Public Comment - Vacaville City Council Strategic Planning Session - 2025
Government Efficiency
I'm a federal government employee. I've been working remotely for the General Services Administration in the Technology Transformation Service for more than 6 years. I spend my days, working mostly from local coffee shops, grabbing lunch at local businesses.
I'm taking today off to be here. This morning, I drafted my 5 things email.
I laughed at the DOGE meme when I first encountered it. As a public servant, the inefficiency rings true, because it is glaringly obvious to me, as somebody who has seen the bureaucracy first-hand. It is glaringly obvious to the public, who hears of corruption abroad, in Congress, and feels the brunt of dollars losing value as they are inflated institutions far outside of Vacaville.
The Department of Government efficiency has been decimating government, forcefully ridding the federal government of thousands of employees. The disruption is real. I've witnessed teammates and whole divisions within my division of 700 people and the department of 13,000 people be fired or effectively, forced out.
Yet, this is not ALL bad.
The path that government was on, racking up a trillions dollars of debt each year is obviously unsustainable, despite whatever academic or conventional rationalizations a person can muster.
So, change is needed.
But in DOGE's case, it could have and can do better to differentiate "The System", which needs drastic and definite change -- and "The People", who deserve some amount of professional respect and basic dignity.
Why am I sharing this?
Because DOGE is just getting started at the Federal Level. Massive, drastic, world-shifting changes are taking place and its only been 9 weeks.
Yet, this will not stop at the Federal level. States are next. Then local governments.
The campaign for Government efficiency will certainly expand beyond a department. Ideas are powerful. People want performance. The People deserve an accountable, effective, and to some extent, an efficient government.
So, I'm here to highlight the responsibility and opportunity for Vacaville, its public staff and its public and private leadership to take Performance to heart, and consider what it can do to prepare for, and get ahead of, the wave of change spurred by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Open-source to spur local innovation
Open source methods tend to foster open-source culture that promotes collaboration, re-use, creativity, responsibility, and accountability.
These values are most congruent with virtuous public stewardship.
Open-source is a more transparent way to work. And open-source can be applied to activities beyond software development.
I encourage the city to consider open-source policies. And it's okay to start small.
Think about common work that can be shared across cities in California and the United States.
Transparency as a duty and strategy
A good way to prevent being disrupted is to disrupt yourself.
Think about the concept of a vaccines - how a small dose can help with prevention.
This concept is called "Hormesis."
Hormesis is the ability of organisms to become stronger when exposed to low-dose stress.
So, I encourage executives in the city to focus on performance and consider publishing more metrics in public – not for perfection, but for engagement and feedback.
I encourage teams to adopt delivery timelines measuring in weeks and months, rather than quarters and fiscal years.
Consider sharing with each other, 5 things you've done this week. This is common practice in Agile software development.
Transparency is vulnerable to some extent. But quickly, it starts to yield trust, which yields collaboration, which yields a sense of shared ownership, which ultimately results in stronger forms public stewardship and performance.
Consider Transparency as Strategy.
Transparency is the way to regain public trust. Transparency is the way to foster the collaboration necessary to not only endure, but become more resilient in the face of adversity.
Thank you for your time and consideration.