Innovation Team

Mission Statement: The Innovation Team supports the City’s Strategic Plan goal of Effective and Sustainable Government through innovative practices and a culture of data-driven decision making.

The innovation Team meets regularly to discuss city wide challenges and how new ideas, methods or technology can be utilized to meet those challenges.  Two core topic areas for the Team are Open Data and Performance Management.  This work is meant to promote government transparency and accountability. A 4year Summary was published in 2021

Open Data Policy

The City of Salinas adopted an open data policy to promote transparency through increased community access to government data and information.  The Council Resolution and Open Data Policy focuses on providing information to key topics, such as crime, service requests (sidewalk and street repairs), construction, permits and zoning, etc.

The Policy's purpose is to make data available to the public, encourage entrepreneurs to build useful applications with City data, and increase collaboration between the City and the business community. City staff are currently working on the implementation of the policy to expand its open data capabilities. 

Performance Management

Performance Management is the active and strategic use of performance standards, measures, progress reports and ongoing quality improvement efforts to ensure the City of Salinas achieves desired outcomes for its residents. At its core, performance management is about translating goals into results.  It is necessary to properly create and sustain an effective results-oriented culture.  Some key outcomes for a Performance Management program are: 

• Addressing department or program challenges 
• Moving from measuring and reporting towards managing and improving results 
• Supporting organizational commitment to improving performance 
• Transforming the organization, its management, and the policy making process

What Works Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies

Much of the above efforts are the result of work done through a grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities initiative.  Salinas received expert technical assistance from many What Works Cities partners, including: the Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) at Johns Hopkins University, the Sunlight Foundation, the Behavioral Insights Team, the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Results for America.