►
Description
On this episode of CityTalk, John interviews Dolly Bellhouse from the Department of Innovation & Performance, Doug Anderson from the City Controller's Office, and Shelly Danko+Day from the Department of City Planning.
A
A
Welcome
to
city
talk
I'm
John
McIntyre.
This
is
where
we
have
an
opportunity
to
find
out
what
city
employees
do
and
believe
it
or
not
and
I
actually
believe
it
because
I
see
it,
they
work
and
somebody
who
works
very
hard
is
dolly
Bell
House
of
the
department
of
innovation
and
performance.
Welcome
to
the
program.
Thank.
B
B
A
performance
improvement
coach
in
the
department
and
we
coach
and
teach
folks
throughout
the
city
to
not
only
do
their
work
but
actually
to
try
to
improve
their
work,
so
we're
looking
at
performance
improvement.
Broadly
we've.
We
do
work
with
every
department
through
the
gold
belt
workshop,
which
is
a
four
and
a
half
hour
training
program.
And
then,
if
you
do
a
follow
up
innovation,
four.
A
B
No
I
won't
take
four
and
a
half
hours,
so
you
learn
some
of
some
basic
tools
and
concepts
of
performance
improvement
like
process,
mapping
and
understanding
connections
being
clear,
doing
standard
work
and
how
that
helps
you
set
set
a
baseline
and
then
you
can
see
if
you
have
problems
and
want
to
improve
from
there
and
also
looking
at
other
ways
to
to
just
improve
your
improve.
Your
performance
are.
B
I
I
think
some
of
the
things
is
that
when
we
we
we
start
seeing
where
there
might
be
a
way
to
improve
something.
Then
we
see
something
else
and
all
of
a
sudden.
We
have
a
very
big
project
ahead
of
us
and
what
we're
trying
to
do
is
actually
narrow,
that
scope
and
and
have
people
start
with
things
that
are
in
within
their
own
control
view
it
as
an
experiment
and,
and
then
the
the
cool
thing
about
experiments
is
that
you
learn
as
much
if
it
doesn't
work
the
way
expected
as
if
it
does
do.
A
B
I
well,
in
all,
fairness
is
probably
similar,
both
I
think
at
the
workshop.
People
are
there
for
often
for
a
reason.
They
have
something
in
their
work
that
they
wanted
to.
You
know
to
kind
of
look
at
more
in
depth
or
maybe
there's
a
team
at
in
their
in
their
department
that
wants
to
get
skilled,
so
they
work
better,
better
able
to
do
performance
improvement
as
a
group
and
then
when
we
do
work
with
the
frontline,
we're
very
conscious
about
understanding
their
work
and
in
any
improvement
needs
to
fit
their
work.
B
A
B
B
B
One
thing
that
the
Division
two
is
done
is
they:
they
they've
had
a
system
where
they
looked
at
primary
roads,
first
and
then
secondary
and
then
tertiary
and
those
are
the
smaller
side.
Streets
and
alleys.
Often
and
primary
are
the
big
through
through
roads,
and
you
know,
access
to
schools
and
hospitals
and
downtown
and
those
kinds
of
things.
So
so
that
makes
sense
that
they
would
go
in
order,
but
what
they?
B
What
Division
two
is
done
is
they've
worked
with
their
their
habit,
was
to
have
primary
and
then
to
work
on
secondary
roads
that
were
nearby
because
the
asphalt
ought
they
want
to
keep
it.
You
know,
don't
ride
it
around
town
too
much
use
it
while
it's
hot,
so
the
material
fits
the
pothole
and
smooth
in
so
now,
they've
done
the
same
thing
with
tertiaries,
where
in
the
past
often
tertiary
roads
waited
till
the
end.
So
now
there,
and
by
doing
that,
they've
actually
been
able
to
improve
their
performance
from
a
metric
standpoint.
B
B
Well,
it's
all
part
of
it
right,
it's
it's!
You
know
we
we
are
when
we
first
started
any
any
place
where
the
learners
we
did
some
work
with
DPW
procurement
and
many
of
us
know
that
the
procurement
process
is
quite
arduous
here
and
it
has
lots
of.
You
know,
lots
of
components
to
it.
So
we
we
spent
two
weeks,
two
of
us
going
around
and
learning
how
everybody
who
was
touching
the
vacuuming
process.
What
was
the
sequence?
B
B
You
need
to
have
some
experience
in
performance
improvement,
but
it
doesn't
have
to
be
the
main
thing
of
your
job,
but
many
people
in
other
industries
have
have
experience
in
quality,
improvement
or
performance
improvement.
My
colleague
shrim
that
was
here
last
year
he's
an
industrial
engineer
and
that
was
his
training
is
to
look
at
how
things
work
and
to
try
to
help
make
them
better.
But
the
I
got
here.
I
knew
Heidi
Norman.
B
She
and
I
had
worked
together
at
a
start-up
a
number
of
years
ago,
and
and-
and
she
called
me
up
and
said,
I,
don't
know
what
you're
up
to
these
days,
but
we're
looking
for
somebody
and
and
I'd
come
from
the
healthcare
industry.
She
said.
So
if
you
want
to
learn
more
about
how
the
city
government
works
and
how
we
serve
citizens,
we
have
this
position
a.
B
Originally,
but
I've
spent
a
lot
of
time
in
Pittsburgh
I've
had
two
stints
here.
I
was
here
in
the
in
the
late
80s
to
the
to
the
late
90s
and
worked
up
in
at
Sewickley,
Valley
Hospital
and
then
took
a
job
out
of
state
and
then
came
back
in
2012
to
join
Jefferson
Hospital,
as
they
were
becoming
part
of
what
is
now
Allegheny,
Health
Network
and
then
since
then
worked
in
a
number
of
different
healthcare
related
areas.
B
Actually
see
more
similarities
than
I
expected,
and
and
for
me
the
the
key
thing
is
the
sense
of
service
when
I
in
healthcare.
It's
clear
that
for
me
that
we
were
all
there
working
to
better
serve
patients
and-
and
here
I
get
that
sense.
Here
too,
is
that
we're
working
to
better
serve
citizens.
How.
A
A
C
A
D
Certainly
so
the
controller
on
it's
all
city
departments,
we
make
sure
that
your
tax
dollars
are
being
spent,
how
they
should
be.
We
pay
all
the
city's
bills,
hold
all
the
city's
contracts.
Michaels
the
city
controllers,
the
last
sign
off
for
all
city
contracts.
We
inspect
all
city
goods
to
make
sure
that
when
they
come
in
from
the
vendor
that
we
have
received
what
we
should
have
received
and
yeah.
D
E
D
A
A
D
Stuck
that
they're
wasting
money-
it's
just.
We
have
a
charter
mandated
responsibility,
taught
at
all
city
departments
every
four
years,
so
we're
and
police
were
in
our
public
safety,
which
is
Police,
Fire,
EMS,
PLI
and
Animal
Control
every
four
years,
we're
in
one
of
those
areas,
Public,
Works
planning
and
etc.
You.
A
D
Is
we're
doing
we're
paying
down
our
debt?
We
were
over
probably
a
billion
dollars
in
debt
when
the
controller
came
into
office,
but
through
cooperation
through
our
office,
City
Council
and
the
mayor's
office
last
week
were
able
to
announce
that
we
were
down
to
party
down
to
four
hundred
million
we're
doing.
D
Some
cooperation
between
our
office
and
City
Council
of
mayor's
office
control
and
was
able
to
work
with
council
in
the
mayor's
office
back
in
2010.
To
do
a
they
were
able
to
divert
some
of
the
parking
tax
to
the
city's
pension
fund,
so
that
was
able
to
help
bring
the
city
back
to
rehab,
bring
to
city's
pension
fund
because.
D
A
D
A
D
Are
a
lot
of
there
are
a
lot
of
dedicated
public
servants.
One
of
the
things
I
would
like
to
tell
people
is
that
a
lot
of
people
don't
know
that
you
know
the
controller's
office.
We
only
audit
expenditures,
we
don't
audit
city
revenue,
there's
also
a
finance
department
and
city
treasurer
that
do
that.
So
when
people
say
controller,
they
think
we're.
They
say
we
say
oversees
entire
city
finances,
but
there
are,
in
addition
to
our
office,
there's
a
Budget,
Office
and
also
a
finance
department,
but.
D
We
don't
notice
you
do
it's
time
to
do
it
again,
correct
we're
doing
audits
all
the
time,
we're
always
finding
new
things
on
it.
If
the
public
out
there
sees
something
that
we
should
be
looking
into,
we
invite
them
to
call
our
office,
or
we
have
an
app
pittsburg
watchdog
that
they
can
download
on
their
phone
to
its
group
watchdog
its
rip
watch
good
or
they
can
contact
our
office
through
our
website.
We
have
open
book,
Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh.
A
D
D
C
A
E
A
E
E
To
Bratislava
I
studied
abroad,
when
I
was
in
college
and
people
related
to
the
last
thing,
I
call
danke,
danke,
danke
ba
would
have
been
my
name,
and
so
it
was
really
like
wow
I.
Finally,
like
got
that
connection
with
that,
and
my
husband's
British
and
day
is
a
very
British
name,
so
he
related
to
his
name
and
he's
an
artist
too.
So
we
decided
to
put
our
names
together,
but
we
didn't
like
the
so
we
just
added
them
so.
A
E
E
E
I'm
in
City
Planning
and
the
division
of
sustainability
and
resilience
and
I
do
food
policy
and
urban
agriculture
I
run
the
adopt
a
lot
program,
which
is
the
first
time
in
the
history
of
the
city
of
Pittsburgh
that
you're
able
to
legally
access
city-owned
land
for
food.
Flour
arrange
our
Daan's
in
a
very
precisely
laid
out
way.
So.
E
This
is
still
government.
There's
a
lot
more
yeah.
You
can
there's
there's
a
very
set
there's
a
formal
set
of
guidelines.
It's
called
the
vacant
lot
toolkit
and
if
your
project
falls
within,
what's
outlined
in
the
vacant
lot
toolkit
you
can
get
an
agreement
with
us
in
about
five
to
nine
weeks.
Only.
E
A
lot
of
times
people
just
want
to
beautify
their
neighborhood,
and
that
is
a
really
good
tool
for
that.
We
have
licenses
and
leases.
So
the
more
short
term
is,
if
you
know,
Miss
Smith
has
a
vacant
lot
next
door
to
hers
and
she
just
wants
to
make
sure
that
it's
maintained
and
looks
good.
She
can
plant
some
flowers
in
the
front
and
maintain
the
rest
of
it
and
that's
an
adopt.
A
lot
license.
I.
A
A
E
E
Well,
we
went
I
started
my
job
back
in
2014.
In
addition
to
the
open
space
plan,
we
are
looking
at
the
vacant
land
and
how
we
can
turn
those
into
maybe
food
gardens,
because
that
was
what
a
lot
of
the
residents
wanted
to
do
and
organizations
as
well.
But
we
looked
at
the
urban
egg
urban
agriculture
zoning
code
and
how
people
can
get
permits
to
have
chickens
and
bees,
and
we
changed
that
a
little
bit
back
in
2015
amended
that
and
it
passed
in
City
Council
in
July
of
2015.
E
But
we
it
allows
you
to
have
chickens
bees,
miniature
goats
and
it's
just
an
occupancy
permit
now.
So
the
price
came
down
from
like
three
hundred
and
forty
dollars
to
at
the
time.
It
was
seventy.
Now
it's
90,
but
that's
still
not
three
hundred
and
forty
dollars
anymore,
and
we
also.
There
was
one
thing
that
I'm
really
sorry
that
I'm
really
proud
of-
and
that
is
the
one
word
that
I
changed
throughout
the
code
throughout
this
amendment
that
we
made
and
I
changed
the
word
homeowners
to
be
residents,
so
that
just
opens.
A
E
E
A
A
D
E
A
A
E
It's
a
really
big
part
of
that
for
sure
so.
I
I
worked
for
see,
I
had
a
corporate
job
back
in
the
day
and
then
I
got
laid
off
of
that
and
I
started.
Looking
at
my
budget,
so
I
was
like
now:
I
have
no
job,
I
need
to
figure
out
what
I'm
gonna
do
and
so
I
looked
at
my
budget
and
realized
that
the
majority
of
the
money
I
spent
out
going
was
on
food
and
I
was
like
well
I
need
to
fix
that.
E
E
D
E
Windowsill
she'd
put
in
her
coffee
grounds
and
everything
else,
I,
don't
know
if
you
had
that
experience,
but
so
I've
been
exposed
to
a
forever.
So
it
was
really
kind
of
natural.
For
me,
when
I
decided,
like
I'm
just
gonna
grow,
my
own
food
grow
the
food
at
this
farm
and
and
that
was
a
good
solution
to
cutting
out
the
middleman
and
then
I
got
a
job
with
Gro
Pittsburgh
and
we
did
the
edible
school
yards.
I
was
the
project
manager
to
get
out
of
school?
E
You
know
through
school
yards
in
to
Dilworth
and
phazon
in
the
East
End,
and
then
we
had
a
summer
program
where
we
had
youth
16
14
to
16
year
olds
came
in
and
they
help
to
maintain
the
gardens
over
the
summer
because
the
kids
weren't
there
to
maintain
it,
and
so
just
you
know
getting
those
kids
involved
in
and
seeing
how
they
they
evolved
over
that
ten
weeks
and
we
took
them
on
field
trips
to
farms,
and
it
was
just
really
it
was
the
the
best.
So
I
thought
this
is.
E
A
E
Yeah,
it's
definitely
a
it's
a
it's
a
good
topic
to
focus
on,
and
everybody
has
some
sort
of
experience
with
it
with
food
and
with
growing
so
I
I
went
to
Chatham.
I
was
part
of
the
first
cohort
in
food
studies
back
in
2010
and
then
and
now
I'm
here.
So
that's
that
was
just
to
finished
my
evolution
so.
A
E
So
a
lot
of
the
properties
that
we
have.
This
is
a
big
myth
that
I
helped
to
destroy.
Often
people
think
the
city
is
hoarding
land
like.
Why
don't
we
just
sell
it
for
a
dollar
like
other
cities,
what
we
do
have
7,000
vacant
lots
that
we
have
taken
the
lead
for
would
put
a
lien
on
it.
I
guess
so
we
have
taken
responsibility,
for
it
is
the
way
I
put
it.
E
We
don't
actually
own
it,
so
we
can't
transfer
it
to
another
party
until
it
goes
through
a
process
of
having
the
title
cleared
and
quieted
at
the
state,
and
it's
because
of
state
laws
that
are
so
strict
that
we
can't
just
sell
it
out
from
under
you.
So
we
have
the
the
properties
that
we
have
now.
It
would
take
about
18
to
24
months
to
get
that
process
taken
care
of.
E
So
you
can
adopt
a
lot
and
then
you
could
have
it
possibly
for
that
long
before
another
project
comes
along
and
our
developer
comes
on,
wants
to
do
something
on
it.
So
it's
a
really
great
opportunity
for
a
temporary
sort
of
garden
space
and
there
might
be
the
opportunity
for
making
more
long-term
as
well
but
yeah.
It's
free
land,
it's
not
the
best
quality
soil.
E
It's
not
farmland,
it's
urban
soils,
but
we
do
require
you
to
do
a
soil
test
to
check
for
lead
levels,
because
we
want
to
make
sure
that
we're
protecting
our
residents
from
that
and
we
have
partnered
with
Allegheny
County
Conservation
District
and
they
have
a
machine
that
does
soil
tests
in
their
office.
So
they
come
out
and
they
dig
the
soil
samples
and
they
teach
the
residents
about
the
importance
of
making
sure
that
you
know
what's
in
your
soil
and
that
you're
familiar
with
this
and
that
you're
more
cautious.
E
If
there
are
high
levels
of
lead
and
what
you
should
do
and
then
they
do
the
test
and
they
give
a
report
back
to
me
and
they
give
one
to
the
resident
and
they
give
them
recommendations.
So
it's
a
really
great
partnership
and
what
do
they
get
out
of
it?
They
get
data
which
is
really
what
they
want.
So
it's
been
a
really
great
partnership
for
the
last
three
years
and
you're.
E
Is
I
think
more
people
are
thinking
about
how
they
can
be
self.
Sustainable
money
is
hard
to
come
by
nowadays,
more
increasingly
so
cutting
out
that
middleman
I
think
more
people
are
coming
to
that
realization,
like
I,
did
all
those
years
ago,
but
it's
it's
definitely
something
that
people
are
looking
at
and
and
it's
empowering
to
be
able
to
provide
for
yourself
I.