Hi everyone! This week on the Mighty Municipalities podcast, we discuss safely using AI in your town. We also discovered a few grants coming up:

• 7/8 - HRSA - Rural Communities Opioid Response Program - up to $750k for fours years to opiod treatment programs
• 7/9: NEA - GRANTS FOR ARTS PROJECTS – Art Education and ‘Design & Our Town’ projects
  • Challenge America Program - $10k
  • General Grants – $10k-$100k
• 7/13 - Consumer Protection – Pool Safety Program - $50k-$400k around poll safety and enforcement
• 7/13: GA Municipalities – GA Releaf grant - $15k to urban tree plantings
• 7/29: DOJ – COPS Hiring Program - up to $125k over three years, 25% match, Law enforcement hiring
• 7/31: NY Municipalities – Grants for Climate Action - $35k-$2m for climate change mitigation (flood control, renewal energy) 

Licensing: Business Search Now Supports Multiple Classification Filters

Finding the right businesses just got a lot easier. The Business Search page now lets you filter by multiple industry classifications at once, and you can also exclude specific classifications from your results.

With the new multi-select filters, you can select as many classifications as you need in a single search. The filters also work hierarchically — selecting a broad category will automatically include all of its subcategories, so you don't have to select each one individually. And if you need to narrow things down further, the Exclude filter lets you remove specific categories from your results, which is especially helpful when a broad inclusion picks up a few types of businesses you don't need to see.

Whether you're preparing a licensing report, researching businesses across multiple industries, or simply trying to get a cleaner view of your data, these new filtering options give you more control with fewer clicks.

Licensing: SMS Text Reminders Beta Now Available for License Renewals

We've started experimenting with enabling SMS in govpossible, starting with License reminders:

To send text reminders, simply choose a date and a license category — just like you do for email reminders. The system will automatically send a friendly message to each contact who has opted in for text notifications, letting them know their license is due and where they can pay. Each message includes your jurisdiction's name, the license details, the due date, and a link to pay online or visit your office.

Every text that goes out is recorded as an interaction on both the business and the contact, so your records stay complete without any extra data entry. Only contacts who have opted in for SMS notifications will receive messages, keeping your outreach respectful and compliant. You can also send yourself a sample message before the batch goes out, so you can see exactly what your businesses will receive.

The system currently supports Twilio as the SMS provider; the municipality will need to setup their own account and phone number. Reach out if you're interested, and we'll help you get it setup.

Licensing: 'Record Mailing' Now Available for Delinquency Notices

https://dec.ny.gov/environmental-protection/climate-change/resources-for-local-governments/grants-for-climate-action We've added a "Record Mailing" option to the delinquent license applications page, so your staff can now log when delinquency notices are sent — the same way they already do for license renewal mailings. Simply set the postmark date, choose the license type category, and record the mailing in one step.

Finance: Accounts Payable Supports Cross-Fund Payments And Pooled Cash

When paying a bill in Accounts Payable, the system now asks for the bank account for payment instead of the GL Account. The bank account you select matches the fund where the expenses were recorded.

For bills that span multiple funds, the system handles things intelligently. If your funds share a pooled cash account, the payment is automatically split across the correct accounts within the pool — no extra steps needed. If your funds use separate bank accounts, the system will automatically create the necessary inter-fund transfer entries (due-to and due-from) to pay from the selected bank account keep everything balanced across your books.