Press Release: Administrative Codes and Registers Section of NASS Honors the Iowa Legislative Services Agency as the 2022 Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award Winner

Iowa Team

Members from Iowa’s Legal Services Division, Computer Services Division, and Process Improvement Office involved with this project – Names from the left: Mathew Kakavas, Magesh Natarajan, Geetha Nagarajan, Emily Kramer, Roger Karns, and Jack Ewing.


For Immediate Release
July 10, 2022

PRESS RELEASE:

Washington, D.C. —  The Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) awarded the Iowa Legislative Services Agency the 2022 Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award at the association’s annual conference for their work with the state’s Administrative Codes and Registers.

Iowa has undertaken this project as an ongoing effort by the Legal Services Division of the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency of the Iowa General Assembly (GA), to comprehensively determine and report on all possibly required rulemaking by executive branch agencies that results from legislation newly enacted in the GA’s annual sessions. Reports on this information are provided to the GA’s Administrative Rules Review Committee (ARRC) and to affected state agencies.

This project was designed to determine possibly required rulemaking emanating from bills enacted in each legislative session. Drafters prepare charts for each bill noting whether rulemaking may be involved, the statute affected, the relevant agency relevant existing rules any current rulemakings, etc. The charts are continually updated across the process. In 2021, a new, in-house, web-based tool was used by the drafters to usher charts through the process and can accommodate work spanning across multiple years.

The new rules analysis tool represents a significant leap forward in process and efficiency. Where once there were stacks of paper documents, each of which had to be updated individually, the system is now largely paperless and interfaces directly with our rulemaking databases, and individualized reports for each affected agency can be generated automatically. The outgrowth of this project provides a significant response to the issue of untimely rulemaking and an impressive logistical achievement. Feedback from users of the tool has been uniformly positive.

Citizen benefits – Ensures that rules required by legislation are codified in a timely manner, which in turn ensures prompt access to new regulatory requirements that the public has access to rules that are substantively and technically up to date and accurate.

Executive branch agencies benefits – Provides additional input on legislation relevant to the agency and rules adopted by the agency to ensure that statutory changes affecting an agency are not missed.

Legislator benefits – Ensures that enacted bills are implemented in a timely and accurate manner while also providing more data points for possible use during the legislature’s oversight through the Administrative Rules Review Committee.

Because of these homegrown innovative features, the ACR Awards Committee has selected the Iowa Legislative Services Agency as this year’s Colborn Award recipient for their work on the capturing all necessary rulemakings due to enacted legislation and then informing the appropriate state agencies of the rulemaking expectations for timely codification.

Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR), a section of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), created the Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award in July 2001 in honor of Robert J. Colborn, Jr., who served as the administrator of the Maryland Division of State Documents from 1974 through 2001 and founded ACR. The Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award annually recognizes a program that demonstrates creativity and innovation in providing public access to, or managing, administrative rules. It honors the state agency that has made substantial contributions to the flow of information to the public by improving efficiency and delivery of services to citizens, businesses, and other governmental entities.

“The Iowa Legislative Services Agency is honored to receive the Colborn Innovation Award for our administrative rules analysis process and application. We would like to thank the ACR Section of NASS for recognizing our process to track rulemaking implicated by enacted legislation as well as our new application which has both modernized our data management and led to significant work process efficiencies in our annual rule analysis project.”

– Tim McDermott, Director of the Iowa Legislative Services Agency

2022 ACR Awards Committee – Robert J. Colborn Jr. Innovation Award:
Awards Chair: Trinette Middlebrook, Administrative Rules Specialist
State of Idaho, Department of Health and Welfare
Phone: (208) 334-0440

Awards Committee Member: Frank Powell
Administrative Rules Specialist
State of Idaho, Department of Health and Welfare
Phone: (208) 334-5775

Accepting Nominations for the 2014 Robert J. Colborn Innovation Award

The Administrative Codes and Registers’ Awards Committee is taking nominations for the 2014 Colborn Award.  This year, the committee consists of Ken Hansen (UT; chair), Kerry Radcliff (WA) and Liz Cloud (FL).  The Colborn Award is presented annually by Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR), a section of the National Association of Secretaries of State, to recognize a program that demonstrates innovation and creativity in providing public access to, or management of, administrative rules.

The nominations packet and form with complete instructions has been posted on the Colborn Award page available at:  http://www.administrativerules.org/colborn-award/nomination-package/ .

Nominations are due Friday, June 6, 2014.

The award will be presented at the ACR Summer Conference held in Baltimore, MD, July 13-16, 2014.

NASS Administrative Rules Organization Honors Florida’s Division of Library and Information Services as 2011 Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award Winner

Florida’s Division of Library and Information Services Recognized for Implementation of a Program to Hyperlink Materials Incorporated by Rules in the On-line Version of the Florida Administrative Code

The Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR) Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), which recently held its annual meeting in Glade Springs Resort, WV, awarded Florida’s Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services with the 2011 Robert J. Colburn, Jr. Innovation Award.  The Division of Library and Information Services was selected for implementing a program to hyperlink materials incorporated by rules in the online version of the Florida Administrative Code.

The online version of the Florida Administrative Code contains highlighted text whenever incorporated materials are referenced.  Benefits of this new program include greater access of incorporated materials.  With a simple click of the mouse, citizens can obtain immediate access to the complete text of the incorporated material.  For state registrars and publishers, electronic and dated materials replace the voluminous materials that required organizing, archiving and disposing.  And more importantly, the rule is hyperlinked to the true legal version of the incorporated materials, eliminating confusion with multiple versions of the same material.

Administrative Codes and Registers (ACR), a section of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), created the Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award in July 2001 in honor of Robert J. Colborn, Jr., who served as the administrator of the Maryland Division of State Documents from 1974 through 2001 and founded ACR. The Robert J. Colborn, Jr. Innovation Award annually recognizes a program that demonstrates creativity and innovation in providing public access to or managing administrative rules. It honors the state agency that has made substantial contributions to the flow of information to the public by improving efficiency and delivery of services to citizens, businesses and other governmental entities.

“Florida has been a leader in E-government services since creating FLrules.org, an online rulemaking system in 2006,” said Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning. “Our staff in Florida’s Division of Library and Information Services are among the most innovative and dedicated workers in the country, and I am proud of their latest accomplishment, providing the public with easy access to state government information.”

2011 Colborn Award Presentation
Elizabeth Palen (VA) presents the 2011 Colborn Award to Florida Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning for Florida's system for hyperlinked incorporated by reference materials

2011 ACR Robert J. Colborn Jr. Committee

  • Chair: Molly Masich, Codifier of Rules, North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings
  • Member: Elizabeth Palen, Executive Director, Joint Commission on Administrative Rules, Richmond, VA
  • Member: John H. Martinez, Director, Administrative Law Division, New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe, NM

Past Colborn Award Recipients

2011 Colborn Award — Nominations Now Being Accepted

The Administrative Codes and Registers’ Awards Committee is taking nominations for the 2011 Colborn Award.  This year, the committee consists of Molly Masich (NC; chair), Elizabeth Palen (VA) and John Martinez (NM).  The Colborn Award is presented annually by ACR to recognize a program that demonstrates innovation and creativity in providing public access to, or management of, administrative rules.

The nominations packet and form with complete instructions has been posted on the Colborn Award page available at:  http://www.administrativerules.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93&Itemid=56 .

The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, June 10, 2011.