"The branch, which is a part of the Mayor's Executive Leadership Team, will include the departments of Development Services, Economic Development, Planning, as well as the city's nonprofit redevelopment agency, Civic San Diego, and the newly created Office of Sustainability," city communications director Katie Keach wrote to Techwire.
David Graham will lead the new branch. He was the deputy chief operating officer of Neighborhood Services since 2014.
"With a 20-year history in government and private sector primarily focused on land use, planning, economic development and civic innovation, David is the ideal leader for this branch," Keach wrote. "He has been on point for many of San Diego's efforts to become a more sustainable and data-driven city. David has a knack for collaboration and bias toward action."
That department, and other Smart City efforts, led to creation of the new branch.
"From enhancing San Diego’s global standing through innovative economic development efforts to continuing implementation of our aggressive Climate Action Plan, the branch’s work will have both short- and long-term positive impacts," Keach wrote.
The city wants to reach goals like 100 percent renewable energy, zero waste and increasing mobility options.
"Given San Diego's leadership role in driving smart-community efforts, it was a natural decision to create a branch focused on coalescing these efforts, and David Graham was a perfect fit to lead this new branch," Keach wrote.
Graham will continue to oversee projects as well as assist in starting new ones.
Keach said that "includes many of the programs and departments that have benefited from his leadership and ingenuity in his previous role. Implementing the vision of Mayor Kevin Faulconer to make San Diego government be as innovative as the people we serve, David coordinates cross-department smart and sustainable community efforts."
Some programs included being a member of Metrolab Network, a group of city-university collaborations, installing and maintaining one of the largest municipal IoT networks and using data to improve business processes, including the city sustainability report and appendix.
"The thing that gets me really excited is that there are cities around the entire country that are driving this forward, and it doesn't matter if you're a blue state, red state, middle state, we are all trying to be smarter," Graham told Techwire in a phone interview. "I work with cities like Louisville, Seattle, down in Florida, and I think for the first time cities are the big movers that ultimately lead to a state and national agenda of being smarter and data-driven."
The city plans on installing sensors and enhancing the IoT network to collect and analyze data on air quality, parking availability, and pedestrian and bike traffic.
"This information will be accessible to other departments in the city, who will use it to make decisions," Keach noted. "The parking space data will be used in real time with a mobile app, decreasing the time it takes drivers to find a parking space, and thus removing congestion from San Diego’s roads, which in turn helps meet our Climate Action Plan goals."
Funding will come from the city's General Fund.
"It is also notable that this branch of innovators are also in the operational departments of the city which reflects our desire to embed innovation across all of our departments," Keach wrote.
