SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City’s first-ever Innovation Team is up and running, working to make the City more efficient, nimble and cohesive.

Announced by Mayor Erin Mendenhall in her State of the City address in January, the Innovation Team is focused on streamlining and implementing major projects that promise to simplify the City’s internal and public-facing processes.

“This team will lead out in creating a culture of innovation in City government, helping Salt Lake City to modernize business processes, standardize our approach to project management, improve public transparency, streamline inefficiencies, and promote the use of data to drive decisions,” Mayor Mendenhall said. “They’ve gotten themselves up and running in record time, and I think that swift approach is reflective of great things to come.”

Led by Nole Walkingshaw, a 23-year veteran City employee, the group’s first major undertaking will be an overhaul of the City’s existing financial, human resources, and payroll systems.

“Salt Lake City is rapidly becoming a modern City. We are seeing significant growth and development, new faces and a diversity in our community,” said Nole Walkingshaw, Chief Innovation Officer. “We are looking at ways to balance the impact of growth and provide opportunity and equity for our residents and those who will join us. This transformation requires us to step up our ability to serve the community, and our traditional service models need to evolve. At its core this team will support that goal.”

The Innovation Team’s creation follows a year-long effort to assess where current processes have fallen short, and research industry best practices. The Mayor’s Digital Equity efforts and initiatives will be a priority for the team, including strengthening our community partnerships, public Wi-Fi in public spaces and educational support through our expanded Youth and Family Services programs including the recent addition of a Fairpark youth and adult learning center, which will open this spring.

The Innovation Team held a live Q&A on Facebook today to introduce the public to the members of the new team and discuss upcoming projects. Watch the Facebook Live video.

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