Developing Technology Strategy with Melissa Scott, CIO, City of Philadelphia

Melissa Scott, the Chief Information Officer for the City of Philadelphia, joins CitiesSpeak to discuss implementation in local government. As the CIO for Philadelphia, she plays a critical role in the city’s information technology strategy, infrastructure and operations. She is also responsible for ensuring that all technology initiatives align with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s goals.

For more information, visit us at nlc.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome back to another episode of Cityspeak. I am your host, Melanie Fon der Kay, Senior Executive with the National League of Cities. Cityspeak gives listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today and features conversations with government leaders and policy experts on the biggest issues and challenges facing America's cities, towns, and villages. Today I'm joined by a dedicated public servant, Melissa Scott, the Chief Information Officer for the City of Philadelphia. As the CIO, she holds a critical role in Philadelphia's information technology strategy, infrastructure, and operations. She's also responsible for ensuring that all technology initiatives align with Mayor Sherelle Parker's goals. Melissa has led innovative programs that improved licensing and inspections, voting systems, tax collection, and much more. Melissa Scott, welcome to Cityspeak.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Hello. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Melissa, you're a lifelong public servant working in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and with the city of Philadelphia. What initially inspired you to serve and what keeps you going?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

So it's a funny story. I don't know how far you back you want to go, but as a lifelong resident, I obviously went to high school in Philadelphia and I went to creative and performing arts. So I thought I wanted to be an actress. And somewhere around 11th grade, someone told me about starving, being a starving actor. And I realized on that I was not passionate enough about acting to starve. So my training actually began when I went to Howard University and I studied finance. And finance taught me structure and accountability and how to deliver results. I learned how to analyze data, generate reports, present to stakeholders, develop business strategies. And at the time, I felt like after I graduated, I had everything I needed to run a company. And honestly, I think that confidence really mattered. Not too long after I came back home. I actually, before I came home, I did a um leadership program with Citigroup. And then I came home and started volunteering in my community. Mayor Parker at the time, who was um a state rep, um, I they told me that there was a job opening and I should interview it because I was so much heavily involved in the community. And I started working for her, and I'm telling you, she unlocked my leadership skills that I didn't know that I even had. Um, driving towards vision, navigating complex problems, working with constituents, translating goals into action. And that four plus years experience really gave me a voice as a leader. But there was still something like burning inside of me about technology. But also not to mention, my dad kept pressuring me to go back to school because he said he didn't like my degree. He didn't like the kind of work I was doing. I need to do something more structured. So technology was always calling me because I was the person, it was in every office that everyone would go to and say, Hey, you know, can you help us figure this out? I was like the unofficial IT support person. So I went to Chestnut Hill College and I studied software development. And I went as an undergrad again. I didn't go in master's because I knew enough to know that basics was important. So at Chestnut Hill, that was transformative for me because um it actually helped me understand my using my finance, my analytical skills, and then learning how to program. It was just like a phenomenal experience. So after I left there, I went back to the private sector, and that was like a whirlwind. But I knew like something was missing. So I applied for a position at the city as an IT project manager, and that was transformative for me as well. Um, I led very complex, high-profile initiatives like the um election voting machines and um the Philadelphia beverage tax system. Um, but more importantly, I saw firsthand how technology decisions affect real people. Um, serving at the city really taught me that technology is never just about systems, it's about residents, neighborhoods, and access to opportunity. So you asked me what keeps me going. So my experience within the private sector gave me the rigor, discipline, and outcome-driven mindset. But then in the public sector, my experience really gave me purpose. And today, my experiences both combined, um, empower me to do what I love every day, leading not just for results, but to deliver equity and meaningful impact across the city through technology.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Can you just give an example of how you do that, how you do that in practice?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

One of the things that I wanted to talk about is the um voting machine. So we'll we'll get to that. That's one of my highest level projects. But, you know, it takes a certain kind of person to work for the city because we don't get paid the same as the private sector. So you're looking for individuals who have a passion to serve. So, like, that's the first thing. And then the second thing is people have a misconception that we don't have a lot of resources, that you know, it's just it's kind of like the wild, wild west, every we're just just figuring out as we go. But there is we we have a high level of professionalism, um, we do hire the best and brightest, that but the commonality between us all is the willingness to serve. So, you know, really how we do that every day. So through every project, through every implementation, and uh collectively as a team, we are all trying to make an impact within the city. And the great thing is that we all live in the city too, because that's a requirement. But so um that's just something that we do every day. And it's something that you you really have to want to be at the city because you could get frustrated, just like any job, right? Because it's not about the money, it's about making impact.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah, the mission. In your role as chief information officer, you created and led several innovations for the city of Philadelphia, including a huge leap forward in voting systems. First, can you describe what that issue was and then tell us how you dealt with it?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

So it's funny you say that because actually the most defining project of my career was um the transformation of the voting machines, where um the city was operating at 3,700 voting machines across 1,700 polling divisions and over 1 million registered voters. We all know that all the whole million did not vote. But um, that was just it wasn't just like a tech upgrade, it was a citywide democracy, critical infrastructure transformation. And um, we were replacing a 30-year-old paper-based legacy system with a hybrid digital solution that securely captured election results electronically while still producing a voter-verified paper trail. So it was innovative, it was highly scrutinized, it was controversial. And when I was asked to take over the project, it was already in trouble. It was like failing, and the previous PM stepped down, and the confidence was shaky, and timelines were really, really tight. And because um the elections, it it, you know, being on you had to be on schedule because they weren't going to change because there were IT delays. So I knew that this when I was asked to do the project, I said, okay, this could go one or two ways. I could end up on the news or failure, or I could actually really succeed. And nobody will really know my name, but that's okay. Um, because that's what we do as tech professionals. People don't really hear from you or about you until something goes wrong. But for me, you know, it really felt like a gift because I told you a little bit, just a little bit about my background, about the volunteering in the community, working for at the time, State Representative Parker. And so I always deeply cared about the voter access, civic engagement. And um, as a city employee, we were actually limited in how we can advocate directly. So this was a way that I could serve the voters, like through execution and technology. So, from a technology standpoint, the project really stretched me in a lot of ways. I had to click quickly learn the inner workings of the voting machines architecture, um, not just the machines itself, but how to integrate into like a broader election ecosystem, the ballot definition software, results tabulation systems, secure data transfer processes, chain of custody procedures, physical deployment logistics. Like this really was not a standalone device rollout. It was tightly controlled, end-to-end system with hardware, software, security, and the human process was all intertwined. So I worked closely with the external consultants, and I made a point to deeply understand the technology myself. I needed to be able to translate between engineers, um, election officials, um, and then they really didn't even speak the same language. When you talk, think about them, and then cybersecurity, logistics, and policies, and frontline operators. So aligning was not the easiest thing, but we had to make sure that the election day was flawless. So the big lesson here in this project was that testing was not optional at scale, it was strategy. So at 3,700 machines, 1700 locations, and even a 1% failure would have meant dozens of polling places with issues. So I remember a meeting distinctly where someone suggested that we should pilot the machines. And I said, Oh my goodness, you must be crazy. I said, Absolutely not. Instead, we're going to test every single machine. So after we test every single machine, then we ran a pilot election across different parts of the city, north, west, east, south, and so forth. Um, because when you think about it, neighborhoods and the logistics, the building types, the different voter flows, all of those um can make a difference. And I wanted to pressure test and simulate what it would be like on election day in the real world, not like lab perfection. So that experience really taught me that civic technology and trust is true del is truly delivering for the citizens. Um, because when you think about it, people don't even think about what it took to get that voter machine in that voting place. They don't think about the integration, the diagrams, the security protocols. All they can remember is the experience is whether the machine turned on, whether the ballots printed out correctly when during the verification process. Um, and did the line keep moving? Was it backed up? You don't want to be on the news, right? Again, because the polling place couldn't see everyone. So my job was to make thousands of moving parts feel invisible and seamless. And on election night, not one single division was unable to vote because of our machines. No major breakdowns or chaos or headlines. And for me, that was the true victory. And I didn't end up on the news, so just so you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

No, that's like an incredible example for a couple of different reasons. Um, but two things that you said really stand out. I'm curious about them. Um, one is your role as kind of that translator, like the kind of like, how do you make it make sense across all these different audiences? And then really, you know, that human element is a big part of the unknown, right? So, like, how do you think about that when you're going into a big project with such um so much on the line?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

There is, I and I try to teach my um IT PMs now. As being a CIO, I work closely with the team. I really feel like the PM group is the pulse of our organization. Every single unit has to work with a PM one way or another to get things done. And there's a finessing to it. It's really, I almost feel like I've you become a psychologist in some kind of way because you have to get to know how to approach people. What you got to remember is that you're telling everybody what to do and nobody reports to you. So that's the number one thing. It's so being assertive as well as being um finessing, getting to know people on a personal level is really important. How's your family, you know, the children and schools, like wanting to know more about who you're working with is to me is the number one piece. So it becomes non-transactional. Um, and then the other thing is you have a lot of SME subject matter experts, so everybody thinks they know everything about everything. So getting everyone to listen is the second most key point. And that's easier said than done. But if you figure out what makes motivates everyone, that's the whole psychology of it. If you get to know everyone, then you can kind of navigate the team to start listening to everyone so you can get to the solution. Because that is it's like an orchestra, like it it's not until everyone starts singing the same tune and moving to the same rhythm that the project starts to move in the in the moment of success. And you feel it really in every project I had, but um, you feel it when it happens, like, oh, finally, you know, I got everybody on on board, and and you move move towards success.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

No conversation with a chief information officer can happen without talking about AI. How are you approaching AI and your work in Philly?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

So um we're doing a lot of things. We're getting ready to launch um training and uh and our policy. And so, but one lesson I learned throughout my career is that there's always resistance to new technology, and it's all then rooted in the lack of understanding, like similar to when computers became common in the workplace, many people just like really feared replacing human jobs back then. So now it's like it's almost like it recycled, and now it's the same conversation about AI. Um, and we're but at the city we're focused on transparency and training, and not just for employees, but also for our residents. Um, when you think about AI, you I really think that it should be deployed to strengthen the workforce capabilities, preserve our human oversight, so not losing that um when we use AI and then improving services without embedding any biases. So that's extremely important. And those are the things that we're implementing as and when we're looking at tools. Um, we've launched a generative AI training for employees, as I mentioned, or where we're working on the launch. So it's it's in the final stages, it just has to go through one additional review, and then we're ready to launch it. But what we've adopted as our main AI tool is co-pilot chat. So, what we're looking to do is possibly turn off the generative AI tools or enroll everyone in an environment where we're able to monitor any data that goes out of any um uh sensitive data, and it would trigger like alarms and so forth. So we we haven't decided on which ones we're gonna roll. It depends on which tool we can get. And then for residents, we've actually had digital navigators that are going out into the community and teaching residents AI skills and classes. So those are the two things that we're working on. Um, there's a lot of departments that want to use AI to be more efficient and improve services. So we're looking forward to that. Things like 311, um the police department, there's there's a lot of different ways that we can use it. So we're excited about um implementing those solutions.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

What would be your advice to a city that hasn't figured out where to start yet? What would you tell them to think about um and thinking about that education piece or the concerns you might hear from residents? Where would you tell another city, town, or village to start?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Well, this is not my own thought. This is we went to San Jose's um gov AI um uh conference, and it really resonated with me. Um, someone on stage said, just get started. And and I and I feel that way too, because even from that time that we went last summer to where we are now, just trying to get everyone to just okay, come on, guys, let's go. Everyone wants to when you analysis paralysis is really what it is. And when you continue to review the policy over and over again, you're always going to find something you want to change. When you review the training, you want to find something you want to change. But meanwhile, our data is not protected and secured. And so, what's more important? Getting it out, trying to educate, then you have to, and I'm gonna talk about this later when we get to this question, but you have to think about it, doesn't have to be perfect the first time. You always have more opportunity to reinvent and and and enhance the process, but not starting puts the city at more risk than it would you kind of belaboring the thought of what it looks like and trying to make it perfect. So I would just say just get started, draft your policies, you can review. And what we did is we looked at other cities who had already advanced their policies, what their policies were. As I mentioned to you, we went to San Jose, which is a collaboration of different government agencies and what they're doing. And you could just take a little bit of nuggets from everyone that has already started and just get started yourself.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

So just get started. I hear that. Which leads into the data question. I think we know that cities have just large amounts of data from many different places. And how do you turn that into insights, right? How do you make that um what you need? Are there tools you use? Is it AI, is it other things that you and your team use to streamline service delivery or improve decision making?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Well, that's a really great question because the work really starts with building the right foundation. This week it was announced that the city of Philadelphia has proudly earned the Bloomberg Philanthropic What Works City certifications through Results for America. So this is an exciting opportunity for us. We have reached goal status, and this recognition really reflects the systems, policies, and infrastructures we put in place to use data intentionally and not just to collect it, but turn it into better decisions, smarter funding allocations, stronger programs, and more meaningful engagement with our residents. And when people really think about data in cities, they often imagine dashboards and reports. Um, but the real challenge, to be honest, is the integration in action. So we're using a mix of analytic platforms, performance management tools, and emerging AI capabilities to connect data across departments, all while reducing manual processes and to ensure that we surface insights much faster. So ultimately, the goal isn't technology just for technology's sake, and to the point of your question, it's about delivering services more efficiently and making evidence-based decisions and ensuring residents feel the impact of a smarter government. So I'll give you a notable example of that. And what we did is through our home initiative, which is aimed to build and preserve and restore 30,000 housing units in the city. This is one of the mayor's main initiatives. Um, to streamlining housing development, the city analyzed zoning appeals process. We set goals for improvement and establish a cross-departmental performance and management routine. So this data-driven effort actually reduced the zoning board of adjustments appeal decisions timeline from a high 78 days to a low 12 days over a seven month period. So this is just an example of how you can use data and become a smarter government.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Wow, that's a great example. So, I mean, you're you're talking about this in in all of your answers, but you know, as an innovator, you Value, you know, experimentation, you value creativity. How do you create an environment, you know, for your team to promote that thinking while also working within the constraints of local government?

SPEAKER_00 22:15

This also leads into the previous question about what would you tell other cities if they haven't gotten started yet and just get started? But I didn't want to tip what I was gonna say. Another thing that I would say in my philosophy is learning how to fail forward is what I teach my our team here. And um, what that really means is like within the Office of Innovation Technology, we create a space for experimenting by making it safe to test ideas on small scales, and we pilot. So you could just pilot anything, pilot the training, pilot the uh the policy, right? It's not gonna be perfect, but this really allows us to explore to new technologies, develop automations or AI-driven tools to control our environments where we can learn more quickly without putting essential services at risk. It's very important that folks, technicians specifically in our industry, feel comfortable in this environment because if you create an environment where everyone is scared to fail, you don't get a chance to innovate. So we encourage cross-functional collaboration. Some of our best ideas really come with technology. Sitting down with stats, programming staff, frontline employees, policy teams, when we bring different perspectives together, you can get more creative, practical solutions that actually work in the real world. And, you know, as I mentioned, you you want to make sure that you don't have constraints or you you develop, I'm sorry, you develop constraints, but you don't, but you remove the barriers. So our budget, our policy, our compliance requirements, you know, push us to be more thoughtful and strategic. And innovation for us isn't about just changing the new tools, it's about solving real problems in smarter, more efficient ways to improve how residents experience city services.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

I love that too. Um, well, Cityspeak listeners know Philly as the birthplace of American democracy, going strong for 250 years. Um, the home of Betsy Ross and Ben Franklin, and of course, cheesesteaks, the Philz, the Eagles, and Gritty. But as a lifelong resident, um, what is it that makes Philly Philly to you?

SPEAKER_00 24:44

That's funny because you named all of the sports of our sports. And when people, I don't know, people think of Philly. I know they think like we're the we're a tough crowd, you know. Um, but from a technology perspective, it's how we use innovation really to serve real people and rurals. You know, our city really has a history of hustle and grit, um, meeting, but meeting digital transformation, I believe. Um, we're not adopting technology just to be cutting edge. We're doing it to close the digital divide and really to modernize the central services and make government work better for residents. So whether it's expanding our public Wi-Fi or improving data sharing across departments or using analytics to guide smart decisions, our focus is always on our impact. And Philly's Tech Story is about access to equity, it's about making sure our seniors through our digital navigators, as I mentioned, we're going out and we're actually educating seniors on how to navigate online, how to make sure that they're not, they don't become a victim of cybersecurity. And our small bird businesses as well. We just launched a new program that helps small businesses learn how to utilize technology and become more effective at what they do. So we're blending legacy with innovation, modernizing decades of old systems while keeping services reliable and human-centered.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Now, I was gonna say you've mentioned the digital navigators in a couple of different contexts. Um, can you describe who exactly that is and how it how it really works in practice?

SPEAKER_00 26:26

We always had digital navigators throughout the city, but through with other partners. And recently we had a franchise agreement that had allowed us to put high-speed broadband services in 180 recreation centers. And through that I thought to myself, okay, so we have broadband service, and so everyone was celebrating, like, isn't it amazing? I said, Well, that's just the broadband. What about the devices? And what about the training? So uh we launched a program called the Power Up Tour, where we uh started to distribute devices, laptops to individuals within the community so they can access the broadband, the new broadband services. But then also it was important that I think of digital equity as three pillars is access to connectivity to devices and digital skills training. And part of our digital skills training is that we hire individuals to go out and we call them digital navigators to help the constituency and the residents in Philadelphia navigate through technology. And we teach all different types of classes. We do surveys to find out what's most popular, and then um we take them through the process of whether they're beginners or whether they're more advanced, but we distribute laptops from all individuals from young to old, getting ready to go to college, just trying to ensure that we close the digital divide.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

And so it sounds like you're really guiding folks wherever they are through that journey. Yes. Um Melissa Scott, thank you for sharing your time and your expertise with us um with the National League of Cities on Citiespeak. It has been a real pleasure. Thank you, Melanie.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

I appreciate it.

NLC 28:21

Thanks for listening to CitiSpeak with Clarence Anthony. If you like the show, let us know. Share this episode with your friends, and make sure to subscribe. We're curious to hear what you think, what you want more of, and how we can improve. If you have feedback or an idea for a guest you'd like Clarence to sit down with, send us your thoughts at Cityspeak Podcast at nlc.org. Join us next month for a new episode. Like and subscribe here or wherever you get your podcast. See you next time.