Field trip: City Hall

Pre-field trip:
Debate on dress code – Blazers vs. Track Jackets

Travel:
Muni with clipper card tutorials for the bikers.

SF City Hall Wiki trivia:
Dome is the fifth largest in the world.

Conference room:
Freezing, fellows glad they had track jackets.

Speakers:
Steve Cawa – Chief of Staff to Mayor Lee
Jay Nath – Chief Innovation Officer
Nancy Alfaro – Director of 311
Ed Reiskin – Director of Municipal Transportation Agency
Shannon Spanhake – Analyst on Innovation Team

Notes on speeches:
The glass is half full. Abundance not Scarcity.
Customer service!
311 is not a switch board.
Bureaucracy doesn’t have to be bad. Is just bogged down in layers of well intentioned rules.
Thanks to innovation, it is an exciting time to work in city hall.

Notes on the speakers:
Glad these people exist. City workers need better PR, they are not in it for the fat pension.

Speakers Advice for navigating city hall:
Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.
Use their own data to plead your case.
Not everyone is as technically savvy as you.
When it comes to tech lots of people are afraid of looking like neophytes.
Don’t let legacy systems get you down, they are a chance to help.
When all else fails call in the big guns.

Original post