Innovation Office

Welcome to the City of Milwaukee Innovation Office!

The Innovation Office is focused on identifying and implementing opportunities to enhance public services, improve service efficiency, modernize operations, recover revenue, and ensure exceptional service delivery. Our office serves as a catalyst for positive change, leveraging data-driven insights, strategic partnerships, and diverse expertise to propel Milwaukee forward.

Data and Technology:

• Formed a City of Milwaukee Employee Data Advancement working group to drive employee upskilling and data strategy development.
• Explored AI opportunities to support employees and enable efficiency.
• GovAI Enterprise AI/LLM Chatbot Tool – led efforts to bring enterprise-wide chatbot for the city that is oriented to government and has security features not found in larger chatbot competitors. Fixed annual cost of $48.9k represents a supreme savings over cost per seat if City were seeking enterprise level of Co-Pilot, Gemini, etc.

Grants:

• Secured a 2-year Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellowship.

Motor Vehicles:

• Non-consensual towing admin fee adjustment - recognized DPW was not collecting the statutory allowable max on this state fee, where we are allowed to charge an administrative fee for providing an update on if a vehicle was stolen to private towing companies. Added about $50k in annual revenue.
• Motor vehicles registration fee adjustment - championed budgetary inclusion of $10 fee increase, representing an opportunity to raise about $3M annually in funds to pay for road improvement and complete streets efforts in the city.
• Habitual Parking Violator Ordinance – promoted and drafted ordinance to attempt to claim over $30+ million in outstanding funds from persons with five or more outstanding parking citations. Early efforts over the first couple of months show $300k in formerly outstanding revenues paid.  
• Licensing reform for non-consensual towing companies – drafted reform which passed Council to tighten licensing requirement for non-consensual towing companies, allowing the City better effort to reclaim large amount of outstanding revenues owed to the City by these towing concerns and also allow for more accountability for residents who wish to challenge a license from an unscrupulous provider. 

Policy Reforms:

• Modified non-consensual towing license and habitual parking violator ordinances.
• Non-consensual towing admin fee adjustment – recognized DPW was not collecting the statutory allowable max on this state fee where we are allowed to charge an administratively for providing update on if a vehicle was stolen to private towing companies. Added about $50k in annual revenue. 

Financial and Revenue:

• Initiated a communications audit with Information and Technology Management Division and the Comptroller's office to enable pricing transparency and eliminate idle technology accounts.
• Recuperated significant outstanding conduit occupancy city receivables.
• Revised Milwaukee City Ordinance Chapter 98 on city conduit usage.
• Achieved a $27.5M revenue agreement with Wisconsin Center District over 35 years.
• Maximized city towing administrative fee revenues.
• Wisconsin Center District revised PILOT agreement – researched, laid out plan for revising pilot agreement, served on negotiation team and drafted legislation of revised long-term pilot deal that will bring city about $28m over the next few decades.
• Chapter 98 conduit system revision -  Led efforts to revamp entire code of City ordinance overseeing comms firms usage of our conduit system. Effort to tighten licensing allowing city better efforts to reclaim up to $5 million in outstanding funds owed us, auto annual increases and other reforms.
• Medicare Advantage plan – worked to advocate and assist efforts to advance MA as an alternative to prior city part B healthcare for Medicare eligible retirees. Savings of about $500k per year.
• Municipal Court non-traffic deposit schedule revisions – promoted over once in a decade increase in forfeiture schedule resulting in possibility of $150k+ in added revenues.

Collaborations:

• Established a shared software system licensing agreement with the City of Wauwatosa enabling cost savings and expanded labor reporting compliance.
• Established a Police Recruitment and Retention workgroup with the Fire and Police Commission and Milwaukee Police Department.
• Initiated University of Wisconsin La Follette School of Public Affairs Capstone research studies on MPD police recruitment and emergency management optimization.
• Wauwatosa workforce tracker software licensing agreement – negotiated and drafted licensing agreement for Wauwatosa to access city workforce software for their own RPP/SBE program on subsidized development.
• Employee Engagement Survey – internally promoted effort for a follow-up employee stay survey to one initiated 4 years back. Effort will provide a special focus on MPD retention given the importance sworn strength has for City compliance with 2023 Wisc. Act 12, along with the pension portability new officers have through City inclusion in the Wisconsin Retirement System. 
• Police Recruitment Consultant – Championed effort to hire outside consultant to assist with social media campaign, revising outreach efforts, and devising new web site for police recruitment efforts out of Police Recruitment and Retention Working Group I worked with Lee Todd to reinstate. Early months of the new campaign have seen more than a doubling of former monthly application rates.
• MIDTOWN Walmart Redevelopment – devised and promoted effort now underway for mixed-development deal that includes new affordable housing, future library location and election commission early voting, central count and ballot storage site, and private storage business to be housed within a long vacant former Walmart location at Midtown.
• Hoan Foundation Funding City Pilot Projects – Negotiated agreement by foundation to fund ADU housing planning revision effort in DCD/DNS and DPW technology pilot for detecting and organizing potholes on city streets to be more efficiently filled.