Herocrats Spotlight: Mobility Manager Danielle Elkins

Danielle Elkins is the Mobility Manager for the City of Minneapolis, where she reviews mobility and transit technologies that are hitting the market, and determines if they are a good fit for the City’s mission. In her work today, Danielle juggles the dissonance of ever-changing technologies with government policy change. 

“We have a public works department that was created 150 years ago. How do you adapt something that is 150 years old to things that are changing on a six month, one year cycle now?” 

“After ridehailing launched in 2010, companies started coming to the US Conference of Mayors and National League of Cities looking to preempt cities out of regulating them. In these rooms I saw how these tech companies were treating government officials, and I saw a lack of understanding of government and how it works. I was like, ‘something is wrong here’.”

“People hate change, and everything I've ever done in mobility policy is preparing for and reacting to changes, whether it's working on projects like a high speed rail program in California, or developing new mobility programs in Minneapolis. You're also fighting an internal perception that you are changing people's jobs, and a lot of people get uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the public sees the changing landscape that the market is pushing for, and can get really angry about who they think is bringing about that change, when most of the time the government is just responding to market forces.”

“So much of this anger is rooted in fear because this work is so complicated, and it is changing so quickly. Our ability to articulate these changes to the general public has been a struggle particularly because our strength in government is not storytelling or communications. Our job now is to try to find ways to explain these changes to the public. This is a modern challenge across government, that as things become more and more complex, our current systems are not set up to handle it.”

“We need to be okay with admitting that change is going to keep happening and that we will never know 100% of what is coming. If we know what our goals and our outcomes are going to be, and if we stay aligned on anything that comes our way, we can handle it.”

2021: A Year of Herocrats Working Hard in their Communities!

This year, Herocrats across the country led with courage, creativity and connection in their communities. From public health officials, to IT directors, we are excited to cheer on our 2021 Herocrats, who are putting in the work to make their communities a better place for everyone!

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Here’s a glimpse at the work Herocrats have been doing in 2021:

• Dawn Beck shared her personal experience as a child of an incarcerated parent at her job in Olmsted County, MN to advocate for children and families affected by incarceration. 

• Ling Becker managed her 80 member team to ensure effective and equitable dispersal of CARES Act funding.  

• City Planner in Albuquerque, NM, Brian Bonanno applied his non-profit experience to engage community members in local government decisions. 

• Using a unique participatory policy making process that included a design team of Minneapolis high schoolers, Carrie Christensen was integral in the development of the Minneapolis “Parks for All” plan, which was approved this November. 

• Medical Countermeasures Coordinator Gabriela Hurtado took the lead in the City of Long Beach pandemic response.  

• A City Councilperson for Stevens Point, WI and Director of the Marathon County Solid Waste Department in Marathon County, WI, Meleesa Johnson leads with strategy and compassion in her roles as a government employee and elected official. 

• Jordan Laslett used extra time in his AmeriCorps service term to make the case for paid internships in the City of Philadelphia. 

• IT Director Elizabeth Lo works with her team weekly to catch 30,000+ fraud attempts and protect the data and communications of Bedford County, VA. 

• Deputy Administrator in Erie, CO, Melissa Wiley promotes courage in her fellow government employees by creating a space for others to share their own story and leading with empathy. 

Do you know a government employee that deserves to be recognized as a Herocrat? Nominate them!

Herocrats in Action: Marcq Sung

Marcq Sung is the Director of Business Development for the City of Saint Paul. He shared his thoughts about what it means to be creative in his job, as well as what inspires and emboldens him.  

What do you do?

I work in business retention, expansion, and attraction space and am the conduit so that relationships get built quicker. The City’s resources are rather finite, but we know who might be more well-connected and then we can speak those connections to either remove barriers or have access to more opportunities.

You mentioned building relationships quicker. How does speed play into your job?

In government, speed is one thing that we are not good at. I've always looked at our roles as project managers or in economic development to be the lubricant to doing business in the City of Saint Paul. And most often what businesses face is this huge unknown of what the bureaucracy looks like or in certain times what the sector looks like. And we can say, "Here's some of the pitfalls that you want to try to avoid so you can get to your end goal much faster." And so we're like guardrails in bowling. It's like you can still do what you need to do, but we're just going to kind of keep you in your lane, and you're going to hit the pins faster than just going without any sort of guidance.

So you're providing speed, clarity and connections. Are you also trying to change the system in which you're working? Or are you working within the system to serve people the best that you can?

More than anything else, no matter what system you operate in, there are people who know how to operate within that system, because systems change takes a very long time. And I don't think an individual can do it. Like I don't believe in this Fountainhead-sort of person that rises above through his or her own genius and then just shapes the model of the future. That's romantic and foolish and Randian and I don't subscribe to that.

I think what you want to do is find other people who are interested in making change and connect with each other and then you can sort of figure it out how to get around the system or through the system or manipulate with the system to make it work for you because, let's not be too ideal and say that each step needs to be subscribed to in a different way.

What does creativity look like in your job?

Creativity in our job is knowing what all the barriers are and dancing around them. And we know the limitations of our tools better than most other folks. And so we help people navigate around those limitations. And at the same time, we share those limitations with those who can affect change and reiterate why they need to be changed so that we can do more good, better. And I think creativity is just like looking at our systems and saying, "Wow, that's just dumb. How do we just fix that or get around that?" And then we sort of kibbutz with each other and say, "Okay, I ran into that same issue. This is how I got around this. The bureaucratic process it is red tape. And so who has the sharpest scissors to get through it?

I mean there is a certain entrepreneurial element about the work that we do. For every “no” you encounter, you sort of persist and say, “well, how do you get around that? Like some people don't even ask bother to ask that question. It's like the seven whys. Keep asking why. Why is it that way?

What keeps you going? How do you stay in your creative problem-solving mode?

I think part of it is just working with great partners in the community. That is a blessing, and I don't think we would be as strong or as capable were it not for so many of the partners and the dedicated individuals in our community who do the work on a day-to-day basis. I think they get re-energized when they see people in government that say "yes" more than “no.” And then it re-emboldens them. And really they're the ones who execute the work and come up with the vision. And all we're trying to do is blunt the trauma of bureaucracy. Kudos to them. How can you not support that?

Does it take courage to practice the creativity you are describing?

I don't think there's much courage necessary in the work that we do. I tell new project managers that we’re placed in a unique opportunity where we have several supportive individuals in the work that we do. And because we're union, we can take calculated risk, not in an egregious or nefarious way. But in a way where we can try bold things that will help the people that we want to help – those who are marginalized and disaffected by the system. And there are measures to ensure that we don’t cause undue harm through corrective mechanisms.

But, I mean, let's use the luxury of being in these government positions to try bold, audacious things to advance and help the people that we work with. And we can connect with a bunch of people just by the sheer fact to say were with the City of Saint Paul, how can we collaborate and work together and find a solution set? And not to say that will succeed in every chance that we have, but, I don't think that's courageous at all. I think we're just afforded a lot of opportunity that it'd be silly to waste.