Engagement in Bologna, Italy. The Deputy Mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, talked about how his city won an Engaged Cities award for their work engaging residents with local government. By engaging with residents the City is able to bring people into the process of shaping public spaces. Learn more from their case study: Co-Creating Urban Commons.

Finding innovative ideas with residents not just for them. Tulsa, Oklahoma has been empowering their residents to address longstanding or emerging civic challenges in partnership with city staff. James Wagner, the Chief Financial Officer and former Chief of Performance Strategies and Innovation, talked about their Urban Data Pioneers and Civic Innovation Fellowship programs. Through these programs Tulsa residents can learn about data analysis or human centered design as they bring new ideas into City Hall. The city received an Engaged Cities Award for their efforts.

Celebrating the most effective solutions to engagement. Myung Lee, the Executive Director of Cities of Service, joins the podcast to talk about their Engaged Cities Award, spotlighting solutions from around the world and her winding career path. Myung also shared the work of Cities of Service and how they help Mayors build stronger cities.

Leading Hillsboro. Mayor Steve Callaway from Hillsboro, Oregon joined the podcast to talk about his path into public service, how his city works to attract people into local government and reaching out to the Latino community. Mayor Callaway also discussed his viral social media post on dealing with a racism and his love of the Hillsboro Hops.

Cool things about parks. To celebrate the start of the #ELGLKnope Award contest for the best Park facility in the country we have an interview between Eleanor Wyatt and Bobbi Nance. Eleanor is a 9-year-old that has strong opinions about parks and Bobbi is the President of Recreation Results, a company that uses data and strategy to advise local governments in the parks and recreation sector.

Using scrum in local government. Michelle Thong, the Digital Services Lead at the City of San Jose, CA, joined the podcast to talk innovation, iteration and engaging the tech community. She shared the three innovation behaviors her office works to encourage in the organization and how she works to be a multiplier. Michelle also talked about starting the Code for San Jose brigade and how the City works with volunteers.

Transforming data into action. Miguel Sangalang, Deputy Mayor for Budget & Innovation, and Amanda Daflos, Innovation Team Director, joined GovLove to talk about their work at the City of Los Angeles, California. They discussed earning the top level of the What Works Cities Certification and how they are pairing budget with innovation. They also shared why they think data is important and how the City uses data to make decisions.

Measuring employee engagement. Bob Lavigna the Director of the Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement at CPS HR joined the podcast to talk about why organizations should take employee engagement seriously. He argues that there is a business case to keeping employees engaged at the workplace and that the best organizations have recognized this. He also shared his path into working with governments and the value of employee surveys.

Communications and media relations. Chris Floore, the Assistant to the County Manager for Public Affairs in Macon-Bibb County, Georgia, joined the podcast to talk about his work and building relationships with the media. Chris discussed the importance of the public information officer role and how he prepares staff to work with the media. He also responded to a report from the Society of Professional Journalists says public information officers are making it more difficult to get access to interviews and information.

Battling disparities through planning. Two people from the City of Minneapolis, MN join the podcast to talk about the hottest comprehensive plan in the country, Minneapolis 2040. Heather Worthington is the Director of Long Range Planning and Paul Mogush is the Manager of Community Planning for Minneapolis. Heather and Paul discussed the goals of the new comprehensive plan, which put dealing with racial disparities at the center of their work, and how they engaged the public throughout the process. The new plan will make big changes to land use in the city including eliminating single family zoning and parking minimums.