Since I work on the AS/400 (iSeries) what makes the whole story ludicrous is that for nearly a decade if not more it has been relatively simple to web face your

Since I work on the AS/400 (iSeries) what makes the whole story ludicrous is that for nearly a decade if not more it has been relatively simple to web face your applications. There are vendors who can do but the tools are pretty straight forward. Hell even the zSeries and AIX based solutions have web facing products that make supporting new interfaces a breeze while keeping decades old proven business logic in the background. however as you mentioned, a modern user experience isn't the end all. we even did a migration from an MS Access database application to a new platform where it was required to be 100% look a like. The whole move was done to modernize that application yet those doing the work got handcuffed on day one. one isuse holding back the upgrades in most cities is that their IT departments tend to be a real mess with one or two SME per system/platform that isn't PC related and even then its all maintenance mode anyway because it just works. however the real issue is likely, infrastructure maintenance which includes IT and other not sexy items like sewer and road repair fall by the way side of ribbon cutting opportunities for new buildings, roads, and bridges. then throw in the incredible debt to employee benefits and pensions most cities have and its no wonder so falls to the wayside