Speech
ESRI Conference
Remarks of Governor Judy Martz
San Diego, CA
8/7/2004
Governor Geringer, thank you for that very nice introduction. I also want to compliment you on the 2004 National Technology Champion Award you received in April from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. That’s quite an honor and it recognizes your leadership in Geographic Information System (G-I-S) software.
Roger (Tomlinson) thank you for that very kind introduction. It’s an honor for me to be on the same platform with you. As the father of G-I-S, we are all grateful to you for the magnificent contribution you have made to all of us in the government and in the private sector.
I think we would all agree that the use of Geographic Information Systems is unlimited, and I just know we have only begun to scratch the surface.
The real reason I am here today is very simple…it’s because Jim asked me. He’s one of the finest individuals I’ve met in my seven and a half years as lieutenant governor and governor of Montana.
And even with my tight schedule this weekend, I couldn’t say no, when he called a few weeks ago and said ‘Judy, I really want you to address our ESRI conference.’
When I told Jim I’d do it, I did have one request…to please not ask me to give talk about technology issues, because it just wouldn’t be fair to all of you.’
He told me I could speak on anything I wanted, so here goes…
I think you all know based on those remarks that I am not a techie, BUT, I have the greatest respect for technology, science, math, the Internet,
G-I-S, Jim Geringer and ESRI.
You might say “I get IT, when it comes to I-T” (information technology). I know the value of I-T too a lot of what we do in government, in society and in our daily lives.
Technology and the information and data we get from IT is invaluable to us all.
Last year, when I chaired the Western Governors’ Association, I made forest health my major initiative. I hosted a three-day healthy forest summit in Missoula with several of my fellow governors and members of the president’s cabinet.
On the second day of the summit we took 200 people on a field trip - on school buses - through the Seeley Lake area. Just imagine what a logistical nightmare that was, in addition to the security issues.
Nevertheless, everyone involved did a great job and we learned a lot about forest health and how to better manage our natural resources.
The success of the field trip would not have been possible without the support of ESRI, and the incredible demonstration they did for us on how G-I-S can be used to make better decisions in managing our forests and other naturaI resources. It was very impressive and I know everyone went away with a much better appreciation for the value of G-I-S in aiding policy makers in making decisions.
Then, just a couple of weeks ago, I was in Seattle for the National Governors’ Association’s Annual Conference and Governor Locke and I announced the launch of the new Amber Alert Web Portal, and once again, ESRI was there to offer its support.
Amber Alert will be strongly supported by G-I-S for tracking, analysis and notification to law enforcement about where to look for a lost or abducted child.
I want to mention a couple of other areas where G-I-S is being used in Montana….then, Jim told me I could talk about my life and perhaps how it has connected over the years with your world.
In fact, Jim encouraged me to share with you what it’s been like for a girl from Butte, America to grow up and become Montana’s first woman lieutenant governor and governor.
One of the difficulties that policy makers, especially those not immersed in technology, like myself often have investing in GIS, and geospatial data, is their belief that it is only useful to a handful of highly trained IT staff. Yet today, as maps on demand over the Internet become commonplace, it is not necessary to understand anything more than an Internet browser to use the data.
Take for example the Montana Cadastral, or landownership database. The landownership database was developed as a public-private partnership, and was started during my term as Lieutenant Governor. I am proud to say that Montana was the first state in the nation to collect a statewide, seamless and standardized, digital database of all landownership, public and private.
This data has been used by GIS analysts in applications ranging from wildfire and emergency response to equitable taxation. Those applications will ultimately end up in policy decisions, but let me use another example nearer and dearer to policy-makers hearts – that of keeping costs under control.
By accessing landownership data on-line (http://gis.doa.state.mt.us/), hundreds of state employees no longer have to travel to local courthouses, or spend hours on the phone with local tax assessors, to obtain landownership information.
Take the testimony of one Mt. Department of Environmental Quality employee:
“I manage projects that use cadastral data frequently to identify land owners for access to streams for non point source water quality monitoring. It is very useful and saves taxpayers on my projects an estimated $2000/yr (~30-40 hours at 40-65$/hr) of either contracting funds or direct state employee time.”
A cost/benefit study by the B-L-M and the MT Dept. of Administration found web-enabling parcel information provided a return on investment of 3 to 5 million dollars a year to Montana citizens, private enterprise, and government agencies – to people with no expertise using GIS software. That is a return that policy makers can embrace.
September 11, 2001 provided a wake-up call to decision makers and all American citizens. It was clear that we needed to take action.
Immediately after 9-11, I established the Montana Homeland Security Taskforce. This Taskforce quickly recognized that in order to plan for and react to threats both external and internal, we needed better geographic information.
As we all know now, incidents can occur anywhere, and we needed accurate inventories of our critical infrastructure in order prioritize what to protect and inventory what assets we could count on in case of emergency.
The Taskforce established a GIS Subcommittee which has been active inventorying and collecting the data Montana needs to protect our citizens. (Using ODP funding)
The Taskforce has collected large scale aerial photography over 17 cities, and is in the process of collecting geospatial databases for schools, emergency facilities, airports, hospitals, feedlots, chemical fertilizer distributors, and more. We define potential targets, evacuation routes, and contingency health care facilities – all geographically interrelated and intertwined.
Recently, our Computer Security Incident Response Team used addressed street centerlines to match the addresses of team members and obtain a map location of where they lived to analyze response times and routes to a variety of cyber-security threats.
Realistically, I think it’s fair to say that Montana may not face the terrorist threats that have recently surfaced in New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., yet all this data can be used to provide quality emergency response to natural disasters that we face every year such as wildfire, and floods.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is currently prototyping and building a new National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program (EPHT).
EPHT is the ongoing collection, integration, analysis and interpretation of data about environmental hazards, exposure to environmental hazards, and human health effects potentially related to exposure to environmental hazards. Montana was recently awarded funding for "planning and capacity building" for a tracking system.
The use of GIS in EPHT is critical and will facilitate information linking between environmental conditions and public health concerns.
Some examples of possible applications of this technology in Montana include tracking and monitoring livestock health, monitoring wildfire smoke conditions and providing health notices to the general public when air quality degrades, and closely tracking outbreaks of West Nile virus so that public health officials can take steps to mitigate serious mosquito outbreaks. Health officials will also use the EPHT to examine longer-term health issues to try and mitigate existing issues and prevent them in the future.
By developing, implementing, and utilizing the EPHT in Montana, health care providers will be able to provide better care and targeted preventive services, hopefully utilizing increasingly scarce public health dollars more efficiently.
In addition, the public will have a better understanding of what is occurring and what actions they may take to protect or improve their health in their communities.
Just because information or data has been developed, does not necessarily mean that the information is readily available. In Montana, however, we are fortunate to have one of the most stable and mature data clearinghouses in the nation.
Next year, the Natural Resource Information System will celebrate its 20th Anniversary. NRIS (pronounced ‘N – RIS’), is a program of the Montana State Library.
It was established by the Montana Legislature in 1985 ‘to be a comprehensive program for the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of existing data relating to the natural resources of Montana’ (MCA 90-15-301).
The NRIS program got its start in GIS in the late 1980’s as part of the ARCO Superfund project in the Butte / Anaconda area…my backyard. The program was the first in Montana state government to build and deploy a GIS system using ESRI’s software and a very early user of ESRI technology (customer number 186!).
Today, the NRIS program serves as a ‘One Stop Shop’ for geospatial data of all kinds and hosts a state of the art web site (nris.state.mt.us) that serves the data collection to government users, consultants, businesses, and the general public. The clearinghouse web site currently averages over 2 million hits per month. The NRIS program ‘levels the playing field’ for data access and is a strong catalyst for economic development and competitive, cost effective use of these data holdings. From providing critical data for wildfire responders, to facilitating efficient environmental reviews, to providing tourists, hunters, and fisherman with information about Montana’s natural bounty, NRIS truly has something for everyone.
I told you I wasn’t going to give you speech on technology, but I did want to point out a few ways in which the state of Montana and others in my state are using G-I-S, and let you know how much I appreciate the value of G-I-S in the decision-making process and setting policy.
Something I have learned over the years, and I’m sure others in leadership positions like yourselves have come to realize as well, is that we are only as good as the people around us and the information and data available to us.
Now, I’m going to switch subjects for a few more minutes and talk about a some things in my personal life that I know a lot about --- hauling garbage, speed-skating, being an organ donor, public service and most recently becoming a grandma.
I’m also going to share a few thoughts about our soldiers at home and abroad.
So, let’s start with a question. “Have any of you hauled garbage?” If you have, raise your hand. My husband Harry and I have been doing it for 30 years.
When I was working with my staff on my remarks for today, someone suggested I ask Jim if we could have ESRI map out the Martz family’s garbage route. I’ll bet you could, but frankly, I’m not sure it would help.
Running a small business with Harry taught me a lot, and I gained a great admiration for our nation’s small business owners, because they work so darn hard and account for the bulk of our jobs.
Harry and I got married during the Vietnam War. He was gone for two years, so I know what our men and women in uniform, who are being shipped out to Iraq, are going through. When he returned, we got into the garbage business and we’ve been doing it ever since.
When I was really young --- before I met Harry --- I was a rodeo barrel rider and then I got this notion that I could be an Olympic speed skater.
When I told my folks I was going to be in the l964 Olympics, my dad, who is now 91, said ‘Why do you think you can be in the Olympics,’ and my mother, who is 87, quickly said, ‘because someone has to!” She was right.
You should have heard him when I said I was going to run for governor.
Let me tell you about my Olympic experience and see if it sheds some light on the way you go about your business and daily lives. Another area where G-I-S is being used, of course, is in the surveillance of the Athens Olympic sites to help protect the athletes.
Several years ago now, in fact, xx years ago, my sister Sherrie needed a Kidney, so I gave her one of mine. As a result of that experience, I am committed to doing all I can to promote organ and tissue donation.
Here’s another question for you. Has anyone else here donated an organ or know someone who has? If you are not familiar with the organ donor program, please take the time to learn about it. Lives are saved every day because people come forward and offer to help someone else.
Another important part of my ENTIRE life, not just my years as Governor and lieutenant governor, has been public service.
For seven years before I ran with Marc Racicot for lieutenant governor, I was a field rep in Butte for Senator Conrad Burns, and I served on our hospital and chamber of commerce boards.
Conrad’s been a friend and mentor for a long time, and I appreciate everything he has done for me.
Before Marc asked me to run with him I had two grueling interviews. That was nearly 10 years ago, so I’ve been away from home for a long time, and I’m looking forward to getting home and being with my family, and joining the National Speakers Bureau to earn a living.
Being lieutenant governor, I learned a lot about the executive branch and when Marc moved on, I decided I was going for it. It was hard work. I put 30,000 miles on my car traveling from one end of Montana to the other.
Jim can tell you what it’s like to campaign in a big state with not many people in it.
It wasn’t unusual in the early days of the gubernatorial campaign to show up at someone’s house in eastern Montana, only to have my hosts and their kids, and sometimes the dog and cat, to talk to!
One of the main reasons I won was because I out-worked my well-heeled opponent.
As you know, money is the life-blood of politics, but I didn’t win with just money. My opponent outspent me by three to one, but using $2 million of his wife’s money on top of the one million he raised.
He was the front-runner from the day he won a primary in June, and it wasn’t until a few weeks before the general election that people, other than a few of my closest supporters, began to sense that I could win. It was pretty exciting and it proved that while money is important in politics, it isn’t everything.
What won it for me was hard work, and keeping my eye on the goal and believing that I could win, and having a great group of friends and supporters who worked their hearts out for me.
It was a great team effort. I led the team, just as I do in state government, but I couldn’t have done it without the people around me. Jim knows what I mean, and I think all of you probably do too.
As you all know, being a leader is hard work. It’s also about surrounding yourself with the very best people and listening to their advice, and getting the best information, then making the tough decisions. And, it’s not being afraid to take position, then standing up for what you believe.
Being the leader of Montana for these past three and a half years has been a great opportunity to do something for my state and the people of Montana.
A reporter for one of the Montana’s largest papers, the Great Falls Tribune, was in my office a couple of weeks ago to do a profile of my administration and to ask what I’d be doing when my term ends.
I told him that the best part of being governor was the opportunity to ‘make a difference’ and to work with a great staff and cabinet.
The worst part of the job, I told him, was the bad news day…and believe me, I had my share of them during the first couple of years, but I told myself to just 'keep your eye on the goal.’
I told the reporter that’s one piece of advice I will give my successor. “Keep your eye on the goal, and don’t let the so and so’s get you down.
My first two years as governor were among the toughest years for governors all across the country. We didn’t have any money to spend, unless you happened to be the governor of Wyoming.
In fact, money was so tight, we had to cut budgets, which made a lot of folks unhappy with me right from the start. But, you know something, that was the situation we inherited, so I did the best I could with what we had.
I used to tell people, ‘it’s no fun shopping, if you don’t have any money.’
Today, things are much improved, and I’m proud that when I leave office we will be in a lot better shape financially than when I began.
Now, one final note. Please keep our men and women in uniform in your prayers. These brave soldiers are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight for someone else’s freedom, so we can enjoy ours.
As Commander-in-Chief of our Montana National Guard, I’ve been to the funerals of two of our soldiers killed in Iraq, and I’ve been to numerous deployments, and I can tell you, it breaks my heart to watch these soldiers and their families say good-bye.
I was there once, so I know how it feels. It’s tough, but they’ll get through it, but they need to know we’re with them. They are doing a job they were trained for and we want them all to come home safely.
Thank you and have a great conference.
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