Headline: Future Tech Goals and Innovative Initiatives

Jonathan Behnke, Chief Information Officer at City of San Diego

Jonathan Behnke, Chief Information Officer at City of San Diego

About Jonathan Behnke, an IT professional with over 20 years of experience, who currently holds the position of Chief Information Officer for the City of San Diego. His extensive expertise spans diverse industries, including the public sector, oil, construction, automotive, distribution, consulting, and manufacturing. In addition to his pivotal role in San Diego's technology management, Behnke contributes his skills to the Board of Directors for SanGIS and serves on the California Cybersecurity Task Force in support of the CA Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

How does the City of San Diego approach the challenges and opportunities in information technology, especially in the context of public engagement and service delivery?

In managing the City of San Diego's IT department, we navigate the complex landscape of serving a population of over 1.4 million residents with 12,500 employees. With a yearly budget of $137 million, we focus on adapting to emerging trends in information technology for public services. Recognizing the shift towards increased public engagement, interaction, and self-service, we prioritize providing diverse channels for the public to communicate and transact with the government. By offering digital options alongside traditional phone-based services, we aim to enhance efficiency, reduce call backlogs, and cater to the preferences of our diverse community. Our commitment to a seamless user experience is exemplified by initiatives like a single login system inspired by the user-friendly model of platforms like Amazon. This dedication extends to our website redesign efforts, where feedback from 5,000 residents and visitors guided us in optimizing navigation for quicker access to services. The metrics following the redesign, including reduced page visit durations and navigation lengths, affirm our success in delivering faster and more intuitive access to essential information for the public.

Can you provide more details about the digital transformation initiatives you've led in the city? Also, let's address the challenges you've encountered as the CIO. What are some of the major hurdles you've faced in your role?

IT and cybersecurity pose significant challenges for many organizations. While a robust IT governance process helps mitigate risks, the abundance of solutions and tools sometimes leads the user community to adopt them without early IT engagement. To turn these situations into opportunities, we provide timely guidance and support, encouraging a model where the user community consults with us first for value-added services. Our investments in cybersecurity are foundational and integrated into every aspect of our program. Another challenge is the persistent issue of hiring and retention. The demand for IT professionals outstrips the supply, emphasizing the need to create an environment that nurtures and retains our most valuable asset—our employees.

We've addressed this by implementing a rewards and recognition program, underscoring our commitment to appreciating the significant contributions of our staff. Additionally, struggling with legacy applications has been a traditional challenge for governments. We've prioritized modernization across government organizations, emphasizing its role in reducing risk, improving public services and internal efficiencies, and providing better data for decision-makers. Our budgetary commitments reflect this priority, and we leverage powerful platforms like ServiceNow, Salesforce, SAP Amazon Connect, Excela, and Esri for economies of scale. This ensures quicker implementations and aids in meeting compliance standards, consolidating support, and facilitating training.

Can you elaborate on the specific strategies and initiatives implemented in the city, and how do these align with broader goals and objectives?

Our strategy begins with a comprehensive annual strategic planning process, aligning with the city's overarching goals. This involves input from stakeholder departments, city priorities, and insights from strategic partner vendors. The result is a detailed annual strategic plan complemented by five-year roadmaps for major service areas, ensuring alignment with both city and technology priorities. Our focus revolves around key pillars: modernization, maximizing the business value of technology, building resiliency into applications, and prioritizing the recruitment and retention of our skilled staff. These initiatives directly contribute to advancing the overarching goals of our city. To gauge effectiveness and user satisfaction, we conduct annual evaluations and city-wide surveys, allowing us to refine and improve our approach continuously.

What future goals have you set for the City of San Diego, particularly concerning technology adoption and strategy in operations?

Well, I'm exploring innovative technologies that can enhance adoption and strategy. Generative AI, in particular, has incredible potential in the government space. When considering use cases in the city, there's ample opportunity to streamline both internal and public-facing services. With 27 million annual visits, our website prompts us to monitor user navigation times closely. Our aim is to reduce the time and links it takes for the public to access the right information, especially considering the complexity of government services. Simple inquiries about library services, public safety, permitting, legislative agendas, or responding to RFPs can result in prolonged searches. We're assessing the reasons behind public calls to our department and evaluating if we can expedite information delivery through digital channels. Generative AI holds promise for multiple language support and summarizing complex information, benefiting both the public and our internal employees. Currently, we're working on a generative AI pilot project with an internal focus, showcasing early impressive results. Our public-facing project aims to translate city council agenda summaries into multiple languages in real-time, addressing the challenges posed by the three-day window before each meeting and fostering multilingual engagement with the public.

What piece of advice would you offer to your peers and colleagues in the industry?

I believe technology is crucial, but it must go hand-in-hand with communication and soft skills for success. Our projects prioritize people, processes, and technology, recognizing the importance of the human element. A few years back, we hired a former communications department leader into our IT department, initially surprising some employees due to his non-technical background. However, it turned out to be a significant win. His exceptional communication skills, lacking in our technical staff, made him a valuable asset. Over time, the entire team sought his help in developing communications and business relationship management. Often, technology is the easy part; it's the soft skills and communication that determine the success of an IT initiative.