What factors explain the variation in number and types of family-friendly work-place policies implemented within public agencies? Is there any systematic attempt to measure the effectiveness of these programs? To what extent do these policies contribute to gender equality at work? To answer these questions, the authors surveyed all general and special purpose local governments in the state of Washington. They conclude that family-friendly workplace policies are adopted unevenly across local jurisdictions. Agency size, the presence of union representation, an agency’s adoption of a formal sexual harassment policy, and agency type account for much of the variance.

INTRODUCTION: Waste management in cities has not advanced at the same rate as technology in general. Furthermore, there is little evidence that citizens are satisfied with services in smart cities. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is therefore to capture citizen perspectives in relation to smart city services and, specifically, that of waste management. METHODS: An online survey was disseminated using Google Forms to twenty-five homeowners within the Tourism Ireland office in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. The objective was to gather the typical citizen perspective of smart cities, their views on the meaning of 'smart waste management', and any features which they would like to experience with regard to their waste collection process and/or schedule in a future smart city. RESULTS: It was found that a common perception of a smart city exists, it being one concerned with efficiency and recycling; fewer citizens are, however, familiar with the term 'smart waste management'. Homeowners generally acknowledge that improvements to their current bin collection schedule are necessary. CONCLUSION: The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which citizens believe that a bin collection schedule which they are in control of would be an improvement on a council-defined one. We correlate this with extensions necessary to service provisioning processes, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), to support future smart city services.

The American federal system allows for a great deal of variability in policy implementation by municipal and county governments Devolution of that responsibility from the federal government to state and local governments will likely reinforce the variability. This article assesses the relative utility of Elazar's and Lieske's political culture theories with respect to the adoption of progressive collective bargaining practices. Findings from a survey of 703 local governments support the conclusions that certain political cultures are more likely to adopt progressive collective bargaining provisions, and Lieske's theory is at least as effective as Elazar's in predicting such adoption.