Mayor Receives Final Report For Bloomington's Task Force On Government Innovation

Last updated on Wednesday, August 17, 2016

(BLOOMINGTON) - On Monday, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton received the final report from the City of Bloomington Task Force on Government Innovation.

This group was tasked in January with reviewing and subsequently offering recommendations to enhance the City's interactions with its citizens and improving its internal efficiencies.

The Innovation Task Force presented their recommendations as eleven priorities for the 2017 City of Bloomington budget year. Five of the eleven priorities are ranked as top tier:

Create a Department/Director of Innovation
Run a 2107 budget participatory budgeting pilot
Define, measure and publish metrics
Create a Public Engagement Officer and/or Office
Create an Ombudsman position

The remaining six priorities are as follows:

Develop an updated U-Report system
Create a community calendar
Encourage staff development to facilitate better customer service
Utilize web and mobile messaging services to provide assistance and guidance to citizens
Support city-run invasive control days to pull invasive species at Cascades and other areas
Develop a Community Innovation Fund for innovative projects that produce community value

An overarching message from the task force, supporting all recommendations, is the importance of creating and fostering a culture of innovation and openness within city government.

Following receipt of the task force's report, Mayor Hamilton will take the recommendations under advisement and share the findings with other legislative bodies and City of Bloomington departments.

Mayor Hamilton expressed great appreciation for the work and commitment of the Innovation Task Force members:

Daniel Bingham, Software Engineer, co-chair
Darryl Neher, Kelley School of Business, co-chair
Claudia Avellaneda, SPEA
John Barnes, City of Bloomington
Alex Crowley, Excello Solutions
Christian Freitag, Sycamore Land Trust
Kathy Gutowsky, Center for Disaster Philanthropy
Lucy Schaich, City of Bloomington
Robert Shrake, City of Bloomington
Mike Trotzke, Sproutbox
Sue Wanzer, City of Bloomington (retired)
Matthew Wolf, SPEA/City of Bloomington

City of Bloomington's Deputy Mayor Mick Renneisen and Director of Information Technology Services Rick Dietz provided staff support.

The final task force report can be found at bloomington.in.gov/innovationreport.

1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com

Click here to go back to previous page