State & Local Weekly News Wrap-Up

By Timothy Brett posted Nov 18,2011 11:18 AM

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GEORGIA

The town of Norcross, Ga., is looking to the smart grid as a service to upgrade its electric grid and boost energy efficiency, Government Technology reports. The Norcross City Council unanimously voted to join a partnership with Electric Cities of Georgia and General Electric Energy that will employ advanced technologies to give the town access to state-of-the-art tools that will improve management of electric services. According to a news release, the new system will provide "faster response to power outages; access to more energy usage information; pre-payment options to better understand and control energy usage; online access to information such as home energy usage, usage patterns and billing; and automated meter reading." Ga. town chooses smart grid as a service

LOUISIANA

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu is asking the Commerce Department to reconsider rescinding an $80 million federal grant to expand broadband in Louisiana. The grant was revoked last month after federal managers cited prolonged mismanagement of the funds and rejected a new plan proposed by state officials. The original project was to be completed by 2013 in order to fulfill the requirements of the grant. In a letter from the Commerce Department, project auditors noted that the state had not made enough progress to meet the deadline. In an attempt to salvage the project, Senator Landrieu wrote a letter to the Commerce Department noting her own frustration and asked federal officials to look for other ways to fund the project. The Senator is asking for funds to go to specific parishes with the most need. The grant would have originally provided funding for 21 parishes in rural Louisiana. Some cities that were included in the original funding have also taken it upon themselves to apply for funds for their own municipal broadband projects. Landrieu tries to salvage La rural broadband project

WASHINGTON

Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire has appointed former Microsoft executive Bharat Shyam as the state’s Chief Information Officer. Shyam will oversee the state’s IT policy, planning and oversight, in a newly created position within the restructured Office of Financial Management. Shyam takes on the role during a time of major consolidation among state agencies as a response to budget cuts brought on by the revenue crisis. Shyam is credited with reducing “costs of software publishing and servicing, while delivering higher quality and a more agile system” at Microsoft, according to an announcement of his appointment. Gregoire names former Microsoft exec Bharat Shyam new state CIO

WYOMING

Wyoming officials hope to save millions of dollars by creating a new department that will consolidate and streamline its information technology services. A legislative panel has voted to sponsor a bill to create the Department of Enterprise Technology Services. The proposed department would be responsible for the bulk of the state's information technology work. According to The Wyoming Tribune Eagle, the state's Division of Information Technology currently is part of the Department of Administration and Information. State CIO Flint Waters says the state stands to save millions of dollars each year by eliminating IT positions that are performing work that overlaps with what is already being done. Proposed Dept of Enterprise Technology Services would consolidate Wyoming IT services

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