History
The City of Highland Park formed its original GIS program in 1994, embracing a traditional in-house staffing approach. Although the system achieved many of its early objectives, by 1997 the loss of key personnel to attrition placed the program in jeopardy.
In 1998, Municipal GIS Partners, Inc. (MGP Inc.) founder Thomas A. Thomey introduced a staffing concept to David M. Limardi, City Manager of Highland Park. This model was based on a shared-staffing approach that would enable communities to gain access to all necessary professional resources without the fulltime cost burden.
After testing the concept for nine months, the City of Highland Park invited other communities to further develop the model. Meetings were conducted over the following year to evaluate best-practices and to develop a hybrid approach that would reduce cost and risk and increase efficiency.
In 1999, the GIS Consortium was formed by its charter members: