Developing Accurate Long-Range Forecasts for Fiscal Stability and Capital Planning

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Russ McIntosh makes the case for long-range financial forecasting in the December issue of The Authority, a publication of the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association. Russ advises authorities to move beyond single-year budgeting toward multi-year financial planning in order to support data-driven decisions, better communication, and fiscal stability. He also gives practical advice for making more accurate forecasts of revenue and expenditures and then using those forecasts to estimate cash flow for long-term capital improvement planning.  You can read the full article on the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association website.

WEBINAR: Essential Strategies for Local Government Cybersecurity

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Our chief innovation and technology officer Mike Smetana provides discusses essential strategies that local governments can use to protect themselves from cyberattacks, in this webinar hosted by the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Commissioners (PSATC).

He says the 4 pillars of a good cybersecurity framework are:

  1. Governance (Leadership clearly defines and enforces roles and responsibilities, allocates the proper resources, and treats cybersecurity as a core part of operations.)
  2. Technology (the tools you use to detect, defend, and recover from cyberattacks)
  3. People (training, awareness, and accountability for your team and vendors)
  4. Process (defining and practicing procedures for incident response, data recovery, etc.)

 

You can learn more about these pillars and view the entire webinar below:

 

The video is divided into chapters:

0:00 – Introductions and examples of local government cyberattacks

7:49 – Most common cybersecurity threats facing local governments

10:02 – 4 pillars of a cybersecurity framework for local governments

12:42 – Cybersecurity governance

15:09 – Cybersecurity tools for local governments

18:27 – Cybersecurity training and protocols for local government staff and vendors

21:43 – Cybersecurity processes for local governments (incident response, business continuity, and recovery)

25:03 – Assessing your local government’s current level of cybersecurity readiness

28:13 – Leveraging partners to increase cybersecurity

31:57 – 90-day plan and quick wins to enhance local government cybersecurity

 

Learn more about the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Commissioners (PSATC) at firstclasstownshippa.org

Free and Low-Cost Cybersecurity Services for Local Governments

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HRG’s chief innovation and technology officer Mike Smetana discusses free and low-cost cybersecurity services available to local governments.  He focuses on the offerings of:

  • CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • CIS, the Center for Internet Security, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping organizations protect against cyberthreats
  • MS-ISAC, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a collaboration between CISA and CISA designed to serve as the central cybersecurity resource for the nation’s State, Local, Territorial, Tribal (SLTT) governments

The webinar is divided into chapters:

0:00 – Introductions

4:37 – Real-world Attacks on Local Governments

9:23 – MS-ISAC Services

24:08 – CIS Services

35:34 – CISA Services

It was hosted by the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Commissioners (PSATC).

Act 43: What Water & Sewer Systems Need to Know about the Impact on Multi-Family Billings

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An amendment to the Pennsylvania Municipality Authorities Act allows the owner of a multi-family dwelling to request a billing adjustment every five years if the amount billed exceeds the usage by 30% or more.  This could have wide-ranging impacts for water and sewer authorities that serve multi-family dwellings.  Our vice president Russ McIntosh discusses all of the implications in two articles in The Authority, a magazine published by the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association.  The first article analyzes the language of  Act 43 line-by-line to advise authorities on how to comply. (Link opens in new tab.) The second article answers some frequently asked questions about Act 43 such as:

Is Act 43 retroactive?

Does act 43 affect the way I calculate tapping fees?

For larger garden apartment communities, should each building’s water meter be considered individually or combined with other buildings in the same community?

Act 43 requires authorities to compare metered water consumption with “actual usage” billed. How do you make this comparison if you bill on a flat rate?

Visit the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association website at the links above to read these articles, and reach out to us with any questions you may have.

Bumble Bee Hollow Residential Development

WEBINAR: How to Cut Stormwater Costs with Partnerships & Collaboration

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Communities report increased flooding in recent years – even outside the flood zone.
Aging infrastructure is at or near the end of its useful life, and signs of failure are appearing.
Regulatory agencies are requiring communities to do more to manage stormwater, but additional funding is not being provided.

These are big problems, and most communities can’t solve them alone. Collaboration is the key to keeping the cost of stormwater improvements manageable, and this webinar will show you how to make collaboration work for your community.

Our financial services practice area leader Adrienne Vicari joined Jim Cosgrove of Kleinfelder, Inc. and the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters to discuss the benefits of collaboration and offer tips communities can use to form effective partnerships. She identifies specific entities for partnership (including other municipalities, state and federal agencies, property owners, and a variety of non-profit organizations) and shows real world examples of how partnerships are saving municipalities millions of dollars on stormwater management and MS4 compliance.

Watch this free webinar below and contact Adrienne Vicari to discuss partnership opportunities for your community.

 

How Recreational Partnerships Deliver More Value for Local Communities

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Bridge Management Systems: Safer Bridges with a Longer Lifespan at a Reduced Cost

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