Luzerne County embracing shared databases and technology

With an eye to the future, Luzerne County government is increasingly embracing technology and shared databases to improve services, said county Manager Romilda Crocamo.

A prime example: multiple departments have teamed up to create an infrastructure management platform that will serve as a central repository on all county-owned roads and bridges, she said.

“This platform will aim to achieve the goal of becoming the go-to source of information to allow more efficient and productive application of many departments involved in managing this county inventory,” the administration’s project description says.

GIS/mapping, planning/zoning, roads/bridges and engineering are among the departments involved in rounding up the data and developing a format that makes it accessible to staff. Any new reports or updates on the infrastructure will be entered into the database going forward.

The county has approximately 120 miles of roads and 300 bridges scattered within its boundaries, many inherited from municipalities during the Great Depression.

This project will take several months because workers are visiting county roadways to collect measurements and other data between regular assignments, the administration said.

Data collected will establish baseline road conditions that will inform the road and bridge department’s list of priority county roads, the project description says.

Crocamo said the project is part of an emphasis on maintaining and improving county infrastructure.

“With advancements in technology, we have the opportunity to revolutionize the way we manage and maintain our roads and bridges,” Crocamo said. “By harnessing the power of software solutions, we can streamline processes, increase accuracy, and enhance the overall effectiveness of our operations.”

Election data

When Michael Susek was election director in 2022, he worked with county consultant, The Elections Group, to start creating a database through the Airtable software platform.

It started as a way to track poll workers and procedures and training related to polling place staffing, and county Acting Election Director Emily Cook has been drastically expanding it ever since.

Instead of keeping data in varying paper and electronic forms that may be lost or challenging to track down as staff changes, the entire bureau now enters information through the central database, she said.

“This is what builds the institutional knowledge,” Cook said.

The county has approximately 1,200 poll workers in 186 precincts.

Cook rattled off a lengthy list of data now processed and stored through Airtable, including data on:

• Polling locations, including equipment assigned to each site and any unique concerns or accessibility issues.

• Ballot statistics for each election, including the post-election adjudication handled by the county’s five-citizen election board and reconciliation to ensure numbers match up.

• Election calendar tasks that must be completed.

• Poll worker training sessions and campaign finance compliance reports.

• Municipal and school district contacts to verify what contests must appear on ballots.

• Links to all poll workers to quickly send communications and alerts.

• Mapping files required to send ballots to the print vendor.

“Before, everyone had their own way of tracking this information. This creates a central location to go to, and it updates in real time,” Cook said.

Property tracking

New high-resolution aerial imaging is being captured for the county to assist with real estate assessments, mapping, 911 and other county departments.

County council had earmarked federal American Rescue Plan funding to complete this project. Pictometry International Corp. was contracted for $203,720.

The last high-resolution aerial imagery project was completed in 2016, said county GIS/Mapping Department Director Daniel Reese.

While helpful, subsequent statewide aerial updates included some grainy imagery containing shadows and snow cover.

Like the one completed in 2016, the new American Rescue-funded flyover is photographing structures and bridges both from straight above and at an angle for more clarity, which is needed for the assessor’s office and 911 emergency assistance, Reese said.

Pictometry’s “change finder” feature will detect all properties constructed, expanded or demolished since 2016, which will allow the assessment office to ensure property is properly assessed for real estate taxation, he said.

In 2019, county officials reported $15.5 million in assessed value was added to the tax rolls after a review of properties flagged by Pictometry’s change finder.

Emergency dispatchers at 911 will have access to the new images to assist police and other responders, Reese said.

The entire flyover was completed last month before the trees started budding, and a quality control review of all images is underway to determine if any spots must be recaptured due to clouds or other obstructions, Reese said.

Reese said he and his staff are increasingly working with colleagues in other departments to plot their information on maps to make retrieval easier and, sometimes, spot trends within the 906-square-mile county.

“As we’re discovering more and more departments have spatial data, we are trying to visualize that in our format for those departments,” Reese said. “There are so many spread sheets out there.”

In the election bureau, for instance, GIS/Mapping created an application plotting out all voting precincts and legislative district boundary lines so they can access that information for any voter based on precise property locations.

“It helps them do their job to make sure people are being registered in the correct location,” he said.

The public has free access to one of the department’s most helpful tools — a portal of all parcels within the county along with the names of the property owners — on its page at luzernecounty.org .

More examples

Crocamo said other initiatives are in the works.

County First Assistant Solicitor Vito DeLuca is working to design an electronic in-house contract management system to speed up processing of more than a thousand contracts approved annually, she said.

This system also will help departments keep tabs on which agreements are nearing expiration and renewal, she said.

She also pointed to a project involving budget/finance, the controller’s office and other departments to upgrade and consolidate payroll processing and employee time-tracking through the county’s New World Management System that has been used for financial management. This project eliminated the need for two other outside contracts, saving an estimated $100,000 annually, officials have said.

In the county prison system, a security upgrade is planned to identify inmates at the prison on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre and the minimum offenders building on Reichard Street, Crocamo said.

The upgrade will include inmate identification wristbands that remain on throughout incarceration and an “innovative fingerprint identification that enables officers to quickly identify inmates at booking and release,” she said.

Reformulating and updating the county website is another key goal for this year, Crocamo said.

“As the first point of contact for many individuals, we recognize the importance of a website that reflects a positive image of our county and provides a user-friendly experience,” she said.

She wants a website that showcases positive aspects of the county and ensures users can promptly find what they need.

The intranet used internally be staff also will be streamlined, she said.

“This administration and council are dedicated to maintaining a positive image and providing excellent services to our residents, and the reformulation and update of our website is a significant step towards achieving these objectives,” Crocamo said.