program

Commentary

Preventing cloud data leaks: four key actions city and county government organizations can apply to mitigate risk

Commentary

Backup and restore: a powerful data duo

Commentary

Take the wheel on a driverless future

Commentary

How local governments can combat the affordable housing crisis

Commentary

How cities and states can benefit from Biden’s infrastructure, climate proposals

Commentary

How cities are reclaiming street parking spaces for public use

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