What’s next for civic innovation in Louisville

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On the Priorities, Louisville, Kentucky podcast, Chief of Civic Innovation Grace Simrall talks about how her team prepared the city’s new mayor, Craig Greenberg, to take office.

Simrall, has been Louisville’s top civic-technician since 2016, all of that time spent working with Mayor Greg Fischer, who stepped down on Jan. 1 after 12 years.

It was interesting. We did our best to help prepare both the mayor and his transition team ahead of his inauguration, Simrall says on the podcast. He obviously comes from an experience as an executive manager, focused on customer service. It’s helpful that innovation has always had that lens, that we play a customer service role.

Smirall says Greenberg is taking office at an interesting time, with record amounts of new grant funding available to cities.

We have access to historic amounts of money, both through formula funds and competitive grants, Simrall says. These are things that we know we’re ready to take advantage of, and it’s often been a but for the money, so here we are. We have an opportunity to distribute these funds, these historic funds, in ways that are transformative for our communities.

In this week’s news:

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released its long-awaited review of cybersecurity readiness in K-12 school districts. The report acknowledges that while many schools face staffing issues, there are opportunities to improve cybersecurity risk management. The report places the burden on school administrators to hire cybersecurity personnel to protect their systems.

Phoenix is ​​building its wireless infrastructure ahead of this year’s Super Bowl. The city, along with providers, has made major upgrades to its 5G network which will provide service for the event and its massive security operations. Mayor Kate Gallego says the city has about 50 employees who met regularly with other participating governments ahead of the game.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is banning state agencies from conducting any business with telecommunications and technology companies tied to what she saw as evil foreign governments. The executive order targets companies based in China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela and builds on the governor’s earlier order that banned TikTok from state-owned devices.

The StateScoops Priorities podcast is available every Thursday. Hear more here.

If you want to hear more about the latest from the state and local government tech community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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