Managed Service Provider Update
As you may know we have been working over the last several months on a procurement to consolidate our support service agreements with a single vendor. We currently have a staff augmentation model that has proven to have several structural inefficiencies. Our goals are to provide City employees with high-quality 24/7 technical support, improve our cyber security practices, enhance our network monitoring ability, and free department staff up to work on strategic initiatives. By consolidating these services to a single managed service provider, we are able to improve our service delivery and also save money.
We received 8 responses to our Request for Proposals and have narrowed it down to one vendor. We are on track to present our recommendation to the Finance Committee on September 9, seek City Council approval on October 7, and transition to the new vendor by November 1. Stay tuned for more information over the next few months.
Learning Lab 3.0 Teams
Congratulations to the Learning Lab 3.0 cohort! We have four amazing teams lined up to tackle important challenges for our organization. Say hello to the next cohort:
Cross Departmental Permits
Advisers: Don Jeppson & Bob Sinnott |
Spanish Language Engagement
Advisers: Roy Leon & Rebecca Woodbury |
Housing
Advisers: Paul Jensen & Raffi Boloyan |
Paperless Forms & E-Signatures
Advisers: Nadine Hade & Lindsay Lara |
The first Lab session is Wednesday, September 25. The teams will meet monthly for the next several months and work on their challenge topics. In June 2020, they will present what they learned and implemented at Demo Day.
Street Sweeping Routes and Schedules, Say What?!
When cars are parked on the street, we can’t sweep them properly which can lead to clogged storm drains, environmental violations, and frustrated residents. But residents need to know when to move their cars. So, we worked with Public Works to create a visualization of the sweeping routes and schedules. Residents can now find their house on a map and see which days and time frames the sweeper will be on their street. Over the next month we will be promoting this beta version and getting feedback from the community.
Take a look and let us know what you think! Big kudos to Zak Baron for building this in-house solution and thank you to the Public Works Streets Division for a great collaboration.
Human Centered Design Training
All employees are invited to participate in two upcoming human–centered design training sessions this month! You’ll learn about creative problem-solving techniques, active listening, and testing your ideas. These skills can help you get more meaningful feedback, design better programs, improve outcomes, and make your “customers” happy.
Wednesday, September 25
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Thursday, September 26
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Location
Public Works Break Room
The Thursday training is in partnership with Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) as part of a nationwide series of local government workshops called ELGL Road Trip. It is open to anyone who works in (or loves) local government, so feel free to invite friends and colleagues from other agencies!
Online Registration:
- City of San Rafael employees: employees.cityofsanrafael.org/tsr
- Non-City of San Rafael employees: elglroadtripsanrafael.eventbrite.com
August All-Hands Meeting Recap
Following our department offsite, our team jumped into action during our next all-hands meeting to develop a “team agreement.” We talked about the various elements of the workplace that help us do our best work, including how we want to communicate with each other and how to signal to others when you are doing deep work, among other things. Christine, Nate, and Sergio are taking all the data collected from our meeting and creating a draft team agreement.
The Great Hack
Have you ever had a conversation about something, then immediately saw an ad on the internet about it and thought, “Is my Alexa listening to me?” Or does “the internet” just know you better than you think? Your internet activity (such as searches, purchases, likes, even hovering your mouse over an ad) creates a massive data trail. Like up to 5,000 data points that can be used to predict your behavior.
Terrified? Check out The Great Hack, a Netflix documentary / real-life horror film. It details how invisible every day data can be harvested and weaponized for corporate and political gain. Happy Friday!