A relic from the Matt Driscoll mayoral administration in Syracuse is going by the wayside as Mayor Ben Walsh institutes new ways of making government more accountable.
The city of Syracuse started using SyraStat in 2002. At the time, the program was meant to analyze performance of city departments by the numbers and find savings. There is even a SyraStat room near the mayor’s office.
While it was successful, a new administration means new methods. Walsh has announced the creation of a new performance management system called the Office of Accountability, Performance and Innovation (API).
"I’ve been of the mind that we needed to reinvigorate an effort to ensure accountability and performance management, and we think we’ve found an opportunity to do that," Walsh said.
Accountability meetings will be open to the pubic, and the former SyraStat room will be known as the iLab. This comes as Syracuse Common Council plans to begin streaming meetings online.
Council President Helen Hudson says a technical upgrade in Council Chambers has been two years in the making through a state grant, and it will allow people to see how laws are made.
“Folks have a real habit of saying, you don’t do anything," Hudson said. "So they’ll have a real opportunity to see that we sit there and go through hundreds of agenda items every session.”
Streaming begins this spring, in time for the 2018-2019 budget hearings in April.
