Governor Workflow

IQ is a powerful CRM tool designed to streamline the unique business processes in Governors’ offices while promoting productive engagement with the citizens of your state. We‘re proud to provide the innovation you expect with experience you can trust. IQ is a fully-integrated solution with built-in applications to support every major function in your office. Managing inbound correspondence, responding to citizen service requests, drafting legislation, managing the Governor’s schedule, monitoring social media and more – IQ has a tool for you.

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Protocol/
Scheduling
Communications
Policy
Constituent
Services
Operations
Judicial
Boards
& Commissions

Protocol/Scheduling

This process is used by the Governor’s scheduling staff to accept request for meetings with the Governor or for the Governor to attend an event.  The request is usually submitted by a webform and then the process of determining whether to schedule the event is tracked through a scheduling process that allows for review and approval of the meeting/event by the responsible staff.  A form letter can be created and used in the process to accept or decline the meeting/event.
This process is used for planning and setting up events after the Scheduling Team has confirmed that an event will be held.  It allows the staff to understand the set-up of the event including room layout, what audio visual equipment is available, any dress requirements, if a gift is being given or received, and other details so the Governor’s staff is fully-prepared to staff the Governor at the event.  This workflow can be used for events planned by the Governor’s office or events hosted by outside organizations.
When the Governor meets with foreign dignitaries and other government officials there is generally an exchange of gifts.  Also, when the Governor attends charitable and civic functions often a gift will be presented. Generally, there are specific ethics rules about government officials receiving gifts. To ensure compliance with the ethics rules the Gift Tracking Workflow allows the office to enter information regarding receipt of the gift and the disposition of the gift so that it complies with all rules.  It allows ensures that a thank you note is sent to the giver.

Communications

Governors are often asked to provide a message for constituents for significant birthdays, anniversaries, military retirements and scouting awards.  There are also requests for Proclamations for special events to commemorate events or activities – Breast Cancer Month, Black History Month, a significant anniversary of a charity or other memorable dates.  The Special Message/Proclamation process allows for submission of the request, proper vetting of the occasion, person, or event to ensure suitability.  The process also tracks the creation of the proclamation and ensures that it is delivered in a timely fashion either in-person or by other means.
Most Governor’s offices send out announcements on policy decisions, policy views, attendance at events and other information regarding the Governor’s activities.  The Press Release workflow allows for creation, approval and sending of the press releases to the intended audience specific to the announcement.  After the approval, an “eNewsletter” can be created with the approved content and sent to the specific recipients. The audience for the press release can be built using the Contact records within IQ.

Policy

Many constituents write to a Governor’s office to express support or opposition for a specific policy or current issue.  The office will want to have an appropriate response crafted to respond to the constituents that states the office’s position on the policy or issue.  The Policy Letter Request workflow allows Constituent Services staff to submit a request to the Governor’s Policy staff to assist in the formulation of an appropriate response to the specific issue.  Once the letter has been created by the Policy staff, the letter can be moved through the appropriate approval channels and returned to Constituent Services for response to the constituents.
Most offices have a need to formulate policy on issues that affect the state.  The Policy Memorandum process allows the Governor’s office to request Policy Memorandums from a state agency in support of the Governor’s initiatives.  The workflow can create the basic information for the policy request and then it would be emailed to the Point of Contact within the agency.  Once the Agency submits a draft of the Policy Position Paper to the Governor’s office, the Policy Position Paper process will allow for vetting and approval by the Governor’s staff to ensure it complies with the Governor’s state policy position. From this workflow, a Press Release workflow can be created to disseminate the policy to the appropriate groups.
Similar to the Policy Position Paper workflow, the Bill Drafting workflow can be used to ensure that all proposed legislation from state agencies can be reviewed to ensure that they do not conflict with other agency priorities or are in conflict with current legislation.  The project budget for implementation of the proposed legislation can be reviewed to ensure compliance with the Governor’s budget plan.  It can also be used to ensure that the proposed legislation is inline with the Governor’s policy initiatives and goals.
This workflow allows a Governor’s office to track grants given to state agencies, local government agencies or charitable organizations to ensure that the grants meet the goals and objectives of the administration.  It also tracks the agencies and localities that receive the grants to ensure that all areas of the state receive the necessary grants to assist constituents across the state.
Every state has rules regarding the release of public records to ensure transparency within government organizations.  The Public Records Requests workflow allows the Governor’s office to receive, track and package public records request so that they comply with the timeliness of release, contains the information requested and review of the records before the records are released to the requestor.  IQ has a specific report that allows each record requested (if stored within the IQ application) to be created as an editable PDF so that it can be redacted as necessary prior to release.

Constituent Services

The basics of a Governor’s office constituent services is assisting constituents with issues they may have with interactions with the state government.  Many constituents not knowing enough about a state government write directly to the Governor’s office rather than the appropriate state agency for resolution of the issue.  The Casework workflow allows for the Governor’s office to receive, record, forward for resolution and track the request from initial intake to resolution.  The Casework workflow allows for capturing all interactions with the constituent and the state agency  in resolving the issue.  The Casework workflow has functionality that can be used to capture the Point of Contact and the state agency and send emails with details of the case to the agency and receive replies back from the state agency on resolution of the issue.
Most State Capitols provide tours of the building for individuals or groups.  In many instances, these requests are handled by the Governor’s staff.  The State Capitol Tour workflow allows for the submission of requests (often by web form) and then the processing and scheduling of the tours for the individuals and groups.  The State Capitol Tour workflow allows for emailing the details of the tours to the office that provides the actual tours.  The process can be integrated with built-in calendaring functionality to create an overall calendar of all scheduled tours.
Most State Capitols fly flags over the building and many allow for requests for flags to be flown for specific occasions that can be used to commemorate a special occasion for constituents such as birthdays, military retirements, school anniversaries, etc.  The Flag Request workflow allows for constituents to request a flag be flown on a specific date and then be sent to the recipient to commemorate the occasion.  The process captures the request and allows the information to be sent to the group that flies the flags to ensure the flag is flown, returned and sent to the recipient. If there is a cost associated with the flag flying, the Flag Request workflow can calculate the cost and provide a bill to be sent for the cost of flying the flag.

Operations

The purpose of authentications is to verify for foreign governments that a state official is in good standing. These officials include notary publics, clerks and deputy clerks of state courts, registrars and deputy registrars of the department of Health and the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission.

Since the need to disclose is a condition of the job or appointment, the most vital requirement for the Conflict of Interest process is to have a database that accurately reflects the State organization or agency, the position(s) within the organization and the name of the current employee or appointee holding that position

Boards and Commissions

Every state has Boards and Commissions that oversee different agencies, promote different policies, activities or events, and oversees other government functions.  The Governor has the power to create and appoint members to state Boards and Commissions.  Depending on the legal creation and composition of the board or commission the appointment of members can require different processes. 

  • If a board member needs Senate confirmation to serve on the board, then the process would require vetting of the member and then submission of the nomination to the state Senate for confirmation and then notification of the member of confirmation and usually further notification to the Secretary of State of the confirmation. 
  • On some boards, the appointment is at the sole discretion of the Governor. This process requires the vetting and review of the nomination and then the appointment to the board or commission.
Some states have local or county boards and commissions, these board usually receive nominations for the various legislative delegations representing the locality nominating the person.  These nominations usually require a background check for conflicts of interest, finance and criminality and these functions are carried out by the Governor’s office.

IQ has a Boards Nomination Workflow for each type of board and commission nomination and review process to ensure that depending on the type of nomination and its requirements, the process will be documented and tracked to ensure compliance with the board requirements.

Outside of the Board application, nomination and vetting process, IQ has a Boards module which will allow the Governor’s office to manage all the boards and board members and keep a comprehensive record of all Boards and current and former members of those boards.  With this functionality, board seats that are expiring and require appointment and/or re-appointment of a board member in a timely fashion can be tracked.

Judicial

Extradition is the legal surrender of an alleged criminal, apprehended in one jurisdiction, to another state for trial.  Requests for Extradition are submitted by the state requesting return of the criminal to the state for trial to the Governor’s office of the state holding the prisoner. The Extradition workflow provides a mechanism so that the Request for Extradition can be tracked, vetted and reviewed to ensure compliance with the laws regarding extradition of a prisoner within the state to another jurisdiction.
In most states, citizens convicted of a felony are denied rights to state services and voting.  Convicted felons can petition to have the rights returned based on the criteria of the laws determining the rights of convicted felons.  The Restoration of Rights workflow tracks a request for restoration of rights and allows the Governor’s office to review the request to ensure that it complies with the necessary criteria for restoration.  After the review, the Governor’s office can send the notice of restoration or denial of request to the requestor and any agencies that need to be notified of the restoration of rights.
The Governor has the right to pardon or commute the sentence of anyone convicted of a crime within the state.  Many citizens convicted of crimes request a pardon or commutation of the sentence to the Governor.  The Pardons and Commutations workflow tracks the requests and ensures that the petition of pardon or commutation meets the standards required for pardon or commutation. This power is generally at the sole discretion of the Governor and can be controversial so a process to ensure review is essential.
The function of the Service of Process department of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth is to have party, party’s attorney, or party’s agent who are in litigation and seeking service on non-residents, post office boxes, and people who cannot be located by a sheriff or private processor, served.
To become a Notary Public a person must submit an application and be approved the state authority to grant a Notary Public Commission.  The Notary Public Registration allows for the submission, vetting, approval, and notification of the requestor of an application for a Notary Public Commission.