Public Policy Commons^™

The Politic 2007 Summer, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

P.A. In The Era Of Competitive Sourcing: Quality, Qualitatively, M. Ernita Joaquin

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Among President George W. Bush's management initiatives, competitive sourcing was the most complex, most challenging, and most politicized, admitted Angela Styles, chief of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in 2002.

Styles had left OMB when I started my research but behind her the battle raged on how to subject thousands of federal commercial jobs for public private competition under the rules of Circular A-76 and according to performance criteria set by the OMB Scorecard.

In competitive sourcing, if contractors can perform the job more efficiently than the govemment team, the work is outsourced and the …

The Voting Rights Act And The Election Of Nonwhite Officials, Pei-Te Lien, Dianne M. Pinderhughes, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Christine M. Sierra

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Voting Rights Act (VRA) is one of the most important—if not the most important—public policies developed over the last half century to increase access to the U.S. political system for people of color. The VRA also provides an important context for understanding the ascension of nonwhite groups into the elected leadership of the nation (Browning, Marshall, and Tabb 1984; Davidson and Grofman 1994; Menifield 2001; Mc-Clain and Stewart 2002; Segura and Bowler 2005; Bositis 2006). This essay assesses the present-day significance of the VRA for the political representation of communities of color by examining the implications of majority-minority districts and …

A Seat At The Table? Racial/Ethnic & Gender Diversity On Corporate, Hospital, Education, Cultural & State Boards, Carol Hardy-Fanta Phd, Donna Stewartson

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

As part of its larger Diversity Initiative, the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at UMass Boston has undertaken a number of projects. The first was a public opinion survey conducted around the time of the November 2006 elections. The report, Transformation and Taking Stock: A Summary of Selected Findings from the McCormack Graduate School Diversity Survey, included a comprehensive look at race relations in the Commonwealth at a time of significant transition—demographically and politically. This report was followed by A Benchmark Report on Diversity in State and Local Government, which focused on the percentage of positions filled …

The Politic 2007 Spring, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Taking The Time To Rebuild Trust In Government, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The author reflects on the importance of trust. She stated that trust is more significant than ever to public managers as trust in the government ebbs. It is important to public managers because it directly impacts the speed and cost of getting things done. Moreover, she considers command and control management and downsizing and reengineering as threats to any trust infrastructure.

A Benchmark Report On Diversity In State And Local Government, Carol Hardy-Fanta Phd

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The Pipeline to Public Service Initiative asked the McCormack Graduate School’s Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston to ascertain the racial diversity in state and local government. The project had the following three goals:

--To identify the race (and gender) of those holding top-level positions filled through gubernatorial appointments, e.g., secretaries, commissioners, directors, deputy commissioners/directors, and undersecretaries, in the Commonwealth’s executive offices and major departments.

--To compile the same information for members of the most influential boards and commissions in the Commonwealth filled through gubernatorial appointments.

--To assess the diversity of elected …

The Politic 2007 Winter, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

A Heuristic Study Of The Decision To Privatize Local Government Service, David L. Rich

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of local government decision making. Six Michigan cities, selected from respondents to an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) privatization survey, are the basis of this multi-case study examining the decision to privatize public services.

Classical decision-making theory is used to identify six foundational elements from which to analyze the privatization decision: (1) identification of theproblem(s) that triggered the decision to consider privatization; (2) the solutions considered; (3) the processes or mechanisms used to make the decision; (4)the environment in which the decision was made; (5) the identification of the key …

Minority Women In The Healthcare Workforce In New England, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Erika Kates, Helen Levine, Kate Peery-Wolf

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Research on health disparities affecting people of color typically focuses on their health status, health treatment and health outcomes with a particular emphasis on the relatively high rates of morbidity and mortality from selected diseases for ethnic and racial minority groups. This fact sheet offers a different but related focus on gender and race/ethnicity in the health care workforce. Our rationale is that the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce concluded that the lack of minority doctors, nurses and dentists is a significant cause of racial/ethnic health disparities and that the ability to recruit, train and retain minority …

The Politic 2006 Summer, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Transportation Collaboration In The States, National Policy Consensus Center

National Policy Consensus Center Publications

Initiated in the summer of 2005 under contract to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), this project focused on the use of collaborative practices to address a range of transportation planning and development issues.

The project had four primary objectives:

• develop increased awareness among state officials of opportunities for the use of collaborative processes and collaborative governance systems in the transportation arena;
• identify one or more transportation collaboration opportunity in at least two states;
• identify collaborative training opportunities;
• develop and test a detailed assessment tool for use in identifying and designing transportation collaborations.

This project was conducted by the National Policy …

The Politic 2006 Spring, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Conceptualizing And Measuring White House Staff Influence On Presidential Rhetoric, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

Selected Works Temporary Series

Scholars have debated extensively the impact of presidential rhetoric on public opinion and congressional behavior, but have largely ignored the determinants of what the president actually says. This inattention is partly the result of the difficulty of acquiring systematic observations of presidential speech crafting. We devise a method of quantifying White House staff influence over the composition of rhetoric that captures the multistage negotiations between the president's speechwriters and his policy advisors and provides a framework for future studies on the determinants of presidential rhetoric. We employ our method to study influence over the writing of President George H. W. …

United States Senate Catalogue Of Graphic Art, Diane K. Skvarla, Donald A. Ritchie, Office Of The Senate Curator, William H. Frist, Harry Reid, Emily J. Reynolds

United States Senate Documents

This volume is the first comprehensive publication of the almost one thousand prints in the holdings of the United States Senate. The collection represents a 30-year effort to document graphically the 19th and early 20th century history of the Senate, the Capitol, and American political history. The diverse illustrations range from inauguration ceremonies and impeachment trials to senatorial portraits and political cartoons. Represented in the Senate's graphic art collection are some of the most notable artists who worked in the printmaking medium: Augustus Kallner, Rembrandt Peale, Alexander Hay Ritchie, Thomas Nast, and Joseph Keppler. While visually engaging, these prints also …

Conceptualizing And Measuring White House Staff Influence On Presidential Rhetoric, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

Departmental Papers (PS)

Scholars have debated extensively the impact of presidential rhetoric on public opinion and congressional behavior, but have largely ignored the determinants of what the president actually says. This inattention is partly the result of the difficulty of acquiring systematic observations of presidential speech crafting. We devise a method of quantifying White House staff influence over the composition of rhetoric that captures the multistage negotiations between the president's speechwriters and his policy advisors and provides a framework for future studies on the determinants of presidential rhetoric. We employ our method to study influence over the writing of President George H. W. …

Uncertainty, Climate Change And Nuclear Power, David M. Hassenzahl

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Long time-horizon environmental risks with potential for global impacts have increased in visibility over the past several decades. Such issues as climate change, the nuclear fuel cycle, persistent synthetic chemicals, and stratospheric ozone depletion share some characteristics, including intergenerational impacts, strongly decoupled incidence of risks and benefits, substantial decision stakes and extreme uncertainty. What is not well understood are the similarities and differences among sources and implications of uncertainty among these global environmental threats, especially those associate with current and future human behavior. This describes the uncertainties associated with managing two global concerns: the nuclear (fission) fuel cycle and anthropogenic …

Benefits For All: The Economic Impact Of The New Jersey Child Care Industry • Infant/Toddler, Preschool And Out-Of-School Time Programs, Brentt Brown, Saskia Traill Ph.D., Caroline Purnell Tompkins, The New Jersey Child Care Economic Impact Council, The John S. Watson Institute For Public Policy Of Thomas Edison State College

Center for the Positive Development of Urban Children

The child care industry includes infant/toddler care and education, preschool and out-of-school time care and education programs in for-profit, nonprofit and public settings that educate and nurture children’s development and enable their parents to work and update their skills. This report examines the economic impact of New Jersey’s child care industry and presents a complete picture of its gross receipts, number of employees and how the industry provides benefits for all. The child care industry is integral to family and economic life of New Jersey residents:

1. Child care and education programs with quality learning environments support New Jersey’s future …

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The Politic 2005 Fall, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

The Politic 2005 Summer, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Public Safety Communications Center Staffing: Do We Have An Emergency?, Steven L. Herrin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The 911 Public Safety Communications Specialist, operator, call taker, dispatcher, or whatever title these behind-the-scenes professionals operate under, they are indeed, the first public safety responder. Whether it is for police protection during criminal activity, fire extinguishment to save a burning house and rescue the victims, or paramedic treatment to remediate a life-threatening medical incident, the first contact the vast majority of these callers will have is with the 911 System.

Dr. Jeff Clawson, president of the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, and creator of the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) first coined the term “first, first responder”1 to describe …

“As Tough As It Gets”: Women In Boston Politics, 1921-2004, Kristen A. Petersen, Carol Hardy-Fanta Phd, Karla Armenoff

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This study seeks to answer the question: Given the wealth of talent and resources women possess—and the state offers—why is it so tough for women to gain representation in Boston City Hall? To answer this question, and to document the efforts women have made over almost 100 years, we examine the history of women who have run for and won—or lost—election to the Boston City Council in the 20th century. How does the structure and culture of a given urban political arena (i.e., “Boston politics”) affect women’s opportunities as elected officials? What is women’s political culture and how has it …

The Politic 2005 Spring, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Identifying Robust, Parsimonious Neighborhood Indicators, George Galster, Chris Hayes, Jennifer Johnson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Identifying a few indicators that summarily tracked key dimensions of neighborhoods would be invaluable for neighborhood monitoring and measuring impacts of interventions. Our goal is to search empirically for such robust, parsimonious indicators. In five cities we analyze the interrelationships among a broad set of census tract indicators related to: mortgage market activity; home prices; jobs and firms; demographic, socio-economic, and housing stock characteristics; crime; and public assistance and health. Through factor analysis we identify four to six neighborhood dimensions among these indicators that are common across cities. Using regression we identify a parsimonious number of indicators that are inexpensive, …

Hiv/Aids Among Women Of Color In Massachusetts, Erika Kates, Helen Levine, Lakay Cornell

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

According to a recent report on the status of women in Massachusetts, the Commonwealth has an “extraordinarily high” incidence of women of color with HIV/AIDS. Over 4,200 women are infected and women of color account for a disproportionately high number of these cases.

The Politic 2004 Fall, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

The Politic 2004 Summer, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

The Fight For Political Representation In A Southern Suburb: The Use Of The Voting Rights Act And The Federal Court System By Black Plaintiffs In Henrico County, Virginia, Thomas J. Shields

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

There has been an abundance of written work on the historic fight for black political equality in southern urban areas. However, almost no scholarly work exists on the fight for black political equality in the rapidly expanding southern suburbs. This article analyzes the rise of the black population and its fight for political representation on the local governing board in Henrico County, a large suburb of Richmond, Virginia. The article details the increase in the black population in Henrico County from 1950 to 2000 and provides a descriptive analysis how black plaintiffs used the Voting Rights Act in a redistricting …

A Comparative Study Of Factors Related To Adoption, Management, And Impact Of Police Consolidation And Amalgamation In Norfolk, County, England, And Kent And Ottawa Counties, Michigan, United States, Terry Lee Fisk

Dissertations

The evolution of law enforcement in the United States has created a circumstance where thousands of smaller communities are served by a police agency, some of which may not have the capability or resources to provide adequate police service. Many of these are agencies operate within a geographical area where they are joined by common boundaries, yet each operates as an autonomous police force. One possible solution to this quandary is to consolidate those existing agencies experiencing difficulties in the provision of police services into single, larger departments with combined resources.

The purpose of this research was to determine what …

The Politic 2004 Spring, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.