Navigator Award Finalist: Daniel Hoffman, Chief Innovation Officer, Montgomery County, Md.
Scaling county-grown smart city solutions across the U.S.
This is the 15th in a series of profiles on the 50 finalists for Route Fifty’s Navigator Awards program. The first 10 finalists were from the Government Allies and Cross-Sector Partners category. Finalists 11-20 were from the Agency and Department Leadership category. Finalists 21-30 were from the Executive Leadership category. Finalists 31-40 were from the Next Generation category. Finalists 41-50 were from the Data and IT Innovators category. Explore our complete list of 50 finalists .
Montgomery County, Maryland’s first chief innovation officer, Daniel Hoffman , has forged several public-private partnerships with small businesses around open data.
In conjunction with Washington D.C.-based Open Data Nation , Hoffman’s office developed FIVAR , a web application using open data in real time to predict which restaurants might fail food inspections.
That knowledge can help city inspectors prioritize the restaurants they visit, among the thousands they’re responsible for monitoring each year, saving an estimated $2 million in annual human resources costs.
“That may be scaled to other cities and counties,” according to Hoffman’s nomination submission. “By working with the small business community, Hoffman is able to test new ideas and replicate proven innovations that have the potential to increase transparency and productivity of public agencies in Montgomery County and beyond.”
FIVAR is also potentially lifesaving, allowing inspectors in cities like Chicago to identify E. coli and salmonella outbreaks faster.
The FIVAR team has determined its app helps city and county environmental health agencies find 49 percent more violations, 12 days faster. Inspector performance is also gauged.
Average app setup takes two months, if the proper data is available and relatively clean.
Hoffman was also instrumental in establishing Montgomery County’s Thingstitute , an “Internet of Things” laboratory, deploying transit, agriculture and vulnerable population solutions in real-world settings.
Small-scale manufacturing is critical to future economic development in Montgomery County, in Hoffman’s view. The county’s Innovation Program runs a Maker Fund that supports makerspaces, where people can invent and learn, by covering programming and equipment costs.
Dave Nyczepir is news editor at Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Washington, D.C.
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