The importance of the innovation & technology department in Sioux Falls

Citizens in Sioux Falls have had quite a bit of flooding information at their fingertips this past month. The city centralized much of it in one location on its website and through social media.

"Technology plays a critical role in disaster responses like that, and that's only going to grow as we move forward," Mayor Paul TenHaken said.

It's already growing with a new team member added to the innovation and technology department in Sioux Falls. Allie Hartzler started Monday and is the first innovation coordinator for the city. Mayor TenHaken said adding her position will help solve issues more quickly in Sioux Falls.

The mayor combined IT, GIS, and the communications departments to rebrand them as the innovation and technology department late last year. The director of innovation and technology, Jason Reisdorfer, said his team helps solve problems in the city.

"Technology, data and overall innovation are key elements to solving problems. If you look at most of the problems we face in our city, there's typically a data component or a technology component that can help us in some way," Mayor TenHaken said.

"Technology isn't the answer to everything but a lot of times, it helps," Reisdorfer said.

In a situation like the flooding event Sioux Falls has experienced this past month, it helped a lot.

"Those are the types of quick wins our department is always looking for," he said.

Reisdorfer started in his position four months ago.

"When we wanted to move forward with some of these innovation projects, we looked and said this is a position that we need," Reisdorfer said.

That's why the new innovation coordinator, Allie Hartzler, was hired. She said it's an exciting role to help all the city departments work together to solve problems.

"More importantly, I think it's about the people, and it's important to keep our focus on how we can solve problems, and it's not always about having the fanciest piece of technology. Sometimes, it's just closing that communication gap," Hartzler said.

Her position makes sure ideas don't fall through the cracks. One of the first things she'll work on is a "Dream Sioux Falls" concept. Reisdorfer described it as Hartzler gathering ideas from citizens and crowdsourcing negative or positive feedback on the ideas from the public.

"It's been an idea for the last couple months, but we've never really had anybody to drive the bus on that," Reisdorfer said. "Most ideas are not going to come out of this office. Most ideas are going to be identifying the needs that the people want."

Hartzler will also start working on ideas to improve city transit.

She said to contact the city's social media accounts if you have any ideas on how to solve some issues in the city. You can find a link to the city's Facebook

.

Hartzler worked at Click Rain in Sioux Falls for the past 3 1/2 years. She started as a marketing engineer and ultimately was promoted to marketing engineer team manager. She has also served on the Siouxland Library Board of Trustees and the DTSF Marketing Committee for the past two years in Sioux Falls. She worked at Metro Transit in Minneapolis while she was in college as well.