United States
John Dailey
193,000 (2018)
Christian Doolin, Tim Davis
Improve internal government operations
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Service current obligations
Dedicated funding
Dedicated innovation team
Culture of innovation in city
Leadership from Mayor
Tallahassee uses innovation insights to drive the TEMPO (Tallahassee Engaged in Meaningful Productivity for Opportunity) Program, which identifies disconnected youth lacking access to employment and education opportunities or social services and provides them with supplementary targeted support. Additionally, the city has also worked with a research team from Florida A&M University to assess how the city can access fiber optic internet service, leading to expanded telecommunication services, in progress toward Tallahassee’s aim to be the first gigabit City in the State.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Tallahassee, FL does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to more than half of cities surveyed, Tallahassee, FL approaches innovation capacity both from a holistic/macro level, as well as in specific policy areas.
While developing the City's strategic plan, the city considered how several policy areas will change in the coming 5 years. An area of focus has been the Tallahassee International Airport and its economic impact on the region.
Situated in the City Manager's office, Tallahassee’s Strategic Innovation team consists of 5 staff, while the Technology and Innovation team has 15 staff specifically assigned to innovation work.
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, Tallahassee, FL has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Similar to 61% of participating cities in the 2020 survey, Tallahassee'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.
Tallahassee 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, private philanthropy, academia and think tanks, to collect and analyze data, as well as with other cities.