Our pursuit of innovation
The City of Syracuse is one of the snowiest cities on record within the United States. Given this fact, it was deemed important that the residents of Syracuse should be able to see when their streets were plowed. During snow storms, the City of Syracuse sees an increased number of calls from residents telling us a street was not plowed or inquiring when their street was last plowed. By having a tool like the snow plow map we can be more transparent and open about our operations…
Syracuse was recently named the 9th most impoverished city in the country according to data published by the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS). The City’s Office of Accountability, Performance and Innovation, working alongside the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development, recently released an analysis of poverty in the city and key barriers to progress…
[Video] About a year ago, we were in the middle of the Tenant-Owner-Proactive (TOP) Pilot for Code Enforcement. Two pilot inspectors were using a new set of tools and strategies in a small territory on the Northside of the City…
We are excited to announce that the City of Syracuse is launching a new Performance Management Program. This is a program that allows the entire organization to create alignment and work together to achieve shared goals. We call these goals objectives and key results, and the Performance Management Program utilizes an agile approach to monitor our progress towards them.
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…
