What follows is an edited transcript of that email interview.
The takeaways are:
- Many apps are developed in-house
- End-of-life hardware replacement is coming
- The IT budget is $11.3 million
- Another $8 million will be spent over the next four years
- Cybersecurity is top of mind
Lea Deesing: In the city of Riverside’s Innovation and Technology (IT) Department, we try to leverage existing tools to do more with less. Our talented IT staff has developed award-winning in-house apps using industry standard development stacks. For example, we developed “Riverside Tour Guide,” a geofenced-based tour of our downtown monuments available in Spanish and English; our online bidder site where vendors can pre-register for various types of procurement activities and receive alerts when new RFPs become available; and our Riverside 311 app that allows citizens to report and track requests for service such as graffiti and other issues. We also leverage SharePoint for everything from servicing heart defibrillator devices to tracking our performance measurements that tie to the city’s strategic plan.
TW: What is the city’s IT budget, and what tech wish list items are outside of that budget currently?
LD: The city’s total IT operating budget is $11.3 million. Our technology wish list items outside of our current operating budget are in the categories of enhancing cybersecurity, replacing end-of-life hardware and infrastructure (servers, storage, and network equipment and licensing), system upgrades and IT staff training.
Measure Z is a one-cent transaction and use tax (similar to the sales tax), with revenues going directly to the city of Riverside. Measure Z was approved by voters on Nov. 8, 2016, to help pay for critical unfunded city programs and services. From Measure Z funding, the Innovation and Technology expects to receive $8 million to spend over the next four years, which will help bring (much) of the city’s computing infrastructure back to a well-supported state.
TW: What advice would you offer a vendor who wanted to pitch to you?
LD: If you want to do business with the city of Riverside, first register on the city’s bidder list so that you will receive alerts when we have an RFP posted. As previously mentioned, we have a slick new bidder system that we built in-house. Second, we often learn about new products and services from vendors at technical conferences such as the recent one held (last week) by Government Technology and Techwire in Sacramento. This allows us to quickly get exposed to a lot of new technology products and services in a short period of time. If vendors want to use Riverside as a prototype for their product, and we have a defined need for such a solution, we are open to having that discussion. Lastly, if vendors are launching a new product, it is best if they contact the IT department rather than the elected officials directly.
TW: What is on the horizon for the city’s IT procurements (six months out, one year out)?
LD: Due to the recently approved Measure Z tax, over the next year we plan to enhance our cybersecurity program, replace much of our end-of-life hardware and infrastructure, perform needed system upgrades, and procure online IT staff training for our almost 60 Innovation and Technology staff members. These are all Phase 1 projects — we will have more projects to come in Phase 2.
TW: What is your city’s biggest technology challenge? Biggest success?
LD: Cybersecurity remains our biggest challenge as the threat landscape changes on a daily, if not hourly, basis. Over the next two years, we also expect to do even more in the areas of data analytics, open data, performance metrics, innovation, government experience, business process re-engineering, and partnerships with tech startups.
Our successes are all based on leveraging our existing tools and skills to make a big impact. For example, we have won national awards for our suite of in-house-developed mobile applications, our cybersecurity program, and we won The Center for Digital Government’s Best of California award for our IT workforce development initiative called the “Kaizen Career Roadmap,” which facilitates mentoring, succession planning, and knowledge sharing within our department.
TW: What do you enjoy about working for local government, and what do you like least?
LD: I have enjoyed working in government IT for the past 20 years, and much of my enjoyment comes from the diversity of government agencies. In Riverside, we have 17 departments and each one is its own “vertical” market so to speak, with their own unique set of business challenges. For example, the fire and police departments are so much different than libraries, and libraries are so different from parks and recreation. It’s a myth that government is boring! More importantly, the culture I’m currently working in is very conducive to innovation. Our city management team and elected officials have created the perfect incubator for innovation; after all, Riverside is the “City of Arts and Innovation” and we take this very seriously. Every department is given a lot of room to try new things, pilot, succeed and even fail. In this culture, my team and I have been able to thrive, and provide award-winning services to the citizens of Riverside and beyond. And we’re just getting started, as far as I’m concerned.
TW: Other than technology or government, what is your dream job?
LD: I plan to work in government for about five more years, then I’ll be ready to dive back into the private sector, in a CIO or related position. Perhaps after completely retiring, I’ll likely start a home automation company to leverage the wonders of the Internet of Things (IoT). I’ve been doing a lot of work around home automation for the past decade or so, and it will be a great time to expand on my love for connected things.
If I had to venture out from technology, I may start up an innovative new health food company. I love what Bill Gates and Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin are doing around lab-grown meat. As a vegan, I’m excited about using innovation to benefit the environment and reduce the suffering of animals. Over the past year, I’ve greatly improved my health by consuming a plant-based diet, along with using “big data” to track my dietary intake, and the IoT home automation to track my health stats!
Recent Riverside Innovation and Technology Awards
- 2016 5th place in the Digital Cities Awards for Cities over 250,000 citizens from the Center for Digital Government
- 2016 Award of Excellence from the Municipal Information Systems Association of California
- 2016 Bloomberg’s “What Works Cities” Designation
- 2017 Riverside was ranked among the top five cities nationwide in Governing Magazine and Living Cities “Equipt to Innovate” national survey of cities
- 2017 ICMA’s Strategic Leadership & Governance Award for IT’s “Building a Municipal Comprehensive Next Generation Cyber Security” Program
- 2017 Center for Digital Government Best of California award in the “Most Innovative IT Workforce Initiative” category for IT’s “Kaizen Career Road Map” Program
