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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 06/12/2017 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: June 12, 2016 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–6:00pm Committee Members Present: Wade Troxell, Chair Ray Martinez Kristin Stephens City Staff: Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Darin Atteberry, City Manager Jacqueline Kozak-Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer Presenters: Josh Birks, Economic Health Director Michelle Finchum, Community Engagement Specialist Katy Bigner, Environmental Planner Katie Ricketts, Economic Health Analyst Sean Carpenter, Climate Economy Advisor Jackson Brockway, Business Analyst Additional Staff Present: Kelly DiMartino, Assistant City Manager Rebecca Hicklin, Administrative Assistant, EHO SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Manager Terri Runyan, Performance Excellence Program Manager Travis Paige, Community Engagement Manager Lindsay Kuntz, Learning & Development Coordinator Lindsay Ex, Environmental Program Manager Dan Coldiron, Chief Information Officer Lucinda Smith, Environmental Services Director Lisa Rosintoski, Utilities Customer Connections Manager Community Members: Myles Crane, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce Chris Johnson, Bike Fort Collins Dale Adamy, citizen Sam Houghteling, Colorado State University Sam Solt, Economic Advisory Commission Meeting called to order at 4:05pm Approval of Minutes: Kristin moved to approve the February minutes as presented. Ray seconded. Motion passed unanimously, 3-0-0. Think Tank Item 2-2017: Innovation at the City of Fort Collins 1. Innovation Ecosystem: o Innovation Community Framework—asset map of community—what we have, what is missing o Ecosystem:  Ideas/culture of taking on new problems  Talent  Place—context of challenges to solve and physical assets o Includes community members, clusters, climate economy, Talent 2.0, CSU, etc. 2. One Planet—employee engagement and sustainability program—in 8th year. o Platform for exchange of ideas—learning what we do within the organization.  Field trips—learn from employees, by employees, about the work we do— recognizing employees, supporting culture of innovation, fostering interdepartmental collaboration  Started in Utilities—sustainability focus— triple bottom line understanding of operations and services  15 tours in 2010, 90 tours in 2017. Started grassroots.  Community engagement—helps understand facets of organization and makes employees better at their job. o Bright Idea Award—Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation (January 2017)  Being contacted to learn how to replicate in other cities.  ICLEI article on One Planet (April 2017) o Developing internal talent—innovative culture—getting outside of own boxes  Learning laboratory among departments—breaking down silos 3. Innovate Fort Collins Challenge—Community co-creation opportunity/competition o Engage external organizations to achieve CAP goals o Modeled off Boulder Energy Challenge o Engage businesses, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and educational organizations o Projects don’t require much more than seed funds  Focus on energy, waste and transportation  Awards $5–$250K  LOI as first screening—then invitation to complete application—$5M in requests received o Evaluation criteria for applications  Demonstrate clear GHG reductions (direct and indirect)  Clear plan, schedule, identified measures, etc.  Equity components (minority, women, etc. leadership)  Scalability—primary impact in Fort Collins, but prove best practices  Matching funds  Regionalism—working with other partners in the area o Timeline  Applications under review  Public Pitch Night, August 3—inviting B&C members to judge  September—announce awards to 3–5 projects, begin monitoring o Projects 2  13 of 15 invitees completed the application  Interdepartmental team reviewed applications  $380K total funds available 2017/18 4. City as a Platform Taskforce (CPTF) o Need for CPTH was key finding in innovation community framework o Developing ideas about what can look like for Fort Collins—leveraging infrastructure and assets to improve economic and quality of life outcomes o Examples:  Smart Cities  Public/private partnerships  Internet of Things  Improved interface with government o Taskforce started in January—cross functional team  Conduct focus groups with staff about internal processes  Peer city research  Informant interviews with businesses and civic groups—reaching businesses that are working with or have tried to work with the City  Benchmarking  Drafting CPTF report—expected completion early July o Challenges and Opportunities  Thinking horizonally (“crows nest”)—in discussions with stakeholders discovered more work needs to be done on the “main deck.” Improve internal processes to lay foundation for CPTF o Peer City Review—analyzed traditional peer cities (university, similar demographics, etc.), and leaders in this field.  Kansas City, KS: Smart City brand, largest public wi-fi in country, open data portal, and innovation partnership program—startup in residence program, mentoring, develop products, in-house with city staff. Incentivizing startups.  San Diego, CA: Open Counter—Improving interfaces between government and community through technology. Upgrading municipal webpages to be user friendly. Ex: applying for permits. • Ran demo through this process (opening restaurant). Get GIS coded map to show where this commercial use is zoned. Get questions to answer about size, alcohol, staffing, square footage, etc. Get pop-up warnings for special issues. Also get list of permits, certificates, etc. needed with cost of each and total. Can complete applications for all online. • Helpful for entrepreneur who doesn’t have a commercial real estate broker to locate appropriate property.  Pittsburgh, PA: Ex: Uber agreement with city. Testing driverless vehicles. Piloted free service program in low- to moderate-income areas. Unfortunately, Uber reneged on agreement and started charging. Learning: Due diligence, be cautious who partner with to protect citizens. o What staff are hearing—Need for:  Transparent one-stop web interface for engagement with business and residents. All information in one place.  City to declare that open for partnerships, demonstration projects, engagement, testing technology, etc. • Ex: Self-driving cars, traffic sensing, etc. • With new stadium, have blank slate for data. With CDOT, can use data to analyze traffic patterns, helps decisions with game day 3 operations. Unlocking potential for other demonstration projects with CSU and others. • More data becoming available. Not yet sure what will become valuable.  Clear guardrails and processes  Utilities staff are supportive of innovation, caution about being properly resourced and staffed. If engaging in City as a Platform, cannot add on top of existing workload. o How do we balance risk of failure with desire to innovate? o Willingness to change some practices? Discussion • Length of each project of Innovate Fort Collins Challenge? o Six months to two years. • Lots of excitement—other opportunities to funnel other resources/grants? o Impact investing. Being intentional about who else we invite to Public Pitch Night. Bring along foundations, giving circles, etc. to showcase great ideas. Matchmaking. 2018 will have funding from City, but maybe 2018 grow funds available with other sources. • One Planet tours—Are there more than the list shown? Tour businesses? o Focus is on internal activities within the City—services and operations. Also look at key accounts and how utilizing water or electricity efficiently. Have track where employees can learn about outside activities. • How were invitations to apply done? o Had judging criteria—invited internal subject matter experts to review applications. Public will have input at Public Pitch Night. • Can tell where traffic is due to Bluetooth? o Can track speeds, volume of vehicles, etc. when Bluetooth is activated on cell phone.  Look at traffic patterns and time of travel. Real time data.  Can use on CSU game day. Could also track how crowds dissipate. • People, not cars.  Other technologies and services that provide connectivity back to user. Safety—coupling cars with users. Internet of Things and Smart Cities— support infrastructure. o Harmony and Timberline intersection—adaptive traffic signal?  Not deployed yet, but approved in budget. • What is risk in CPTF/innovation culture? o R&D—most of funds spent on R&D will not result in a new product. Considered a learning and process improvement. Have to be conservative with taxpayer money, time and resources. Calculated risk. Tolerance for failure if things we try don’t succeed?  Must separate from operations of the City. Keep operations solid and create a space, a “sandbox,” where failure can happen. Set reasonable expectations. Try many things. Fail quickly. Partnerships. Ex: CSU has higher tolerance for research piece of R&D. Balance. Informed way of learning. • And capturing learning for institutional knowledge. • Willingness to change regulations? o Operating procedures—willingness to make tweaks, changes, updates? 4 o Types of changes?  Example from San Diego—can we streamline process for getting permits? Would require changes to policy and practice.  Another example is purchasing practices—not always suited to unique relationship with a vendor. Leveraging a City asset to help a business develop or take an idea and try to operationalize, would need different relationship/transaction.  Standard procedures and some policies—currently when we partner with someone to solve a problem, they are then precluded from bidding on the project. This doesn’t work. • Allow greater flexibility for those interacting with the City in a business relationship. o Business community should have input on policy. • Example of city that purchased technology they seeded—should be able to do these types of transactions. o Purchasing is onboard with looking for process improvements. If looking to innovate, partner with private companies to create startups, need to look at longer term, not individual transactions. Bring new technologies and approaches to the City. Nuanced, relationship-based approach. o Risk of showing favoritism. Look at equity piece. o Purchasing has been clear that not changing rigor of evaluation and equity of access, but nature of work may evolve. With permission to proceed, staff will look at options. • Broadband—looked at cities that succeeded and those that failed. o Also need policies to be able to pull out when not successful. • Intelligent risk—starts with transparency. Tell community when have no benchmarks/ when have risk. Traditionally have to project ROI, in this case be transparent with goals. Can’t point fingers if have failure. o Predictability, transparency, simplicity. • How is World Class defined in this arena? How will you seek guidance? o Selected bigger cities that are leading the world globally. We can play in that sandbox. Holding selves to higher standard of those who are bigger, stronger, have more resources.  Needs better definition. Also, look at other countries.  Ex: Broadband is required in South Korea in all new buildings. Something to learn from other countries. • Balancing risk and failure—sharing risk with partners. More players in the game. Also, like idea of bringing in more granting agencies. Bring in other state and local grants, agencies, groups. Others might have capital to make it happen better/faster. Less risk to us and better product for community. • Would like a visual map of where this is going. DO: Next Steps • One Planet—look at external organization • Innovate Fort Collins Challenge—grow the funding pot, matchmaking, new participants • Conversation on risk o Be clear about what risk is. Transparent/predictable, articulate ROI o Partnerships—resiliency o Capture learning from failures o Guidelines around equity—open playing field o Continue peer research with cities outside U.S. 5 o How other institutions deal with risk Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative In April submitted application to Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative that promotes leadership from mayors. Mayor and two City staff will participate in program for one year. Includes short in-residence piece in New York. Throughout year there is commitment to various online and teleconference meetings. Working with mayors of other cities on projects that will have yield within own community. Proposal Mayor Troxell submitted is related to City as a Platform. Additional ideas—Mitch Majeski who has been involved in Safe Place to Rest— pointed to Stanford Collective Impact study—co-creation concept of community. Additional research to help engage community, including faith-based organizations. John Mosher program at CSU athletics—works with student athletes to develop real life skills within community— natural partnership opportunity. Also addresses diversity goals. • Phenomenal opportunity for the City. Bloomberg understands that Fort Collins is Council-Manager form of government. They are supportive of both Strong Mayor and Council-Manager structures. Great opportunity to be a model for this type of government. This process will help mayor clarify his interests. Gift! • First cohort; first year offered. 40 cities participating. Operational component is teamed with Harvard. Mayor Troxell will provide updates on this program at Futures Committee meetings. Will share readings. • Smart Cities—not a political agenda. Helping cities make improvements. • Related to other programs/initiatives that already participating in. • Great to learn from others. • Recently discussed international benchmarks at Executive Lead Team meeting. Ex: UK is really strong in benchmarking—so why benchmark along Front Range? Have to be very intentional. o Organizational paradigm—many businesses within City organization. Learn who is best of best in each industry and benchmark against those. o Ex: Transportation—can learn a lot from European cities. 2017 Meeting Planning Committee members were provided list of topics previously brainstormed. Have July and September scheduled. Members asked to weigh in on priorities for presentations. • Futurists • Disruptive technologies—informs strategic level to know what is trending—especially with electric utility, parking structures, road systems, etc. Can inform all discussions at Futures. • Cultural heritage—integrated museums, other cultural resources. o Celebrate cultural heritages every month. • Design Thinking • Voice of the Future youth panel o Ed Goodman—spiral experiences—platform for visioning. As do City Plan and engage community, think of everyone in community visioning their future in our community. Capture that input in planning process. Beneficial tool—residents see themselves in active role in community. o Students at CSU from other countries—shed light on what other countries are doing.  Goes with planning for demographic changes. • State demographer could give presentation on expected shifts. 6 • Apply lenses to presentations. • Leadership 7.0—Work with Council. Become better Council. o If change the way we look at things, the things we look at will change. o High level learning. Don’t yet have learning path for our board of directors. • Jackie will schedule presentations based on discussion. Meeting adjourned at 5:51pm. 7