Atlanta's “Innovations in City Hall” Report Released

Mayor Kasim Reed and the city’s Innovation Delivery Team announced in a news release Friday the winners of CityIdeas, a city-wide employee ideas competition designed to solicit feasible solutions on how the City of Atlanta can reduce waste, cut red tape and save money on operations.

CityIdeas is one of many “Innovations in City Hall” included in the report released Friday highlighting innovative work across the City of Atlanta, including the work of the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team from 2012 through 2013.

In August of 2013, the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team issued a call to all city employees for new ideas on how the City can reduce waste, cut red tape and save money on operations. CityIdeas empowered and rewarded city employees to share their expertise with upper management.

The program was hosted on the public crowd-sourcing platform Ideascale. After receiving more than 370 submissions, an interdepartmental evaluation committee conducted a three-month evaluation of each idea on the feasibility of implementation and level of operational impact.

The top six winning ideas were recognized at Friday’s event. Monetary awards presented to the employees were based on the likely cost-savings associated with their idea. For each of the winning ideas, idea winners and the Innovation Delivery Team analyzed the initial investment required, annual operating costs and projected savings on an annual and five-year basis. The top three ideas create a potential cost savings of $7.1 million annually.

“The City of Atlanta employs capable, talented and committed men and women,” said Reed in the release. “We issued the call for employees to think big, get creative, and help us make Atlanta the most efficient city in the country. The response was overwhelming. Our employees leveraged their knowledge and expertise to identify solutions to policy and operational issues that can result in real cost savings.”

Major Byron LeCounte of the Department of Corrections took top honors and a $25,000 award check with the idea of deploying inmates to clean and close abandoned and blighted properties identified through the Atlanta Police Department’s Code Enforcement Section. The Innovation Delivery Team will work with the Department of Corrections and the Chief Operating Officer to conduct a pilot program before considering a full roll-out.

“We saw other cities crowd-sourcing ideas from employees and realizing real savings from those and we wanted to test-drive the program in Atlanta,” Innovation Delivery Team Director and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Kristin Wilson commented in the release. “The results were impressive. We not only received a significant number of new ideas on how to run a smarter city, but saw creative ideas for improvements on existing or proposed programs.”

A full list of award winners and ideas is listed below. In addition to piloting the winning idea, the Innovation Delivery Team will meet with the second and third place winners to establish working groups to further determine feasibility. The City is contemplating future CityIdeas challenges to continue to engage employees in improving the City of Atlanta.

1. Major Byron LeCounte, Department of Corrections: train and deploy inmates to clean and close abandoned and blighted properties.
2. Sharon Douglas, Department of Aviation: develop a Pay-As-You-Throw-Program where City residents pay different rates depending on the amount of trash service they use.
3. Hannah Molette, Dept of Information Technology: develop an e-records program for residents and businesses to register with the City to receive all City communication electronically.
4. Charlene Braud, Department of Planning and Community Development: Expand rainwater harvesting and water recapture at our Recreation Centers.
5. Howard Eisenberg, Atlanta Police Dept: Decrease vehicle fuel cost through fuel hedging.
6. Henry Jennings, Department of Information Technology: Partner with a technology company to provide free Wi-Fi Services in public spaces.

About the Innovation Delivery Team
Atlanta's Innovation Delivery Team brings rigorous focus to identifying powerful solutions, developing implementation plans, and working with partners in city government to manage results that improve our community. So far, as part of this work, Atlanta has improved customer service — including launching ATL311 — and developed a comprehensive strategy to reduce homelessness.

Click the link for a full copy of the “Innovation in City Hall” Report or see it attached with this story.