Good Ideas that Work: The What Works Cities Experience League of Arizona Cities and Towns, 2016 League Conference Janet Woolum, Performance Administrator, City of Mesa janet.woolum@mesaaz.gov

Good morning, What Works Cities is an initiative of the Bloomberg Philanthropies out of New York. They support the idea that making better use of data is one of the best opportunities cites have to solve problems and deliver better results for their citizens. In May, the City of Mesa was selected as one of the initial eight cities to participate in this program. Seattle, Denver, Louisville, Chattanooga, Jackson (MS), New Orleans, Kansas City. Now there are 21 total.

To and cities’ use of data and evidence to engage citizens, make government more effective (i.e., do what works), and improve people’s lives The primary objectives of the initiatives are to increase the use of data and evidence for decision making and more specifically using the data and evidence about what works to solve economic and social problems. Focusing in on what works….. Hence What Works Cities…. And engaging citizens in the process.

Performance Management Results-Driven Contracting Areas of Focus Performance Management Open Data Low-Cost Evaluations Results-Driven Contracting

Their business model is to secure partnerships with the most effective and highly respected non-profit organization and academic institutions with expertise in areas of analytics, open data, performance management, and innovation to provide technical assistance. As a participating city we had access to all of the these organizations’ expertise, experience, and tools (worth thousands of dollars) over the three-year period of the program and to the network of peer cities with which we can share best practices, innovations, and general knowledge. Right now, the City of Mesa has been working with Johns Hopkins University Center for Performance Excellence, and the Sunlight Foundation in two key areas.

Performance Management Elevate current performance management system Apply more complex analytics to decision making Open Data Transparency Unlock data for internal and public use The Performance Excellence team has been working with Johns Hopkins to enhance our existing performance management system at the department level, and elevating and accelerating efforts to take on citywide collaborations on citywide issues. This includes identifying and tracking key performance indicators, reporting progress on a public dashboard, and holding regular at meetings with cross-functional departments. Part of that is uping our game when it comes to more complex data analytics. This is an emerging area for the city.

Strategic Priority: “Transforming Neighborhoods” Reduce “blighted” areas Create safe, active neighborhoods Increase code compliance Improve building (commercial and residential) occupancy rates On the performance management arena, We began by convened citywide cross-functional groups to look at some citywide issues identified by the Mayor and City Manager. One of which was Transforming Neighborhoods: With assistance from Johns Hopkins, department representatives from across the city have been working to better define the priorities, identify goals and key performance indicators, and provide any supporting operational metrics related to the priority area that we already are collecting.

One of the first products of the work, is this index and corresponding map, related to blighted areas in the city. The group with our GIS folks to create this overlay of multiple data sets from five different functional areas to help identify potentially distressed areas. The benefit is that it started a discussion about the factors, these and others, that may be related to the distressed areas. The group has now gone back to work on identifying other key indicators, and will be conducting additional analysis and researching evidence from other cities about what has worked for them, and use that information to formulated recommendations for decision makers.

Open Data: making data available and accessible without restrictions

So in Mesa – we are building Open. MesaAZ So in Mesa – we are building Open.MesaAZ.gov – and hope to go live sometime this Spring. We are focusing first around the data that drives the decision on key City strategic priorities named by our Mayor, Council and City Manager – such as Increasing prosperity, transforming neighborhoods and creating a vibrant downtown. What we Learn was a whole lot about the data was collecting, who owned it, and where it was stored. What a hidden asset…. Followed the 10 most popular data sets Just added new to the portal our vendor payment data set Open.MesaAZ.gov

Impacts: We learned more about our data Jumped started our analytics program Fleet Services Vehicle Replacement Model Police 9-1-1 Response Staffing Model Code Violations Predictive Model The City of Mesa is just getting started on this. But through our work with Johns Hopkins and the What Works Cities folks we have learned a great deal about how to implement analytics and are learning from examples in other partner cities.

Benefits of Participation Active network of participating cities across the country Receive $$$$$$ worth technical assistance, and ongoing support Free resource guides Why other cities might be interested even if they can’t be an official member. Jump start… $100,000 in technical assistance…. That is on-going. A network of cities Resources and toolkits that are free and accessible on line. For example

http://whatworkscities.bloomberg.org/ http://whatworkscities.bloomberg.org/works-city-feature-mesa-az/ Janet.Woolum@mesaaz.gov