Technology can help government change, says Sacramento’s mayor

Government’s role is growing beyond just delivering services to citizens, and Sacramento’s mayor says technology can help lead the way.

“Government has to change, and hopefully government gets to a place where it’s helping to lead the change,” Darrell Steinberg, the mayor of Sacramento, says in a video interview with StateScoop. “Certainly government can do so through its public policy and encouraging and incentivizing and mandating that we are more efficient and that we use technology to provide our services in a more efficient way.”

In Sacramento, he says, this sort of change inside government is paralleled by changes seen on the city’s streets.

“We are rapidly changing as a city,” Steinberg says. “We are going from a traditional capital city and government town to an aspiration to be the center of technology and innovation — to being a partner with our lead universities and the private sector.”

And as that growth continues, Steinberg says Sacramento is doing its best to keep inclusivity at the center of that effort.

“We can’t do that alone,” Steinberg says. “We have an opportunity to partner, for example, with Sac State and UC Davis … and to bring our business community together to redefine our city in very, very positive ways.”

To achieve that, Steinberg says, the city — and government as a whole — needs to be a “full partner.”

“Financial, idea-wise and being open to growing our city in a way that is inclusive, in a way that creates new jobs in new industries and that educates and trains our young people, especially from our neighborhoods for the new jobs that we are creating,” Steinberg says.

Steinberg on the uniqueness of California’s tech landscape:

Steinberg on enabling better services:

Steinberg on collaboration for innovation:

This video was filmed at the California Innovation Summit on January 15, 2019, presented by VMware, Intel and Carahsoft and produced by StateScoop.