Our pursuit of innovation
Currently at the City, there are over 100 fiscal staff enterprise-wide, including 35 employees assigned within individual departments. This decentralization can cause inefficiencies and inconsistencies in our financial operations and is regularly cited as a weakness in our annual audit. To help address the challenges that come with this structure, today, the City of Syracuse is launching a financial operations pilot project.
In August we hosted our first ideas competition called the Civic Innovation Challenge. Approximately twenty ideas were submitted by employees to improve City operations. As part of the competition, entrants had to explain how their idea related to the City’s guiding principles and objectives. One of the winning ideas is to institute electronic permit applications…
On Wednesday, June 6th, and Thursday, June 7th, the Syracuse Police Department hosted public forums on police body cameras. The forums, held at the Onondaga County Public Library on South Salina Street, were led by Detective Mark Russin, and focused on community concerns regarding the use of body cameras and their footage. But behind the scenes, a different kind of assessment was being conducted: A behavioral insights trial…
[VIDEO] On June 15th, the City of Syracuse Division of Code Enforcement hosted Healthy Housing 101, an event held to teach local residents and service providers how to spot code violations in homes. Our code inspectors reviewed what to look for in homes--mold, infestations, unsafe staircases--as well as who citizens can contact when they have an issue getting problems fixed.
[VIDEO] On June 6th, Mark Headd, in partnership with Syracuse University’s iSchool, organized and hosted the first-ever Upstate Data Summit, a conference of data officers and analysts from across upstate New York. At the conference, public data and innovation professionals held panels on how cities including Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, and Binghamton can efficiently gather and use data to improve everything from housing safety to road & sidewalk repair.
When James Anderson took to the podium last week at the Bloomberg Philanthropies convening of communications directors from U.S. cities, he knew how to get my attention. James, who worked in a role just like mine under Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City, is now the leader of Bloomberg’s Government Innovation team. He showed us the hard cold reality from the Edelman Trust Barometer: Americans don’t trust government.
