Jul 9

Costly Impact of Cyber Attacks

By |2021-07-09T08:06:06-08:00July 9th, 2021|government, Industry News, Local Government, State Government, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

Cyber-attacks and threats seem to be dominating the news lately as hackers are finding ways to exploit security weaknesses in governments, companies, healthcare organizations, and personal home devices. The new breed of attacks is now taking data and entire systems down and demanding ransom payments in the tens of millions of dollars.

According to the U.S. Government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Assurance Agency (CISA): Ransomware is an ever-evolving form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption. Ransomware actors often target and threaten to sell or leak exfiltrated data or authentication information if the ransom is not paid.

The impact of these attacks will quickly have an outsized impact on not only the entity attacked, but on consumers who will bear the brunt of the cost.

AV Capture

Cyber Security

Ransomware attacks were up 150% in 2020, and growing even faster in 2021, and the financial amount companies paid to hackers grew by 300%, according to Harvard Business Review.

This sudden increase has an undeniable connection to the increase in employees working remotely last year. The pandemic gave hacker groups the perfect opportunity to breach sensitive data because most businesses were not prepared to require employees to install the proper security protections at their home office.

It is estimated that there are between 20 and 30 billion Internet-connected devices which include computers, tablets, smartphones, wireless Internet, and other “smart” devices, like televisions, home security cameras, and even refrigerators. More devices mean more avenues for attack by hackers.

Already in 2021, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in this activity, with high-profile ransom attacks against critical infrastructure, private companies, and municipalities grabbing headlines almost daily.

Recently the City of Tulsa discovered some servers were actively communicating with a known threat site and a ransomware attack was initiated on several City systems. According to the city’s website, “A cybersecurity incident response team was assembled to assess the threat and disconnected the affected servers. The team immediately began isolating the affected systems and the attack moved quickly through the network, prompting the team to shut down all services to halt the attack.”

The attack on the City of Tulsa’s network caused a massive disruption in many city’s services and was costly to resolve.

“We have multiple computers all linked together. We’re talking about hundreds if not thousands of different types of connections that the city is looking into right now,” Captain Richard Meulenberg said as he explained the situation from the Tulsa Police Department.

When a government entity is hacked it has the potential to undermine the security of thousands of systems, networks, and services. Government hacking often depends on exploiting vulnerabilities in systems with the objective to create chaos or more deviously, it could have a surveillance objective. Government hacking may also involve manipulating people to interfere with their own systems. These techniques prey on user trust, the loss of which can undermine the security of systems and the internet.

The reality is most of the cyber-attacks are done by Governments and most were launched against other governments to demonstrating a state’s capabilities rather than causing real disruption. Now that’s changed. The real damage is being down and massive resources are being used to prevent attacks, repair damages, and claw back ransom payments.

Non-government entities have also been hacked more often and none bigger than the breach of Colonial Pipeline in late April.  The Colonial Pipeline attack made such an impact because the pipeline is an important part of the national critical infrastructure system. Taking the system down disrupted gas supplies all along the East Coast of the United States, causing chaos and panic.

This attack hit close to home for many consumers and was particularly dangerous because consumers started to panic and ignored safety precautions. After the chaos receded, government officials confirmed that Colonial Pipeline’s cybersecurity measures were not up to par and may have been prevented if stronger protection was in place.

Cybersecurity, which began in the early 1970s, has always been tied to technological advancements.

For AV Capture All, we take security very seriously and we built our Legislative and Judicial Solution meeting management platforms from the ground up with security in mind.

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Jun 14

Full and Equal Access To the Courts

By |2021-06-14T09:04:22-08:00June 14th, 2021|Court hearings, judicial, Live Streamng, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

Full and equal access to the courts is a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution. To ensure that right, each participant, and observer, in a court proceeding, must be able to effectively understand what is being communicated, to respond, and to be understood when responding. This includes criminal defendants, civil litigants, witnesses, jurors, prospective jurors, lawyers, judges, and spectators, among others. Yet individuals who are deaf or hearing-impaired continue to face communication barriers that deny them an opportunity to participate fully in the judicial process.

AV Capture All Judicial

The American Bar Association (ABA) has a policy that addresses accessibility of courthouses and court proceedings for persons with disabilities and the United States has several laws covering accessibility requirements for persons with disabilities, including those who are deaf or hearing impairment.

In 2010, President Obama signed the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). The CVAA updates federal communications law to increase the access of persons with disabilities to modern communications. The CVAA makes sure that accessibility laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s are brought up to date with 21st-century technologies, including new digital, broadband, and mobile innovations. The following are highlights of the new law.

And there is Title I – Communications Access which requires advanced communications services and products to be accessible by people with disabilities. Advanced communications services are defined as (1) interconnected voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service; (2) non-interconnected VoIP service; (3) electronic messaging service; and (4) interoperable video conferencing service. This includes, for example, text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, and video communications.

With technology seemingly in every moment of our lives, we can no longer deny all citizens the access and ability to communicate within the judicial system.

For AV Capture All, providing Live Closed Captioning in our Judicial Solution has been a priority. Our new Live Closed Captioning service enables real-time speech-to-text transcription and captioning for Live Streams delivered by the AV Capture software.

AV Capture All is excited to announce our launch of Live Closed Captioning for court proceedings. The AV Capture Judicial Solution includes a live closed captioning tool that can be integrated into our video functionality, is done in real-time with live transcription and live captioning, with 98% accuracy.

AV Capture’s live closed captioning works seamlessly with our video solution and will easily become part of your agency’s overall transparency and accessibility plan.

Our new services provide enhanced accessibility and a better experience for viewers of your hearings. They also deliver more value from your existing content by appealing to a wider audience.

Closed Captioning for Recorded Media includes:

  • Automatic speech-to-text transcription within minutes of Publishing
  • Closed Captions displayed in the media player during playback
  • Transcript file download available
  • Closed Captioning for Live Streaming
  • Speech-to-text transcription in real-time
  • Closed Captions displayed in the media player during the live stream
  • Advanced algorithms provide >98% accuracy in real-time

All of the AV Capture Judicial plans can be easily integrated with any videoconferencing platform to capture in-person, virtual, or hybrid hearings. They also support audio-only or audio/video – your choice.

For more information, contact us for a live demo, click here.

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Feb 2

Live Closed Captioning

By |2021-02-03T13:22:30-08:00February 2nd, 2021|City Clerks, Court hearings, government, judicial, Live Streamng, Local Government, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

Imagine one of the biggest events to happen, like when Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the moon on July 20, 1969, and you couldn’t fully know what was happening because you are hearing-impaired.

Before today’s advanced technology and social platforms, those who could not hear could not participate in those shared cultural experiences.

Closed captions, which refers to the fact that viewers have to turn on captioning, made its debut on March 16, 1980, when network TV channels ABC, NBC, and PBS introduced closed-captioned television shows. For the first time, a TV show’s dialogue and soundtrack appeared as text on-screen as the action proceeded.

Starting with The ABC Sunday Night Movie, Disney’s Wonderful World, and Masterpiece Theatre, a new world opened up for the hearing-impaired. But getting there was a fight, and that battle still continues today.

There are approximately 14 million hearing-impaired people in the U.S and their early fights to be included and have media and entrainment access took years of hard work.

Captioned versions of Hollywood films for deaf people only started to become required under the law in 1958. Television, however, did not follow suit. There was no system in place to provide captions, and finding a solution was not a priority for many in the early TV business. That began to change in the 1970s as advocacy efforts led to early experimentation with TV closed captioning.

In the early 1970s captioning technology became available and was tested at Gallaudet University. By 1979 the National Captioning Institute was formed. Its mission was to provide captions for the deaf and hard of hearing. In 1990, the Television Decoder Circuitry Act was passed that required closed-caption decoders to be built into all TV sets with screens larger than 13 inches — in this case, the decoder was a chip instead of separate set-top boxes.

As closed captioning slowly evolved, technology as a whole was beginning to explode into our lives. Then Section 508 came along. Section 508 became effective August 7, 1998, which stated Federal agencies must ensure that their electronic and information technology be accessible to persons with disabilities. Section 508 requires that each Federal agency consider the needs of persons with disabilities when it procures or uses new electronic or information technology hardware or equipment.

Then came social media.

Captions are no longer seen as useful for deaf people only, but also as a convenience for anyone who might want to watch a video without making noise. A 2016 Facebook survey found that as much as 85% of all video views on Facebook were with the sound off and captions on, and a 2019 study showed that the vast majority of videos consumed on mobile devices are watched on mute.

Now, because of social platforms, closed caption has changed as more and more demanded it. Now all phones and other devices provide closed captioning. Most providers offer customized audio languages, subtitles, closed captions, and now, programs and devices that offer closed captions for videos have settings to change the type size, color, and other aspects of the text on the screen.

Many online video apps have caption-style settings of their own, including DirecTV Now and Netflix. YouTube, which has automatically added captions to more than one billion videos since 2009, recently announced that it was putting automatic captions on live-streamed clips.

Our goal at AV Capture All is to add features and services that make the job of city clerk or court clerk easier and we are excited to offer live Closed Captioning. Live Closed Captioning is a new service provided by AV Capture All, and is included in the Premium subscription.  The service enables real-time speech-to-text transcription and captioning for Live Streams delivered by the AV Capture software.  Now, customers can Record, Annotate, Synchronize and Live Stream Audio-Only or Audio/Video, while also providing Closed Captioning for those live streams.

Please contact us for a live demo.

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Dec 9

To Vaccinate Or Not To Vaccinate

By |2020-12-09T11:50:58-08:00December 9th, 2020|government, Local Government, State Government, Technology Innovations, Uncategorized|0 Comments

A mere six months after identifying the SARS-CoV-2 virus as the cause of Covid-19, scientists are on the precipice of having a vaccine to fight it. Moderna and Pfizer will be rolling out vaccines that could save millions of lives. On Dec. 10, the FDA will review Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use. A week after that, Moderna will get reviewed.

What makes that remarkable is under normal circumstances, vaccine approvals are measured in decades, not months.

Questions

The speed of vaccine approval is, in part, a reason why some Americans are unsure if they’ll receive the vaccine. The rollout has been haphazard and not traditional leaving many with questions and not a lot of answers.

One of the questions is: will businesses require employees to get vaccinated?

Will it be legal for your employer to require vaccination? University of California law professor Dorit Reiss who has spoken on legal issues surrounding vaccines since 2013 says the short answer is yes.

“Employment in the United States is usually ‘at will,’” said Reiss. “Your employer can fire you pretty much for any reason. They don’t like your shirt? They can fire you.”

This week the Department of Defense released images of what the COVID-19 vaccination record card will look like. The card will be proof of vaccination to keep in their wallets as part of Operation Warp Speed. Reiss said it will be legal for employers, businesses, or venues to ask for it.

These details, by all accounts, might not be answered until the new administration takes office in January.

Vaccine and Politics

A recent survey by MassINC, a Massachusetts polling group, found that Massachusetts residents are willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. However, the study finds the comfort level varies across racial and socioeconomic demographics, raising further concerns about unequal immunization.

The survey of over 1,100 residents found that overall, 36% of Massachusetts residents said they will take it “as soon as possible,” and 47% plan to wait until either a few or many people have taken it. And just 7% of participants said they will never take a COVID-19 vaccine. However, questions about individuals’ preferences for when they get vaccinated revealed that Black and Latino’s respondents were less willing to do so right away.

The evolution of Americans’ decision to take the vaccine or not has been in play since Mid-August. At that point, 69% said they would get vaccinated as soon as a vaccine was available but two months later, it is was down to 58%. And there is a drop among Black Americans who say they’ll receive the vaccine as soon as it’s available.

The share of Americans who say they are likely to get a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it’s available is dropping — and the decline is notably more pronounced among Black Americans than among white individuals, according to a new survey from STAT and The Harris Poll.

According to a new survey from STAT and The Harris Poll, 59% of white Americans indicated they would get vaccinated as soon as a vaccine is ready, a decline from 70% in mid-August. Only 43% of Black individuals said they would pursue a vaccine as soon as it was available, a sharp drop from 65% in mid-August. The poll, which surveyed 2,050 people online from Oct. 7 to 10, was weighted to ensure the sample was representative of the general U.S. population.

Overall, 58% said they would get vaccinated as soon as a vaccine was available when asked earlier this month, down considerably from 69% who said the same thing in mid-August. That change suggests growing concern that the regulatory approval process for a Covid-19 vaccine has been politicized by the Trump administration in the run-up to the presidential election.

“When we’re looking at the intersection of vaccine and politics, everything is exaggerated. It’s not just racial disparities, but health disparities,” said Rob Jekielek, managing director of The Harris Poll. “Black [individuals] are disproportionately less likely to be within 60 minutes of a primary care physician, which also means they’re less likely to get useful information and instead use a hospital emergency room as a primary mechanism for care. They’re also less likely to have insurance.”

The messaging surrounding the vaccines need to dramatically improve because of the need for more than one vaccination.

The CDC and doctors across the country recommend the double-dose shot as your best chance at protection and society getting back to normal.

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Dec 1

Supreme Court considers federal anti-hacking law

By |2020-12-09T11:49:26-08:00December 1st, 2020|government, judicial, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

The internet became a thing on August 6, 1991.

Every day since users have feared their private information, credit cards and social security number would be stolen.  Since the World Wide Web became publicly available that day in August, many groups and individuals have been hell-bent on getting your information and just like computers have evolved over the years, so has hacking.

Laws, however, have not kept pace with the criminal innovations for computer hacking.

Today, the Supreme Court is hearing one of the final steps in the biggest hacking case to come before the nation’s highest court involving the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), written in the 1980s. The case centers on when an individual “exceeds authorized access” to a computer, as defined by that law.

The CFAA is a piece of legislation instituted in 1986 that internet freedom advocates have described as “the worst law in technology.” The CFAA makes it illegal for computer users to access another computer or exceed authorized access without permission.

The issue with the CFAA is that it’s ambiguous and open to interpretation.  And many argue that because it was written before the internet became what it is today, it is a hollow law.

Today’s case before the court involves Nathan Van Buren, a former Georgia police officer, who was convicted of violating the CFAA by searching police records on behalf of an acquaintance. A Georgia court convicted Van Buren in 2017 after a man paid him $6,000 to search through a law enforcement database on his behalf.

The other man, Andrew Albo, was working undercover for the FBI and told Van Buren he was trying to learn if a local stripper was working as an undercover cop.

Van Buren has argued that, as a police officer, he had permission to search the license plate database.

WarGames

The original intent of the law was in response to concerns that computer-related crimes might go unpunished. The plot twist is that it was a movie that prompted the law in the first place. In the original computer crime bill, it cited the 1983 techno-thriller movie WarGames as “a realistic representation of the automatic dialing and access capabilities of the personal computer.” The movie is about a teenager (played by Matthew Broderick) from Seattle who breaks into a U.S. military supercomputer which was programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war and unwittingly he almost starts World War III.”

At odds with trying to keep our personal information safe is the desire to keep the internet free and open.

A fierce proponent of the open access movement, which promotes free and easy access to the world’s knowledge online, was Aaron Swartz.  He was considered a technological genius who took the “free and open” mantra to the maximum. In mid-July 2011, Swartz tried to ‘liberate’ data from an academic website and he was charged with violating federal hacking laws for downloading millions of academic articles from a subscription database service that MIT had given him access to via a guest account. If convicted, Swartz would have faced up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Before the case went to trial, Swartz hung himself on January 11, 2013.

Free and Open

His death sparked the need to add clarifying language to the CFAA. This resulted in Aaron’s Law, named for the lasting influence of Aaron Swartz. Aaron’s Law was introduced in the United States Congress in 2013 but it did not pass Congress.

Congress has, however, amended the CFAA somewhat regularly, with changes occurring in 1989, 1994, 1996, and 2002. The controversial U.S. Patriot Act greatly impacted the CFAA in 2001, and the 2008 Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act also affected the scope of the CFAA.

In 2015 President Obama proposed expanding the CFAA but met opposition because it could potentially make many regular Internet activities illegal.

Despite the many changes, proponents of the failed Aaron’s Law argued that the CFAA is too vague. Because of the wording of the CFAA, users who violate terms of service can face prison time. Another major error in the CFAA is that because of redundancies, individuals can be tried for the same crime more than once under different provisions. These redundancies enable charges to compound and allow for disproportionately severe penalties for those convicted.

At the Supreme Court hearing on Monday, the court’s nine justices seemed to have a range of views on the CFAA. Some seemed ready to accept the government’s broad reading of the statute, while others worried that doing so could criminalize a lot of innocuous online activity.

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Jul 22

Next Generation Wireless Service Is Coming

By |2020-07-22T09:04:12-08:00July 22nd, 2020|City Clerks, Court hearings, government, judicial, Live Streamng, Local Government, State Government, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

As we now enter the 6th month of quarantine and social distancing, our cell phones have been a lifeline to keep us working, in touch, informed, and provide a level of security. 

For local governments, this has put a strain on their wireless bandwidth as more business is conducted via wireless phones, tablets, and laptops. As city governments adopt a virtual council meeting environment, either in whole or in part, being able to keep connectivity with citizens, has become crucial.

What has quickly become clear is that many local governments are facing how to keep up with the technology demand by going virtual. Smaller local governments do not have the bandwidth necessary to work remotely and provide all the services mandated.

This is highlighted by recent events and political protests that typically overload available capacity on cellular networks.  To add to the stress on cellular towers, sudden peaks in data usage that takes place in disasters and crowed events further causes 3G, 4G, and LTE cellular networks to fail.

Public safety and emergency management are critical functions of the state government. In response to emergency and disaster events, access to reliable communication is vital.  In emergency events, cellular network operators (such as AT&T, Verizon, and more) request, “Customers to use text or email to free up voice capacity for public safety officials on the scene.”

Because current telecommunications networks simply can’t cope with the massive increase in call volume in a disaster or crowded event, first-responders and those in public safety and emergency management must be prepared to use alternative forms of communications.

Simply put, mobile wireless networks become unreliable during and after a disaster or emergency situation. There are several different places where congestion can happen. Networks consist of different technologies, different levels and different mobile switching centers that may cover a large area.

But help may be on the way.

The newest generation in wireless networking is called Fifth generation (5G) wireless technology and it can open the door to transforming and enhancing public services right at the time we need it most.

The fifth generation of wireless networks represents a major boost in both capacity and speed that will help ease the burden on current systems and offer vital improvements to public services. But this technology is both costly and controversial even as states and local governments begin to legislate and regulate around 5G.

It is hard to imagine how a business or government will survive without access to the technology we need to stay connected and informed. Virtual meetings have become essential to keep businesses and governments running. As we look into the future, it is evident that investing in building strong communication networks, in particular 5G, will be as crucial as ever to American safety. Fifth generation wireless technology has the potential to reboot how the U.S. government achieves many of its critical missions.

5G Benefits State and Local Governments

When any city faces an emergency, they must quickly communicate with the public. When you factor in the current virtual environment, more and more devices are consuming more and more data which can strain bandwidth, slow services, and drop connections.

The potential upside to greater capacity and network speed is huge. Surges in cellular network use during emergency events are less likely to slow or prevent vital communications between citizens and first responders. 5G will be the underlying infrastructure to help usher in fully autonomous vehicles, intelligent public safety cameras, and connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices used throughout city infrastructure. Jurisdictions with 5G networks are likely to attract tech-savvy residents and businesses that leverage those connections for new digital business models and reach new customers.

However, none of this happens without the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) streamlining unnecessary regulatory roadblocks to small cell deployment, as well as keeping its vital spectrum auctions on schedule.

AV Capture All provides a platform for local governments and its judicial branch to record and live stream city council meetings and courtroom hearings. Our platform uses a cloud service to store the audio and video files so no bandwidth is used on the government’s server.

AV Capture All is here to ensure the gears of government continue to work and the public is informed.

Contact us today to a Demo.

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Jun 30

Jury Trials Remain on Hold

By |2020-06-30T13:32:46-08:00June 30th, 2020|Court hearings, government, judicial, Live Streamng, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

In most states, Superior and Municipal Courts, and jury trials are planning to slowly begin again over the next couple of months. 

In New Jersey, Superior and Municipal Courts resumed some in-person court services on June 22. A small number of judges and court staff will be working on-site each day. The rest will continue to work remotely to ensure safe distancing can be maintained. And new jury trials and in-person grand jury selection began June 28.

States that are still struggling with COVID-19 have delayed their plans to reopen courts later in the summer. In Texas, State courts have decided to hold off on jury trials until after August 1.

In Massachusetts, courthouses will start to reopen in early July, but jury trials in the state will not resume for at least a few more months. Jury trials for both criminal and civil cases are postponed to at least September 8. Grand juries are also not allowed to be empaneled before that date. Jury trials for both criminal and civil cases are postponed to at least September 8. Grand juries are also not allowed to be empaneled before that date.

As most Americans who work from home know, technology has allowed them to do their job. Our legal system is taking advantage of the same technology.

On June 26th and 27th, the Online Courtroom Project conducted a two-day demonstration trial entirely online to understand the challenges and opportunities of applying technology solutions in the current justice and court system.

With some courts reopening and a surge in new coronavirus cases across the country, public reluctance to show up for jury service is understandable, so different legal groups are trying to find workable solutions.

“We know we are facing unchartered territory and complicated issues, but there are a lot of available resources and practices that point the way to providing solutions to the current justice bottleneck, and even improving practices in the future. As an interdisciplinary group, we plan to bring thoughtful but expedited wisdom to researching and recommending best practices for online hearings and trials.” Richard Gabriel, President, Decision Analysis, Inc., and Founder of Online Courtroom Project.

Attorneys are facing issues about getting their clients a fair trial.

The other major concern is the backlog of untried cases in the criminal justice system, which of course has ballooned during the lockdown. In Connecticut, civil jury trials are backlogged by at least six months. And that delay could prompt attorneys to opt for bench trials, according to James Abrams, the chief administrative judge for civil matters in the Superior Court system.

But Abrams is optimistic about getting back on track, especially if jury trials begin in November.

“We will be able to right the ship within six months,” he said. “There would be a six-month backlog. That is a situation we will be able to manage.”

Attorneys have another point of view. Jamie Sullivan, at Howard Kohn Sprague & FitzGerald, said he favors bench trials in the short-term because “it will move business and will allow cases to be adjudicated.”

But Sullivan said, “Few people realize how important this system of having a jury is to the American democracy. It not only allows the most powerless to render judgment on the most powerful, but it allows citizens from different backgrounds to engage in principled debate and to lose that would be incredibly damaging for democracy.”

In New York City, the virus is putting incredible stress on its judicial system, creating long delays in criminal proceedings and raising growing concerns about the rights of defendants.

Since February, the backlog of pending cases in the city’s criminal courts has risen by nearly a third — to 39,200. Hundreds of jury trials in the city have been put on hold indefinitely. Arraignments, pleas, and evidentiary hearings are being held by video, with little public scrutiny. Prosecutions have dropped off, too, as the authorities have tried to reduce the jail population.

In mid-June, the state courts in New York City took a first small step toward physically reopening: Judges started returning to their chambers, though they are still holding court virtually.

AV Capture – Judicial Solution is used to record the Audio (and Video if desired) of courtroom hearings. The Court Calendar or Docket is synchronized to the recording, with an option to publish public hearings online. If published, the docket is then indexed and becomes immediately searchable, allowing Court staff to save time by directing defendants or other interested parties to the website to view or order their recordings. If not published, court recordings can be easily located, and burned to DVD.

AV Capture is here to ensure the gears of government continue to work and the public is informed.

Contact us today to a Demo.

 

 

 

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Jun 10

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

By |2020-06-10T09:21:01-08:00June 10th, 2020|City Clerks, Court hearings, Industry News, judicial, Live Streamng, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

Whenever a business is faced with a new critical issue that affects their ability to run properly, they quickly adapt and create fixes to address the issue. The same can be said for local governments. When faced with the shutdown because of the ongoing health crisis, local governments had to find ways to keep their city running and citizens’ lives and businesses running.

In Utah, they quickly adapted digital solutions which allowed them to continue vital services, even while impacted and sheltering-in-place themselves. Almost immediately, residents were able to access these much-needed government services which allowed them to keep their business and lives running.

The State of Utah created an eSign solution using Adobe solutions for teleworking. The state touted the value of going 100% paperless and how easy it is to handle high volumes of contracts and other approval processes in a teleworking environment.

This provided a safety measure for staff and citizens. Not only has eSign enabled the State of Utah to effectively respond in the current emergencies, it has also placed them in a better position to ensure efficiency and business continuity in the long term.

Technology and Local Government

In Baltimore, Md, the City Council is planning 50 hours of virtual hearings to address current issues so citizens can stay informed and safe.

In heavily rural states, connectivity became an immediate issue when schools closed. Mississippi is now in a “broadband revolution” as the state Legislature fast-tracked the Mississippi Broadband Enabling Act that passed in 2019.

In Waukesha County, Wisconsin, setting up council meetings to address all the issues could take weeks if not months. The process usually involved setting up a big meeting so that all the review entities can make recommendations without conflicting with each other.

But now, things have changed and some want it to permanent. Developers are sending digital files of all their plans, which are then displayed and reviewed during video conferences. This was designed initially as a workaround, with employees of the suburban Milwaukee region scattered by the coronavirus, but now this more efficient way of holding meetings will become standard.

“We will not go back,” says Dale Shaver, director of parks and land use for Waukesha County. “This has changed the way we work forever.”

Despite governments long resisting remote work, the outcome now has been shown to work well, of course after a few bumps in the road in the beginning. Most feel this might be a permanent change in how they do business — or at least certain types of business. Depending on adoption levels, it might also allow them to save a good amount of money on leased space.

In Kansas, the unexpected circumstances of the pandemic has allowed the state to “dust off our telework policy long term,” says DeAngela Burns-Wallace, secretary of the state Department of Administration. “For those employees who are delivering services effectively remotely, then we want to keep them there.”

The metric to judge the success of these new ways of running government can be tricky to assess. Many managers aren’t sure what metrics to use when people are working remotely. In Philadelphia’s Department of Planning and Development, John Mondlak, deputy director for development services, believes he has a pretty simple way of keeping track. “The goal for me is to make sure it’s all getting done,” he says.

At AV Capture All, we know what challenges local governments face. With AV Capture All meeting management solutions, we make it easy for local Governments to keep constituents informed and engaged. Our Live-Streaming solutions are secure and easy to use and let’s local governments stay engaged with the public during this unprecedented time.

AV Capture– Legislative Solution is used to record Audio and Video while integrating Agendas, Minutes, and Related Documents. The document content is synchronized with the Audio/Video stream, then indexed and immediately searchable when published online. Once published, staff and citizens can view any part of the Audio/Video-on-demand, while following along with the synchronized Agenda, Minutes and Related Documents. Live Streaming is also integrated into the platform to allow staff and citizens who cannot attend the meeting in-person to view online from home.

AV Capture All is here to ensure the gears of government continue to work and the public is informed.

Click here to Contact us TODAY for a Demo.

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May 27

Local Governments Brace for Revenue Shortfall

By |2020-05-27T11:13:42-08:00May 27th, 2020|City Clerks, Court hearings, Industry News, judicial, Live Streamng, Technology Innovations|0 Comments

The US has a wide range of local governments that include cities, counties, townships, towns, villages, boroughs, school districts, public libraries. These entities need financial help, just like all businesses do, to prevent worker furloughs or layoffs.

Local government employees, like many in the country, are concerned about keeping their job. Local governments employ 14.5 million people, including the overwhelming majority of first responders and teachers who are the most needed now to respond to the public health crisis and bring the country out of the economic crisis it now faces.

The jobs and pay of nearly half a million firefighters, 900,000 police officers, 1 million hospital and health care workers, and more than 5 million teachers who work in local governments are on the line if there is no federal fiscal intervention.

The need for federal aid to local governments will also help keep local businesses in business and the public informed. Without federal assistance, local governments will have to reduce the assistance they are providing to constituents to cope with the effects of the pandemic.

Normal government services provided to their citizens, including police and fire protection, health care services, and the educational work of teachers and librarians, will have to be reduced or cut altogether. In terms of a recession that the country is facing, furloughs, layoffs, and spending cuts will reduce consumer spending and exacerbate the recession.

Local governments are providing massive resources and support for coping with the coronavirus crisis, like testing for the virus. Hospitals, health departments, other health providers, first responders, and emergency medical technicians cannot continue without financial support from the federal government.

Because of closures to businesses, parks, and other services, local governments are suffering huge revenue losses. For example, sales tax revenues are dropping as businesses close and consumers stay at home. In a typical year, local governments receive roughly 35% to 40% of revenue through intergovernmental transfers, the vast majority of it coming from state governments that now face budget crises of their own. This will lead to further budgetary shortfalls for localities.

How much will your city be impacted?

Counties with populations between 50,000 and 500,000 will lose more than $30 billion in revenue. Counties with populations under 50,000 could lose about $10 billion in revenue and face another $10 billion of increased expenditures due to the pandemic, requiring a 24% reduction in their budgets.

In a typical year, local governments receive roughly 35% to 40% of revenue through intergovernmental transfers, the vast majority of it coming from state governments that now face budget crises of their own. This will lead to further budgetary shortfalls for localities.

In addition to heightened expenditure needs and falling revenues, local jurisdictions must balance their budgets and are heavily penalized for borrowing for operating expenses. As of now, these governments are faced with only two choices—cut spending or raise taxes. Both of these actions will deepen and lengthen the economic recession, as they did during the last recession.

Based on prior economic downturns, most local jurisdictions are likely to use spending cuts rather than tax increases to balance their budgets—indeed, many local governments already face relatively strict limits on their taxing authority.

Without federal aid now, local governments will be forced to furlough and lay off workers, deepening the recession and cutting back on critical services to constituents, such as police protection. In addition, local governments would be forced to reduce the assistance they provide to constituents and entities within their borders for coping with the effects of the pandemic. These highly undesirable outcomes can be prevented if sufficient federal fiscal relief is provided to local jurisdictions, but the clock is ticking.

At AV Capture All, our goal is to help local governments perform their mandates to keep their constituents informed.  Our affordable meeting management solutions for local government improve efficiency by streamlining the meeting workflow, while promoting transparency and accountability by empowering constituents to access valuable information pertaining to their community. With AV Capture All, government agencies can easily Capture, Manage & Share their meetings online.

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