Right now, the Innovation and Technology
Department’s main effort is to retool the public
transit system in a way that serves more citizens
while operating more efficiently. Diaz is a part
of that work, crunching numbers and building
a financial model for whatever public transit
eventually evolves into.
He’s also working on creating what he called
a “data-driven performance strategy” that will
enable city officials to use metrics to measure if
efforts to create more accessible and affordable
housing are working.
“I wanted to come to a city that’s already doing
a lot of cool stuff with innovation,” Diaz told
the Argus Leader. “And Sioux Falls is, so that
motivated me to come.”
Not all cities that are a part of the Bloomberg
Harvard City Leadership Initiative get the
assistance of an embedded Bloomberg fellow.
But Sioux Falls innovation manager Allie Hartzler
said after that organization saw the work that
the public transit study group is doing, they
were impressed enough to send Diaz, she said.
“We’re very lucky to have him,” she said.
Creating a data analyst position is part of
the long-term vision for the Innovation and
Technology Department, Reisdorfer said.
So having Diaz for 10 weeks — he’ll head
back to school in August — gives the city an
opportunity to see how much value the position
brings to the city government without having to
use public resources.
“We were hopeful that he’d come in here and
have really great insights into a data analyst type
of position and now we’re hoping he writes his
own job description,” Reisdorfer said.