What Happened?
Several mayors across the country are testing innovative strategies and challenging the private sector to help solve problems impacting the community as a whole.
Mayor of Ithaca
Svante Myrick, Mayor of Ithaca, New York, recently received the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award for his unique efforts to spur economic growth and entrepreneurship in the city. Within the state of New York, Ithaca boasts the lowest unemployment rate, while the city’s downtown center has seen improvements in density and livability.
In addition, the Tompkins County Workers’ Center certified Ithaca as a living wage employer offering $12.62/hour with benefits. The certification increased annual city spending by around $100,000 and ensured all 515 Ithaca employees received a living wage – which in turn reduces poverty while increasing the purchasing power of all employees.
Mayor of San Diego
Kevin L. Faulconer, Mayor of San Diego, California, announced a plan to expand the San Diego Works program to increase productivity while cutting costs. The initiative calls upon employees, labor organizations and management to work together to make an existing competitive bidding process more effective and efficient. The solutions should:
- Reduce costs
- Streamline processes
- Increase productivity
- Allow for enhanced services to taxpayers
Faulconer is presenting the idea to the city’s 10,000 workers, tapping into their ideas on how best to save money so more capital cane be allocated toward community projects and services. City employees with the winning ideas will receive rewards and recognition.
Mayor of Atlanta
Similar to Faulconer’s strategy, Atlanta’s Mayor Kasim Reed recently announced the winners of the first citywide employee ideas competition CityIdeas. The goal of the program was to collect solutions on how to eliminate inefficiencies and boost the government’s performance.
City employees were rewarded for sharing their innovative strategies with upper management through a public crowd-sourcing platform. The employees with the top ideas were presented with monetary awards based on the project savings from their strategies. The top three ideas outlined a potential cost savings of $7.1 million annually.
Mayor of Louisville
Greg Fischer, Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, received a City Leadership award from the Empathy and Compassion in Society for establishing three goals to keep Louisville thriving:
- Create a city of lifelong learning opportunities
- Improve access to healthy food and recreation options
- Sustain an innovative economy built on compassion
Fischer has devoted his administrative efforts toward making the city government more data-driven and accessible to individuals and organizations.
Mayor of Philadelphia
Michael Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been named a 2014 Public Official of the Year honoree by Governing Magazine after implementing policies to make the city safer and more financially secure.
Under Nutter’s administration, the Philadelphia homicide rate was reduced by more than 35 percent, while the high school dropout rate declined 20 percent. Nutter helped draw up the city’s first comprehensive plan laying out strategies to accommodate a growing population of young professionals by attracting new businesses.
Big Changes at the Local Level
Gov1 has reported on a variety of innovative mayoral actions to improve local communities, as well as successful initiatives trending nationwide.