A REPORT TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FOREIGN OPERATIONS AND GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SUBCOMMITTEE THE CHARLOTTE IMIS PROJECT The City of Charlotte, North Carolina The University of North Carolina System Development Corporation April, 1973 1. BACKGROUND During the 1960's, recognizing its increasing need for collecting, storing, and retrieving data, the City of Charlotte took its first step in the use of electronic data processing equipment. A Unit Record System was installed in 1962 to handle the Water Department billing and receivables, a manual task which had been unwieldy and difficult to manage for a long time. A basic payroll and accounting system was added in early 1963. The requirements for machine time and the volumes of data processed exhausted the capabilities of the Unit Record System by 1965. The new computer, a second-generation computer, provided computerized handling of the Police Department's workload, and increased potential for the development of more complex processing procedures. It also permitted upgrading the payroll procedure to a personnel record and reporting system. With each change of equipment, previous applications were expanded and new ones added. Impressed by the aid that the computers gave City employees, the City's Technical Coordinating Committee encouraged the incorporation of all possible applications and programs into an information system that could be continuously updated and which would begin by serving transportation planning needs. In 1966, the development of a modular Urban Information System was begun to support operational, planning and management functions. By February of 1967, the City had again outgrown its computer and a more powerful third-generation computer system was installed, thereby expanding existing processing procedures. At this time, the City recognized a need for expert advice from a principal information system consultant to enable Charlotte to get the maximum usage from its computers. System Development Corporation, a firm with extensive urban system development experience, was selected. In 1968, the City replaced the existing system with a still more powerful system. By 1969, with almost all City departments taking advantage of computer capabilities, an RCA system (now maintained by UNIVAC) was installed and in 1970, a companion system. This pair of systems became the backbone of the IMIS, permitting telecommunications, previously used only by the Water Department, to be shared by the Police and Motor Transport Departments. Account status information could now be automatically retrieved and presented from locations other than the computer room. Although the Finance, Water, and Police Departments were the major users of this system, it also served Traffic Engineering, Building Inspection, Engineering, and Planning. While these significant advances in the use of computer procedures and equipment were being made, Charlotte's growing population demanded more and better services. Manpower needs were increasing. It was also a time of financial crisis because funds were limited. In addition to performing basic police, fire and public works services activities, the City of Charlotte also provided other services such as: providing accommodations for sewage and solid waste disposal, air and water pollution control, traffic engineering, building code enforcement, zoning, and kindred activities. The costs of providing these urban services rose 135 percent in the sixties. Charlotte faced a dilemma common to many municipalities. How could municipal services be improved? How could distribution and delivery services to citizens be improved without unavoidably increasing costs? A solution was needed for these problems that would also preserve the quality of the citizen's way of life. 1.1 The Search For A Model System During the 1960's, local government officials had been called upon to make increasing investments in automated data processing systems designed to support government operations. It was apparent that computers and their related technology represented an area of growing importance to all government officials. As the Federal Government realized the almost impossible tasks that cities faced in their daily operations, it initiated programs to help solve city problems through computer technology. It was widely accepted, though unvalidated, that information systems technology could play a vital role in the more complex and interrelated areas of municipal operations, management and planning. However, the first computer-based information systems for municipal governments concentrated exclusively on one department at a time - planning, transportation, police, public health or finance. Many anticipated benefits, such as improved interdepartmental data flow, reduced clerical effort, improved access to management and planning data, and economic justification, did not come to pass. In 1965 the growing problem of how to use information system technology in local government was recognized by several organizations and municipalities. The IBM Corporation, concerned with how computers could be used more effectively, and the City of New Haven, Connecticut, concerned with finding tools to meet the urban crisis, undertook a joint study of the use of Informatics in local governments. At the opposite end of the country, the University of Southern California and the City of Burbank, California, undertook a similar study. These research efforts were conducted independently of each other with little communication between the two staffs. 2 The conclusions of these studies combined with the Federal Government's increasing awareness of the potential of municipal information systems led to the formation of the Urban Information Systems Inter-Agency Committee (USAC) in 1968. The Committee's purpose is to institute research and development efforts in municipal information systems. Chaired by HUD, the membership includes: the Office of Management and Budget; the Departments of Transportation; Health, Education and Welfare; Labor; Commerce; Justice; the National Science Foundation; the Office of Economic Opportunity; and the Office of Emergency Preparedness of the Department of Army. To initiate action and fulfill its objectives, USAC proposed that American cities with appropriate experience and interest apply for Federal assistance for one of two types of projects: 1. The development of an integrated municipal information system which encompasses all of the common functions of a municipality, or 2. The development of one of four specified subsystems supporting: Public 4-5 |