Putting City Hall in Your Smart Phone

Tyler Podcast Episode 7, Transcript

Our Tyler Technologies podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Host and Content Marketing Director Jeff Harrell – and other guest hosts – highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give us listen today and subscribe.

Episode Summary

TJ Sokoll realized connecting with his local government was difficult, so he did something about it. Hear how communities around the country are doing the same.

Transcript

T.J. Sokoll: The vision from day one was really a hub where they could come and connect to all the city services that were out there. And really our goal with it is to put City Hall in citizen's hands, their pockets, their purses, whatever it is. 

It lets them get connected to the latest news. How can I report a code enforcement issue in my neighborhood? How can I find out local information about street fairs, farmers markets? We really just want to make it a one-stop shop for connecting with your local government.

Jeff Harrell: From Tyler Technologies, it's the Tyler Tech podcast where we explore issues facing communities today and do so in a way that's both interesting and entertaining. I'm your host, Jeff Harrell, and my promise to you is to help break through the clutter and provide great information in a format that's super easy to consume.

The problem we are exploring today is one communities have been grappling with for some time. How do they better connect with their constituents? The pandemic has certainly intensified the problem because now we're forced to do things virtually. Communication from government to citizens about things like reopening policies and mass requirements become increasingly important.

So we thought it would be helpful to bring in one of our internal experts, T.J. Sokoll. T.J. is a vice president of product strategy at Tyler Technologies and actually founded a product called My Civic to address the very problem we are exploring today. I think you'll find this episode very enlightening. Here's my interview with T.J. Sokoll.

When you created My Civic, what was the problem in the market that you guys were trying to solve?

T.J. Sokoll: Really, my friends led me to the problem in the market. I was out with a group of friends and we were having some dinner and drinks, and politics seemed to be a reoccurring part of our conversation and got more heated as the night went on. A lot of complaints, really more at the highest level, governors, presidents, things like that.

At a certain point I just stopped and said, Hey, how many of you can name two of your City Council members right now in your local cities? Everybody  looked back at me, blank stares. How many people have volunteered locally? Same kind of thing. And at this point it's really just more of a joke, make everybody realize that we have no idea what's even going on in our backyard, but we're going to sit here and give advice on what's going on throughout the world and in the United States.

I had already, at that point, been a mobile app developer for a few years, and I built a few SaaS platforms for businesses and musicians and artists to connect with their communities. So I understood a lot of the power that came with the cell phone.

Now, keep in mind, this conversation was in September, October of 2010. So we're talking maybe 20% adoption of smartphones. So for us to talk about this right now, it's like, oh, no brainer. Back then, most people didn't have an iPhone. Android was just making a splash on the market, but I knew these phones that we had in our hands could take pictures. They could geo-locate where I was at. I knew there was the ability for two-way communication.

So when I left that night, had this idea in my head and was like, wow, I was actually personally guilty of a lot of those things that I brought up in the conversation. We really want to make change in the world. It's not going to happen talking at the highest level. Change happens at the local level.

And if we don't know what's going on with our local government, if we're not the ones out there reporting the issues and being part of the solution in our communities, if we don't know what initiatives are even happening in our communities, how can we be a part of that change?

So those are the things that we really, well, I felt that we needed to connect on and that we were lacking. So from that meeting, I went and talked to some people. I had a friend who was assistant city manager of Diamond Bar, California at the time, pitched him on the idea. And he said, "Look, I see the value. I think it could work. We have no budget and we can't pay for it or have very little for it, but if you want me to give it a shot, I will."

So with that, I said, that was worth trying, and that's really what brought me to V1 of what has become My Civic.

What is "My Civic?"

Jeff Harrell: And tell us a little bit about My Civic. What does it do? How does it solve or how does it connect people?

T.J. Sokoll: My Civic is a civic engagement tool essentially that helps local government connect with their citizens. It's a mobile app available on iPhone and Android. And really our goal with it is to put City Hall in citizen's hands, their pockets, their purses, whatever it is. It lets them get connected to the latest news. How could I report a code enforcement issue in my neighborhood? How can I find out local information about street fairs, farmers markets? We really just want to make it a one-stop shop for connecting with your local government.

On the government side, the benefits is they're making big investments in technology and how do they maximize those investments? How do they leverage the community that's out there where they can crowdsource information like the code enforcement issue? If I'm a communications director, how do I get more people at the events that I'm promoting? Really just the vision from day one was really a hub where they could come and connect to all the city services that were out there.

Jeff Harrell: And we're having this conversation really right in the middle of this pandemic, which it really affected everybody in some way. You work with a lot of communities. How has it affected those communities?

T.J. Sokoll: Yeah. It's undeniably affected the communities. I know from the city side of things, one of the biggest things that I've heard is the number of calls that are coming into cities now. And the questions that they're having to answer. We've instructed many cities on how to set up a COVID button in their app. We've built out FAQ board, City Hall hours have changed, so we're posting that. Street sweeping rules have changed. Obviously a lot of business restriction has changed a lot, a lot of things like that.

Big challenge for the cities and the people I'm talking to is the misinformation that gets out there. It's so easy for things to go "viral" on social media these days. And sometimes the misinformation gets out there. But right now I don't think there's ever been such a high demand to really understand what's happening in my own backyard.

We can turn on the news and it can say 1.5 million people have this, and 1.5 million people have these many cases in the United States. I think people really want to know how many in my county, how many are in my city, how many are really affecting me locally? What are the rules for small businesses in my community? What can be open? What can't? Do I have to wear a mask? Do I not have to wear a mask?

So I think of them making sure that they get the information out there, the correct information out there has been a big challenge as well.

From the staff side, alot of them are working remotely now. So this is a eye-opening experience. They're seeing where there might be deficiencies in some of the software they have in the processes while they're trying to use it remotely. And they're facing new issues that they've never faced before. So it's definitely challenging for everyone.

Using Technology Creatively

Jeff Harrell: And we're living in the midst of social distancing. What creative ways have you seen communities use technology or just creativity to better connect with their citizens?

T.J. Sokoll: Well, when you talk about creative ways to connect with citizens, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in Canada comes to mind. They just actually recently ran a contest through their app where their citizens, residents would go ahead and snap pictures of ways that they're trying to get through COVID. What are they doing to pass the time? How are they dealing with social distancing and all those types of things?

Those pictures are then posted on social media and  shared out, and it's just a really positive way to engage with your community on a happier note, especially when everybody's stressed out right now with what's going on.

It was also a great way to drive adoption to their app. They're out there saying, "Hey, go to the app, take a picture. There's a button on the home screen." Once that comes across, it's going out to the social media channels getting shared out. So it's getting hit on multiple levels. And I think last time that I checked, they had something like 60-plus submissions to that contest that they ran.

Jeff Harrell: You work with a lot of communities around the country. Any other stories that you've heard of, ways that these different communities have connected with citizens during this time?

T.J. Sokoll: Yeah, think there's a number of stories we're sharing. Kerrville, Texas is one that comes to mind. They're utilizing our My Civic mobile app. They have a COVID-19 response hub button in the app, and it really drives people to information that is very localized. Again, it's talking more about how many cases do they have in the county? What are the rules there? They've made it very easy access point to get to that information.

We've had other cities that are using our product. Addison, Illinois comes to mind. One of the big questions out there is what restaurants are open right now? Where do they have curbside takeout or pickup? Addison actually added a directory to their app, listing the businesses that are still open and serving food, and you can either look for curbside takeout or pickup, et cetera.

We're starting to have conversations about how governments are going to be reopening as well. There are parts of the country where City Hall still might be closed. And what does reopening City Hall look like? How can we leverage a tool like a mobile app to help in that process?

I talk with Moreno Valley, California, and they had a concern is what do lines look like in City Hall now? When people come into ask questions, go to the permit counter, how are they going to manage that? Can the app be used as a querying mechanism where they check in and lets them know when they can come inside. People might be able to wait in their cars outside in like a more social distanced atmosphere, and then it lets them know when they're going to come into the building.

So I think we've seen a lot of our clients out there become really creative on ways to use it. I think it's opened up their minds to ways that the software can be used even beyond what we initially had thought of.

Jeff Harrell: And I know a lot of people have figured out how to leverage technology to stay connected. We're using a GoToMeeting right now to do this interview. Do you think there's going to be technology that we've had to use or leverage during the pandemic that will carry over as we start to get back to whatever this new normal will be, that technology will live on, or some of these examples of ways to leverage technology will live on?

T.J. Sokoll: I think this has been a problem even before COVID, is citizens communicating with local government and what we're all calling now citizen engagement. I think this has just been able to polarize it. This event because it is something we're all feeling as a nation, albeit individually in our own separate communities, I think again, we're going to see those tools that were used successfully. They're going to continue to grow and mature and cities are going to re-evaluate their processes and make sure that they're meeting the needs of their citizens.

I think the citizens themselves are demanding to have more voice. And again, I just think this has been an opportunity for them to find the channels for that to happen, and it's really dependent upon where we go from here.

There's some interesting technology on the forefront that might help us evolve in the technology space a little bit more. I think conversational chat bots on websites are going to replace the way we engage with city websites in the future. I'm confident that this is probably going to increase the adoption of emergency and non-emergency notification systems that cities are using, whether people are consuming that from push notifications in app, SMS messages, emails, making sure that we're opting in for information that's important to us.

And not just COVID-type related information. It might be about a council meeting or a sign-up at Parks and Rec, or whatever it is. I think overall you're going to see a lot more adoption in these types of tools, so people can live in the instant gratification world where they're getting information pushed to them in real time.

Catching Communities Up With Technology

Jeff Harrell: For those communities who feel like maybe they are a little bit behind, their technology could be outdated, what are some maybe simple steps that they can do to catch up or start to learn about ways to catch up towards more advanced technology?

T.J. Sokoll: Yeah, I think most definitely we're going to see a big leap in adoption in the public sector, citizen portals, online bill payments, permitting and licensing online software. I think those tools are being leveraged now more than ever.

There's a lot of cities out there that were at various stages of adopting some of these newer technologies, but this is really forcing them to maximize it. Something like COVID's a great opportunity for them to really understand the efficiencies that these software can bring beyond an event like this.

And I think you've got cities that haven't adopted this new technology, it's been a great learning experience for them. They're going to be able to leverage the experience from those cities that are already have brought on new technology, new systems. They're going to be able to make really 

thoughtful, mature decisions on the new technology that they want to move forward with. They're going to learn about the efficiencies that some of these services out there have created and not have to write it themselves. They're going to be able to leverage what's already being done.

Reality is everybody, even the cities that are using it that would be deemed more prepared, have to take a step back and really evaluate their tech stacks currently and their processes, the way that they're handling things. I don't know if this is necessarily yet the new normal, but it is a reality now. It is happening. It is something that we're having to deal with. So the importance of a strong digital infrastructure that allows cities to run virtually has never been more paramount.

And we're seeing that it needed to happen, and there were some people that were prepared for it that already have online and mobile payments that have 3-1-1 systems, that have citizen portals, where they can access permitting and licensing information and pay business licenses, as well as clear channels of communication, not just a website, but they've got mobile apps and they can send out push notifications. They've got non-emergency and emergency notification systems. They're leveraging Facebook and other social media outlets to get their stories out there.

I think it's a great opportunity for cities who might not have been prepared to see what was successful out there or what worked, and make some thoughtful decisions from there.

Jeff Harrell:

I'll be back with my conversation with T.J. Sokoll in just a moment.

Did you know you can find hundreds of success stories on the Tyler Tech website? Go to tylertech.com and click on resources at the top of the page. You can then filter on success stories and search on many different topics, like how Temecula California leverages My Civic to increase community engagement. I think you'll find many of the stories there very helpful. Now, back to my conversation with T.J. Sokoll.

We kicked off this podcast with a four part series on the generations and certainly the Boomers' expectations of government. They like to get up and go walk down and talk to somebody or pick up the phone. Whereas Gen Z, they're super comfortable with technology, in fact, they want it on their mobile device or through social media.

Have you seen some of the challenges during this pandemic of being able to communicate to some of these generations and some of the generational differences that we see?

T.J. Sokoll: Well, one of the good things is we're not back when I started at a 20% adoption rate anymore. We're more at like 72 or a bit higher than that.

Jeff Harrell: Yeah. 

T.J. Sokoll: So people are definitely more familiar with these types of products. There's always going to be difficulties trying to reach everyone. When we get into the older generations, we see that they usually like to access our product from a tablet over a mobile phone. They seem to like the bigger screen.

Our biggest obstacle really is how well the cities are promoting the services and how well they're making their citizens aware of it. If we're solely dependent upon a citizen going and searching to see if their city has a mobile app, that's where our big challenge is going to be reaching the market.

But we do have some cities out there that have done a great job with promoting the app. They get anywhere between 20-and-30% adoption in the mobile app and really are getting their message out there.

The younger generation doesn't seem to be a problem. This is the way they communicate. They do everything from their phone. I don't think some of them have ever seen the inside of a bank. They've only banked from their phone.

Jeff Harrell: Right. They're missing out on the lollipops.

T.J. Sokoll: As a kid, I never would've thought banking was such a personal experience, and now that's being done over our phone. So it's definitely an ongoing challenge, but the lines are getting blurred and it's starting to really all come together more.

This again, I think is going to be another opportunity for a leap. And instead of it being how does technology evolve? It's really more, how does it mature? I would liken this to you look at Facebook in 2008, maybe a hundred million users. You look at them in 2012, a billion users.

We are at that bubbling point where now people are aware that a lot of these services are out there because they've had to use them. A lot of this stuff is almost like we have insurance. We don't realize how good our insurance is until we have to use it. Well, there's been a lot of investments made in technology that now cities are having to use and citizens are going and having to use. And now they're realizing how valuable those items really are.

Accessing More Information

Jeff Harrell: There's a lot of government leaders listening to this, if they want to learn more, maybe see what their peers are doing, success stories, any places that you could direct them where they could get more information?

T.J. Sokoll: Yeah. There's a lot of great content on the Tyler Tech Resource Center. You could find that at tylertech.com.

Tyler community is also a great place to go and learn about our products and really not just learn about what's out there, but how people are getting the most out of them. I think that's the most important thing.

I know there's a lot of message boards out there that local governments talk on. I've had great success going to League of Cities events, and really participating, not only seeing what vendors are there and what technologies available, listening to the stories of what cities are doing and what's working for them.

GovTech is always putting out a lot of really interesting information. And over the last couple of years, I really started to learn a lot from LinkedIn. There's a lot of good articles in my LinkedIn feed based on people that I've connected with over time.

Jeff Harrell: You mentioned earlier that you feel like there's going to be a leap from where you are now to adopting technology for a lot of these communities. How do you see that evolving even beyond COVID? You said we've got to got this larger platform of people that have mobile phones and mobile devices and smart phones. Where do you see the future going?

T.J. Sokoll: I think this has been a problem even before COVID, is citizens communicating with local government and what we're all calling now citizen engagement. I think this has just been able to polarize it. This event because it is something we're all feeling as a nation, albeit individually in our own separate communities, I think again, we're going to see those tools that were used successfully. They're going to continue to grow and mature and cities are going to re-evaluate their processes and make sure that they're meeting the needs of their citizens.

I think the citizens themselves are  demanding to have more voice. And again, I just think this has been an opportunity for them to find the channels for that to happen, and it's really dependent upon where we go from here.

There's some interesting technology on the forefront that might help us evolve in the technology space a little bit more. I think conversational chat bots on websites are going to replace the way we engage with city websites in the future. I'm confident that this is probably going to increase the adoption of emergency and non-emergency notification systems that cities are using. Whether people are consuming that from push notifications in app, SMS messages, emails, making sure that we're opting in for information that's important to us.

And not just COVID-type related information, it might be about a council meeting or a sign up at Parks and Rec, or whatever it is. I think overall you're going to see a lot more adoption in these types of tools so people can live in the instant gratification world where they're getting information pushed to them in real time.

Jeff Harrell: I mentioned that research we did previously, we saw all four generations want more engagement with their government. So I think you're 100 percent right, and giving them that avenue and that way to do that effectively and efficiently, I think is very important.

T.J. Sokoll: Honestly, the toughest problem local government in my opinion has, is though they're making great decisions on the technology side, a lot of times, it's the marketing and making people aware that these tools are available. And it's one of the nice side effects I guess we're going to have from COVID is that a lot of these tools that lived on a city's website that no one ever went and looked for are, are now having to be used. And we're going to see adoption of those tools beyond just this event.

Jeff Harrell: Do you have any examples of cities who have marketed it well?

T.J. Sokoll: Santa Ana, California is one that I see regularly weaving into their social media story of the app. They've done a good job of continuing to promote it and the benefits it has beyond just the big blowout at the opening when something launches.

Reality is people don't realize they need a tool until they need it, until they've already needed to use that tool. A lot of the times we find that the continual push out to the public is so important. I didn't see graffiti. I didn't have a code enforcement issue in my neighborhood. I didn't have a question about a community event that was coming up. And then the next week I do, and I remember, hey, there was that mobile app that I saw on the social media page that I saw the yard sign on or whatever it is, and I go, and I get it.

I definitely say Santa Ana, California is one that's done a great job promoting it. There's quite a few out there, especially with COVID lately that have done a really good job of reintroducing the app and everything you can do for their local community.

Jeff Harrell: If people want to connect with you, what's the best way that they can do that?

T.J. Sokoll: I'd say email is probably the easiest. My email is tj.sokoll@tylertech.com.

Jeff Harrell: This is great. Hey T.J., thank you so much.

Well, I love stories of innovation, especially when used to solve really important problems. Hearing the different stories about how communities are implementing technology is inspiring and I hope it was for you as well.

Thanks as always for joining me. I appreciate you listening and would love your feedback. You can email me directly at podcast@tylertech.com. Of course please subscribe, leave us a review, and until next time I'm Jeff Harrell, director of content marketing for Tyler Technologies. We'll talk to you soon.