City governments prefer to manage change, and Arvada now has a champ to do it.
Deputy City Manager Michele Hovet was recently named a Champion of Change at the White House for making a difference through innovation in the Arvada community.
“I was very surprised to be nominated and selected,” Hovet said. “Great things happen in Arvada every day to inspire me to do the best I can.”
Champions of Change is part of President Barack Obama’s Winning the Future initiative; each week people from different sectors across the nation, from local leaders to innovators, are selected to visit the White House and share their ideas of how to serve and strengthen their communities.
Hovet has been with the city for 17 years, spending much of her career fulfilling the technology needs across the local government, and was named a deputy city manager three months ago.
When Hovet visited the White House Sept. 25, she discussed three projects she has spearheaded, helping make local government more transparent for its citizens and bringing the arts back into classrooms.
“It’s important to make the city readily available for the public’s use,” she said. “We made a website internally with a content management system. Anyone in Colorado can put data up there.”
With the website, www.opencolorado.org, Hovet and her team took data found in various places on the city’s website, www.arvada.org, including maps, crime statistics, financial information, and made it readily available on the new site as well as linking it back to the original city source.
Other cities and organizations are on board already, including Denver Boulder, Castle Rock and the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
Another technology-based project Hovet is working on involves sharing software created by the city with other cities and organizations. Boulder is the first city interested in sharing software developed by Arvada. The third project Hovet discussed is using technology to bring the arts back into schools.
“It’s a partnership between the technology department and the Arvada Center,” she said. “With the use of tablets and content-management systems, we can deliver arts into classrooms for kids and get performances to kids across Colorado.”
Hovet was the only Coloradan to be recognized during the Champions of Change for local innovation; 12 leaders from communities in other states were chosen as well.