City Innovation

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Alexandria

United States

City Manager

Mark B. Jinks

Population

160,035 (2017)

Innovation Website
Lead Innovation Officer

Greg Useem

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Innovation is helping to:

  • Improve internal government operations

  • Improve service delivery

  • Save costs and improve efficiency within the public sector

Critical success factors:

  • Dedicated funding

  • Focus on measurement

  • Dedicated innovation team

  • Leadership from City Manager

Spotlight on innovation in Alexandria

Alexandria has been leading several initiatives to promote performance and accountability of the municipality.

  • Performance Dashboard: Annually, City departments report on how well their department is performing using key indicators. This information is used to track and evaluate performance.
  • Resident Survey: The City conducts a survey of the residents to help the City Government know more about resident's expectations and level of satisfaction with public services.
  • Vision Zero: Vision Zero is a multidisciplinary, multi-national traffic safety plan that aims to achieve a transportation system with no deaths and serious injuries by analyzing historical crash data.
  • Data-Informed Fire Stations: The City’s fire station optimal location study with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyzed the location of current and potential fire stations.

Note: The City Innovation Snapshot (PDF version) was produced in 2019 and some aggregate findings have been updated with the latest survey results below.

Vision and approach to innovation capacity

Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Alexandria does not have an explicit innovation strategy.

Alexandria approaches innovation capacity at the departmental level.

Policy areas that Alexandria is focused on

Policing and law enforcement
Transport/Mobility
Policy areas by number of cities

Alexandria utilizes 1 innovation skill or role

Public policy analysts
Innovation roles by number of cities

As an independent team, Alexandria’s innovation work is being done by a team of two led by the Chief Performance Officer.

Terms Alexandria most associates with innovation

Big picture re-thinking
Data analytics

Alexandria's most common innovation activities

  1. 1

    Taking risks or testing new ideas

  2. 2

    Data-driven analytics/public data management

  3. 3

    Engaging residents in new ways

  4. 4

    Developing new solutions based on digital technologies

  5. 5

    Organizational change within the municipality

  6. 6

    Human-centered design

  7. 7

    Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships

How is innovation funded here?

Like 81% of cities surveyed, Alexandria has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.

Top sources of funding

Municipal budget
Municipal budget
This could include, for instance, City Council approved funds; operating budget; a special funding process (bond, Mayoral special initiative funding, etc.); and participatory budgeting / citizen-selected budgeting.

Activities being funded

Launching or sustaining a project
Idea generation & brainstorming
47 cities
Launching or sustaining a project
79 cities
Idea generation & brainstorming
51 cities
Investing in digital systems
36 cities
Investing in physical infrastructure
30 cities
Paying for services

Among all cities surveyed, launching or sustaining a project, and generating ideas & brainstorming are the two most commonly funded activities among all cities surveyed.

How is innovation measured?

Data availability by policy area

10
5

Sufficient data

Transport/Mobility

Economic Development

Housing and built environment

Policing and law enforcement

Health

Waste and sewage

Labour market and skills

Environment and climate change

Social inclusion and equity

Public works

No Response

Water

Education

Culture

Tourism

Digital governance