WeHoX is an initiative designed to engage the diverse and talented members of the West Hollywood community in dialogue with City staff to improve the City’s capacity for innovation.
The core goals of WeHoX are to:
The WeHoX Team is made up of leaders from the private sector working with residents and City staff engaged in developing innovative civic programs. Gathering at a series of events, WeHoX focused on engaging the community in conversation and planning around its core goals. The many questions, ideas, and specific civic and tech initiatives discussed at these events speak to a desire to make WeHo a better place for its residents, its visitors, and its businesses. West Hollywood’s first ever “Innovations Annual Report” --the synthesis of WeHoX events findings, research, and feedback- -hopes to be a starting point for further discussion and development of a cohesive city-wide movement towards innovation-thinking both inside City Hall and within its citizenry.
WeHoX conducted consultations with each department within City Hall on February 11, 2015. Each department was asked to discuss the following questions:
From these facilitated discussions, general themes emerged across multiple departments. The first was a need to make data more useful and accessible throughout the different departments and divisions of City Hall; many departments have platforms and data that could be leveraged by other departments for increased efficiency and greater inter-departmental collaboration, as well as increased transparency for City residents. Another theme of digitizing work processes spoke to myriad initiatives to “go paperless” and reduce administrative workload for employees while decreasing response times for residents.
Improving communications was another theme that resonated across departments. City staff advocated for a streamlined web or social media voice, deployment of new platforms and/or web and mobile apps, more cohesive City “branding” guidelines, and increased video and visual assets. Many City employees agreed that new communication tools were needed both to address internal needs and to reach greater numbers of West Hollywood residents more efficiently, as well as allowing for more two-way communication and interaction with residents. The Public Information Office is planning training for City staff on best practices in social media and digital civic engagement.
Specific innovation ideas from these consultations are incorporated into Part 3 of this report, and the WeHoX team would like to extend a special acknowledgement to all City staff who contributed to the ideas and innovations it contains.
In addition to feedback gathered in person at the WeHoX events, the WeHoX team conducted online surveys to obtain additional information from stakeholders. Post-event surveys captured specific, topical feedback directly after targeted discussions; a larger, broader survey of WeHoX team, attendees, city staff, and interested residents at the conclusion of the event series offered general feedback on the initial version of WeHoX recommendations.
This survey was presented to the public on the City West Hollywood’s Mindmixer platform, EngageWeHo.org. Forty-nine (24%) out of 207 registered EngageWeHo users took the survey--75% more than EngageWeHo’s average participation rate and 81% more than Mindmixer’s average participation rate. Overwhelmingly, respondents cited “Transportation, Parking, and Mobility” as the chief area of focus. This was followed, in descending order, by “Civic Engagement and Participation,” “Partnerships, Efficiency, and Transparency in Local Government,” “Supporting the Innovation Economy,” and “Recreation, Health, and Wellness.”
The survey was also circulated within City Hall at the conclusion of the WeHoX City Hall Consultations. Representatives from various departments within the City added their responses and feedback to further expand on the current and future direction of innovation in West Hollywood. City staff cited “Civic Engagement and Public Participation” as their top area of focus for innovation, followed by a tie between “Partnerships, Efficiency, and Transparency in Local Government” and “Transportation, Parking, and Mobility,” while sharing the same lower- priority two choices as the general public. After the prioritization exercise, the survey suggested between five and 10 specific innovation ideas for each area. Respondents were asked to select their three favorite ideas from the provided lists, and were provided an open-ended field in which to include additional ideas of their own. Seventy-two write-in innovation ideas were captured from both public and internal polling, many of which are included in this report. (See Appendix 3 in this report to review the results of the WeHoX Survey.)