Local Government Episodes

Earlier this year I sat down at the inaugural WRITA spring conference with Chuck Boyer (Assistant CIO, City of Phoenix, and WRITA Conference Chair), Nick Phillips (CISO, City of Boise), and Scott Magerfleisch (Executive Counselor, Info-Tech Research Group, former CIO, City of Greeley, CO).


A backup can be healthy.


A recovery can still fail.


Boise's infrastructure team brought in Info-Tech to build a real disaster recovery plan — not because anything had gone wrong, but because "we know ...

Earlier this year I sat down at the inaugural WRITA spring conference with Jeff Scheetz (CIO, City of Avondale) and Zach Duguid (AI Engineering Manager, Polimorphic).


Jeff's answer to what he'd put in front of a room of local government CIOs isn't a success story.


It's the horror stories — the scary stuff nobody puts in the press release.


Most of this episode is the unglamorous work that prevents it. Zach walked through what Polimorphic does before an agent ever answers a resident: a Kn...

Recorded at the inaugural WRITA spring conference, this episode brings together Scott Conn (CIO, City of Mesa and WRITA chair), Mary Wynne (CEO, Fusion Learning Partners/PTI), and returning guest Chris Stewart (CRO, Freeit Data Solutions, former City of Austin CIO). They unpack how WRITA was built as an all-hands regional alternative to CIO-only clubs, and how leaders are handling local government IT budget cuts — through tools-first strategy, real partnerships over transactional vendors, transparent communication, and continued investment in professional development.

Los Angeles County is the largest county in the U.S. serving over 10 million people across 40+ different departments.

They just passed a $46 billion budget. And their CIO, Peter Loo, has to coordinate with 40 other CIOs to get anything done.

That’s not a technology problem. That’s one of the hardest leadership and governance challenges in all of public sector — and Peter has been doing it for over 30 years because, as he put it, “You can see the impact you make directly in the services being delivered.” That stayed with me. I coach high school basketball for the same reason.

I sat down with Peter and Hannes Scheidegger, Chief Global Services Officer at Info-Tech Research Group, on-site at the 36th floor of The Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles.

Peter and Hannes have been working together since around 2010 — across an EHR implementation at five hospitals, a data center consolidation from 42 facilities down to one T5, a countywide voting system, and more. This is one…

Featuring:
Will Smith, Chief of Staff at City of Seattle IT


In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Seattle IT revolutionized HR by embedding dedicated business partners within each department, transforming traditional personnel management into strategic partnerships that understand both technical operations and business goals


The critical intersection of organizational psychology and tech leadership, through Smith's doctoral research on how growth mindset principles drive successful cultural ...

Featuring:

Soumam Debgupta, CTO, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services


Rob Lloyd, CTO, City of Seattle
Chris Chirgwin, CIO, County of Santa Barbara


In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Washington State DSHS reduced benefit application times from 50 minutes to 25 minutes by reimagining service delivery through a customer-first lens


Why setting an ambitious 85% customer satisfaction goal is driving cultural transformation and transparency in government services


The ...

Featuring:

Michal Perlstein, Senior Manager of Digital Engagement, City of Seattle IT


Michelle Ringgold, User Experience Team Lead, City of Seattle IT


Dennis McCoy, Product Management Team Supervisor, City of Seattle IT


Jeff Beckstrom, Development Team Manager for Digital Engagement, City of Seattle IT



In this episode, you'll learn:

How Seattle's digital engagement team manages web content, blogs, and newsletters while overseeing digital policies and design requirements


Why use...

Featuring



Mark Wittenburg, CIO of Raleigh


Rob Lloyd, Deputy City Manager of San Jose


Chris Stewart, former CIO of the City of Austin



Episode Highlights:

Building Responsive Government Services

San Jose's two-pronged approach to responsiveness using IAP2 spectrum for public participation and human-centered design to truly understand community needs


Austin's comprehensive accessibility initiatives ensuring digital services work for visually and hearing impaired residents and tho...

Featuring:

Michelle (Malik) Geddes, Chief Information Officer, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management



In this episode, you’ll learn:

Michelle Geddes' expertise in building high-performing teams


The California plan to move the 911 system to the cloud


Challenges in modernizing and moving the 911 system to the cloud


The importance of strong vendor partnerships in maintaining critical systems


Verizon's role in providing support during emergency incidents


Benefits of es...

Featuring:

Aaron Judy, Chief of Innovation and AI at Maricopa County Clerk of the Superior Court



In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Maricopa County's intelligent capture project targets 33% labor reduction in phase one with an additional 40% in phase two


How Cleo, their conversational AI, operates across multiple channels including web, Amazon voice devices, Google devices, text, email, and Facebook


How AI-powered System Reliability Engineering (SRE) helps triage and respond to syste...