Jason.

Okay, glad to have you here.

So if you would you can give us an overview of what you're presenting today.

Certainly.

You want to say with the start, I'll just briefly say with the start of the new administration, we've taken a look at the API team, so it looks a little bit different than I then uh in terms of structure and org chart than it did last year.

So we basically um have you know what is you know traditionally API um are folks that that are um working on process improvement and you know uh innovation um and so those folks are here and they're reflected here in the green.

I am sitting at the table because you know there's been a leadership change with that team, so I'm here kind of in an interim basis.

Um Jason is here to represent um data, the data team, and then Vinny, as you know, at the beginning of this year was named our chief um information officer, and so his portfolio includes digital services, which is part of the API team and IT, which comes next.

So um so that's why I'm here, but I'm gonna toss it over to Vinny to and Jason to talk about um you know their teams, what they do it and what we're here to present for today.

Great, thanks.

Uh so um just again introduction overview.

Uh I think you'll see on the first handout with the York chart that uh we provided you.

There's uh distinction between a couple different teams, there's different functions that each of them provide, but we all work in concert to execute on the uh you know shared mission of uh services or augmented services, I would say for our uh city departments uh uh naturally uh we interface both internally with uh different departments, every department, and then also uh externally with constituents in certain uh certain circumstances.

So um the digital services team as uh the deputy mayor said uh works closely with these teams but also with the IT team uh which uh we'll be talking about in about a half hour.

So um Jason, any overview from your team you want to go around?

Uh no, I mean I think you all addressed it.

Um I have a couple of questions.

How many of your employees are on the Sura payroll?

Certainly so if you flip over on the back side of that uh org chart, there's a copy from the budget book of the uh position details and they're color coded accordingly.

So there's uh to answer your question directly.

There's uh it shows five listings under Surah here.

Um one of them is not highlighted because it doesn't necessarily sit directly in the API department, but is funded through a grant that is uh more or less uh overseen by the API department and uh works closely with the budget team.

So um those are those positions there are going to be color coded and matching the org chart on the front that shows uh what teams they sit on.

So everything except those two.

Um the program manager that you see down there uh is the one that does not sit directly on the digital services team.

And then I'm gonna ask you another question.

Uh the director of innovation that you see on there uh has been moved to uh it's not highlighted because it's been moved to zero for this upcoming year, just given uh some of the structural changes that the deputy mayor alluded to.

So the sort of funding is not in there.

Uh not for a director of innovation, correct?

Okay.

So we're gonna go over the you talked about a direct of innovation.

Your management analysis.

Are you looking for one?

Oh, the sorry, the positions uh there's management analysts, is that what you're referring to?

Yeah.

Do you want to speak to that?

Yes.

So there's been an ongoing effort with um innovation to take a look at the positions that exist.

And I know the previous um chief innovation officer was trying to determine whether or not the positions reflect the uh job responsibilities, you know, which have evolved over time, and so management analysts was one of the positions identified to add to the roster that uh we thought might better fit the needs for the team.

But it would be you know, the intent would not be to bring on a new employee be an existing employee.

Okay, so let me um ask this question data project manager, your data analysts.

Those are vacant positions as of now, correct?

So is that are the funded positions funded?

They are in the budget.

Um the data analyst role has been vacant for uh around a month now.

Uh we had an individual move into a new role within the city.

Um the data program manager role.

Um we hired um we hired uh individual to fill one of those roles um a few months ago.

So it's been an ongoing process to to fill roles.

Um I think it was four or five months ago.

But uh the other role is still vacant, yes.

Okay, but it's funded.

Yes.

And the information system is coordinator as well.

It's funded but vacant or already.

Um yeah, one of those is currently filled.

Uh there is uh a second one that is vacant that we're uh looking to fill as well.

Will you fill it one?

Councilor Montel, do you have any questions?

Not yet.

Okay.

Sorry, go ahead.

No, no, you're fine.

You have to morning.

Blessings to everyone here.

Good morning, and we're joined by counselor Caldwell.

Thank you.

Um I was a few seconds a few minutes late, so I'm not sure.

Do we go?

Did the um Sarah?

How many positions, Sarah, do you have?

Yeah, on the uh back side of the org chart that you have there, there's a copy of the position details page from the budget.

Uh you can see at the bottom the Surah positions uh that are funded through the API department.

They're color coded uh according to the org chart on the front, so you can determine which team that they uh are on within the or which division and team within the API department that they are they are they're existing, these are all existing.

Okay.

So there's one new one though, right?

From what I mean the it's on it has sorry, uh in 2526, you know, you can see that there was one position and it continues in 2627.

So there haven't been the total number is was five last year and it's five this year, also.

So there haven't been any added.

So these all these positions were there all last year.

Correct.

Okay.

I have a question.

Um I noticed two positions are being eliminated.

Innovation project leader.

So are those funds going into these new positions, chief innovation data official deputy chief?

Are we switching funds limiting this position and creating these two positions?

So the intention is to eliminate the innovation project leader and have those two employees move into positions that um more closely aligned with the work that they are doing now.

Okay, so yes.

Okay, now you have system analysts information.

Are any of these positions are they frozen?

Their pay scale are any of them frozen.

No, I mean uh all positions.

Uh I'm not sure if I understand the question, but all positions would be eligible for you know, well, no, my my question is if they reach a certain rate, they reach a certain rate.

Does that mean the city says, well, we can't you you're maxed out.

You're you're maxed out.

Now you have some employees there that are union employees.

No, uh, there are no union employees.

So there's no one who's the one.

Okay, so there's no one.

Oh who's the oh Craig?

Craig.

Hi, Craig, Craig.

Sorry, yes, of course.

I know you're a union employee.

So Craig is, yes.

All right.

So what I'm saying is so we have some union employees or employee.

Yes.

All right.

If any employee has a problem, anything, who do they go to?

Do they go to the union rep or do we go to you?

So if Craig is a good idea.

Yeah, sure.

Have at it.

Hey, Council Rick Alsever, Director of Human Resources.

For any folks in the union, they have the right to their union representation, but they also have access to us.

So if there is any issues, they can go directly to the union related or union leadership, they'll bring it to us, or they can come directly to us and we work with the union leadership.

If they have any grievances, okay.

And there's never ever any recaliation or any charge.

Correct.

Thank you.

Yep.

That's what I want to know.

So Vinny or Corey, so the I see the asterisk on the bottom of this, and forgive me because I'm using Corey's glasses because mine are lost somewhere in the building.

But uh what's the the can you explain the $900,000 jump in the in the supplies?

I see it says co-terming efforts, but for my own confusion, what is co-terming?

Happy, happy to elaborate on that.

So to promote best practices in fiscal management of the software budget.

It is in our best interest and the city's best interest to align the contract dates with our fiscal year.

So what that means is we uh worked over the past year to uh adjust the terms, and I've I've come to you all on a number of occasions throughout this past fiscal year to uh um modify the terms of certain agreements, the the lengths of them to make sure that they align with our fiscal year.

So we incurred less dollars uh in this current fiscal year, which is why you see us uh uh in order to accommodate the adopted budget last year, we're coming in right around where that uh is and then next year we'll be incurring uh since we've kind of reset that start date for a lot of those contracts, be incurring those expenses.

That 900 would be about in half next year, probably.

So I would not or the 900 specifically.

So it would be around 2.4 next year in that line or um I'd have to look at specific terms of individual ones.

I can't I don't want to.

I'm just guessing it would be around half if this is just half this is just a one-time deal.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's going to uh um co-term would be a one-time deal.

That's what I mean.

Yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Okay, I got it.

So does it cut it in half for right now?

Uh that's yes, that's why we've gotten to the point where uh our FY26 projected is right around where the adopted budget was.

Uh is because we were able to uh uh reduce the costs we were going to incur this year uh to again accommodate what was approved there.

So um I don't have any questions right now.

How do we look how do we look like overall as far as our new systems?

A lot going on in the city right now.

Like, where are we?

How are we looking?

Yeah, we have a lot of systems.

I would say yeah, a lot.

Um we the digital services team and uh in collaboration with the uh innovation and data teams work to identify when you say where are we at with systems?

I I want to make sure we don't necessarily just uh exclusively talk about it in terms of technology and that we're not just here buying systems because you know we think technology is the latest and greatest and need and we want to adopt it.

Uh we take a look with our innovation and data teams to understand the processes behind uh the platforms that we utilize and uh make informed decisions based on whether or not uh a platform is going to be uh effective in our day-to-day operations.

So the innovation team does a really great job of meeting with uh departments understanding on a person level, you know, a systems made up of people, process, and technology, right?

So they they focus a lot on that people and process component, make sure that we're adequately uh uh equipping our departments and teams with the appropriate solution.

So DPW system, right?

How is that?

Are we back?

Are we like where we need to be with that?

Is that specific to payroll counselor?

Because I know that was a major issue.

I know a lot of uh employees had a lot of concerns about that.

So where are we with that?

So I mean I think it's I think it's safe to say, you know, it's an iterative process, so we're continuing to roll it out.

I think some of the concerns that we saw specific to DPW in terms of congestion at the clock and and things um of that nature, I think we've been able to work out.

Um, but it's uh it's an ongoing process, but I think given the success that we had in water, which I think arguably has the most complicated schedule, we don't anticipate any major hurdles um with DPW so far, things have been going smoothly.

Where are we like getting it to where we could say we're ready to go?

I know this has been like five years going that I know of.

Yeah, I don't know.

Are we about there?

Ready?

Yeah, go ahead, Josh.

Counselor's Josh Syerson on the innovation team.

Um so where we are in the project overall, we're just past the 50% milestone of rolling it out citywide.

Uh we should be close, actually, and we expect to have everyone done by the end of summer.

Um as we've mentioned a couple of times when asking you for the um to authorize the UKG uh next phase of the project and the mosaic legislation that happened earlier this spring.

Um those are additional phases that will bring it all under one roof essentially and make it easier for everyone.

So um the goal is that we'll have all of our current rollout done before we really kick off that next phase of the project.

But if that you know ends up getting delayed at all, these future phases are going to simplify it across the board.

Um our goal is still to get it 100% done by the end of the summer, though.

That answers your question.

Yeah.

Thank you, Jess.

These are the systems we have.

So yes, this is this list here is what was used to derive that 2.9 million dollar budget there.

So it's uh itemized as you can see by application name, spender, the description, and all the way down at the very bottom.

You can see that total number and how it was derived.

Thank you for this, because I think this is the most comprehensive list we've ever had.

Whoever did it.

Uh I will give a shout out to Craig Olmsted on our team who is a uh Rockstar when it comes to maintaining and a union employee.

Thank you.

Um can we go over personal services?

Um I'm looking at uh salaries of a title pay, how is how it has gone up?

Can you go into detail?

Um so this kind of gets to your earlier question, counselor, in terms of um right sizing the job responsibilities for some of the employees.

You know, they were being asked to do things that were not necessarily within the existing job responsibilities, which caused the out-of-title pay, but by right sizing them, we think we should be able to eliminate any out-of-title pay going forward.

Okay.

Is then the director of innovation uh to be determined in the numbers or not?

Yeah, so the director of innovation was in last year's budget, but is going to zero in this year's budget.

Oh, I'm sorry.

No, that's okay.

And just given the changes that we've had in the innovation team, we're we're taking a look with the entire team to see what we want that leadership structure to look like going forward.

So it's just you have an S DVD, so I thought it was not determined.

Okay.

Right.

All right, sorry, yes, I can see it now.

And I have one more question for you because we talk about the Sura a lot and we talk about how how do you propose that you're going to move, are you are are you going to move these employees out of Sura?

Yeah, so that is the intention is to move the existing employees off of Sura.

There are some personnel related issues that we need to navigate, but that's at least my goal is to um to get these folks off of Sura and back onto the general fund.

Counselor Codwell.

Counselor Nave.

So let me ask this last question, I guess.

And so you were talking about the having a system that is a complete whole, like, you know, across departments, right?

But then also each departments would most of them have their own specific needs to of IT for different services, I guess.

So but those systems speak to the bigger system.

I mean, is that the goal?

How does that work?

Yeah, certainly.

So we've got enterprise systems, which you're referring to in terms of that overarching umbrella of like what everybody has access to, and then there's department specific systems.

And uh throughout our evaluation process, when we identify new platforms uh that are necessary for individual departments, we look at interoperability, right, to make sure that they do communicate with our broader enterprise systems, or if uh you know, the codes department has a platform that they use, but uh maybe BAA needs to communicate with or get that data as well.

Yes, they we we take that into consideration when selecting platforms to make sure that we're serving the needs of while there might be a primary user such as codes, there's secondary users maybe such as BAA who need data from that, and we make sure that those communicate with each other.

Okay.

And I'm looking at this is gonna be my last question.

Um I'm looking at all of these systems we have is over us almost 70.

How do we actually manage all of those?

Magic.

The uh uh Craig Olmsted and uh our team does a uh phenomenal job of uh ensuring that we stay current with all of these, right?

We when it comes time for a renewal, for example, on a you know arguably yearly basis, uh, some of these, uh, we take a look and say, hey, uh are the is it being utilized?

We check in.

We have which, if I gave you the entire entirety of this, you'd have like a million more pages, but we have contacts with each department and who is the department kind of business owner, if you will.

And so we touch base with them, we say, hey, is this platform still being used?

Is it being used to the degree that we initially anticipated?

Meaning some platforms are licensed based.

If there's only 10 licenses or 20 licenses for a given department, uh, we we check in on that and say, do you need all of those licenses still?

Can we reduce these licenses?

So these are part of uh the the process that we do for every single one of these.

So we can go from 70 to 50.

Yeah, for essentially, yeah, and and uh ideally reduce our overall cost that we're incurring.

So we go through that process, we evaluate all the different components as as we can.

Um, and yeah.

Actually, another question, just a blanket question.

Um, thank you.

Uh this is a whole nother world, IT technology, all these different this whole packet of stuff is team.

Um, but I know you know, a couple years ago we were as we were processing and changing and we were trying to figure out what makes sense and payroll and all these all this the new technology.

One of the biggest things was making sure other people knew each other's jobs, right?

Crossing, because as people leave, then someone doesn't know, right?

So we got this phenomenal young man right here who was doing all this work, right?

Putting in all this time, but who else knows what he's doing?

That's gonna be important because we just should.

It should be somebody else knowing because that happened, you know, in the previous there was a situation nobody knew, and then we were stuck.

So absolutely.

We uh the digital services team in particular when it comes to these software systems, uh maintain internal documentation, and that's a shared resource for the entire team to review and have access to.

Uh that way, uh, if there's an event where somebody who was what we would call a product manager or someone who's overseeing the day-to-day operations of a platform uh was to depart, we have documentation to understand again the business use case and needs around it, the decisions that have been made in the past, uh, any uh special configurations, the way it's been implemented, et cetera.

So yeah, we uh certainly hear that and make sure that we uh you know make as much documentation as possible for that that case.

And I think to your point, Councilor Caldwell, I think that's where the opportunity is to restructure these teams so that you know um instead of Josh having all this information, for example, resting in his head that we have a team working on it, and so that that he has a partner in that process, and so I think that's why this gives us a real opportunity as we're taking a fresh look at these teams to structure them so that their actual teams working on projects, not everything's living in one person's mind.

To build a little bit on that, those like Camino, for example, I'm just looking at your list that are that are public-facing.

Um not everybody has the same skill when it comes to technology.

Um so do we have trained folks to train, or how do we train our residents to be able to use our systems?

Yeah, I think uh the the thing to highlight is that these technical systems are you know, they augment our current services, and I don't know, or I see Jess is over here, and Jess can probably speak to it uh a little bit, but also uh just to highlight that their office is still open, you know, on the first floor of OPP, where residents can still come in, get the the person-to-person guidance they may need in that uh instance.

Uh you know, it's not exclusively online or nothing, right?

So uh for those that are capable, certainly have technical skills uh and can leverage it, and I think there's a uh uh large uh portion of the community that is seeking modern engagement experiences with local government, really that uh but then also uh to your point, we're not leaving anyone behind in the sense of.

But still do want to do this.

So could there's um how do they engage with somebody to I'll let Jess speak to you know the uh you know permits department and counselor Jessica Brandt, um director of the central permit office?

So we do have the kiosk.

Um, but yeah, we work one-on-one with anybody if they if they need an application or they're having trouble, they don't understand.

Um we provide uh assistance over the phone, we do have computer right downstairs on the first floor, they can come in.

Um so we have many different ways that we can help folks out if they need something.

Exactly.

Thank you.

How many of your staff work from home?

Or from home, we don't have uh work from home.

Everybody's inside.

And how close are we to payroll modernization across the city?

Kind of related to the timekeeping project, and that's what you see.

Uh just began as as the authorization came in for the mosaic contract this spring.

That kicked off an 18 month effort to get payroll done.

That's kind of the next phase once timekeeping is done is to start payroll.

The goal of that is still to get done sooner than 18 months.

So our target right now is January 1 of 27.

But as we've seen in the past, sometimes there is delays that you encounter in these projects.

So the last thing we want to do is no delays, the last thing we would want to do is uh rush ahead and risk you know jeopardizing people's pay.

Um, but you know, that's our optimistic target right now is January.

Um the the agreement lasts for for 18 months, though.

So if not January, perhaps next July, but that's generally the the time frame we're talking about.

Are you resting?

Am I what?

Resty.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Counselor Monto, do you have anything else?

I'm off that thing also.

Let me ask this question.

Is everybody out there part of your team?

Just about.

There's a lot on the yeah, there's a lot of stakeholders too, because I know sometimes they're, you know, in the grand scheme of the city, API is a relatively new department, and I understand that sometimes there are questions about what does API do.

And so I appreciate that so many of the departments that we work that this team works with have showed up to you know demonstrate the value that they have in working with APIs.

So permits, parks, HR, VAAs back there.

I know they work with the fire department, and that's why um finance, yes.

Um so and that's why I just appreciate the team putting together kind of the project highlights to to give some information as to what exactly it is that API works on.

So each one of them they have specific duties with specific departments.

You all look very smart.

Absolutely.

That's part of my job.

No, I appreciate it.

All righty, we have three minutes left before we transfer to our next meeting.

So thank you.

Thank you for this overview.

I will have more questions, so I will talk to you, Vinny.

Sounds good.

I look forward to it.