United States
Steven L. Reed
205,501 (2010)
Marcus Holt
Save costs and improve efficiency within the public sector
Improve internal government operations
Improve service delivery
Dedicated funding
Focus on measurement
Dedicated innovation team
Culture of innovation in city
Engagement with partners
Support from outside city administration
Leadership from Mayor
Montgomery is partnering with community members like the Maxwell Air Force Base to leverage local expertise with the aim of enhancing the city’s innovation capacity and developing the tech sector workforce. The city has also designed a program to identify and prevent blighted and abandoned property through the analysis of data pulled from utility firms and housing codes. Innovation goals set by the Mayor, include appointing a Chief Innovation Officer and establishing consistent funding for innovative projects.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Montgomery, AL does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to more than half of cities surveyed, Montgomery, AL approaches innovation capacity both from a holistic/macro level, as well as in specific policy areas.
Equitable neighborhoods and services: Montgomery partnered on a pilot project to streamline the process of gathering external data (e.g. water bills, electricity usage, etc.) to better detect potential blighted and abandoned properties. This digital platform/tool has helped to drastically reduce their response to blight in neighborhoods. Another component of the fight against blight is repairing roads, potholes and irregular neighborhood issues. Montgomery partnered with civic tech provider Rubicon on a pilot project allowing them to turn their Sanitation fleet into "roaming data collectors" for City hall. Sanitation team members can flag these issues while on their routes, which will be directed to a platform shared with team leaders and other department inside our government.
Digital Governance: The city has launched live streaming, real-time video feeds of City Council Meetings and other public events. Montgomery also worked to streamline the process of completing forms for event organizers. They are also utilizing a public safety tool that taps camera feeds voluntarily shared by residents and businesses, bringing them all to one central MPD location that has helped improve public safety by serving as a force multiplier.
Montgomery has an innovation-related task group with delegates from different departments. The city’s IT Director leads a cross-departmental team consisting of 10 staff.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Montgomery, AL has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Similar to 61% of participating cities in the 2020 survey, Montgomery's funding for innovation capacity is also directed towards training staff and building capacity*.
*"Training staff and building capacity" is not an option in the 2018 survey, while "Launching or sustaining a project" is not an option in the 2020 survey.
Montgomery has developed partnerships to promote innovation capacity with other public agencies, private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with the private sector, academia and think tanks, to collect and analyze data, as well as with other cities.