Implementing Technology for Empowering Businesses

Justin Fair, Interim Deputy City Manager & Chief Information Officer at the City of Goodyear

Justin Fair, Interim Deputy City Manager & Chief Information Officer at the City of Goodyear

Justin Fair is the Chief Information Officer at the City of Goodyear. With over two decades of experience in the technology landscape, he is an accomplished leader in technology architecture, communications, application development, cybersecurity, database management, and GIS, among others. During his tenure at the City of Goodyear, he has supervised numerous projects to implement technology. Fair and his team are committed to fostering innovative methods to serve citizens, and they have some impressive plans for the City of Goodyear.

How would you describe your journey with the City of Goodyear, and what are your key responsibilities here?

As the Chief Information Officer, my primary role is supervising traditional IT infrastructure, operations and management, service desk support, end-user device management, cybersecurity and application support. I also oversee spatial data mapping through GIS. To provide the best-in-class services and optimize the capabilities of the City of Goodyear, we always evaluate our operations and processes to ensure alignment with strategies and specific projects.

Today, Goodyear is one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing regions in the U.S., with a low cost of doing business, better transportation options, and fiber connectivity that powers any business. This transformation can best be attributed to our team, which works tirelessly to implement change in the City of Goodyear.

Please shed some light on the significant challenges and trends you have encountered while working for the City of Goodyear.

One of the significant challenges we face in both public and private sectors today is related to hiring and employee retention. According to reports, one in four employees plans to quit their jobs. Therefore, retaining employees in their designated roles requires deliberate efforts from the employer. To this end, we promote an all-inclusive hiring culture to attract and retain talent. Once we find the right candidate, we provide opportunities for upskilling their technical knowledge for retention and internal growth.

"Today, Goodyear is one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing cities in the U.S., with a low cost of doing business, better transportation options, and fiber connectivity that powers any business."

We take a data-driven approach to decision-making to implement effective transformations. Incorporating data governance and structures into Goodyear's systems has helped us make informed decisions and enhance the efficiency of our processes. We follow a well-planned approach called lean management to ensure overall continuous improvement. It helps us work systematically to bring small, incremental changes within different organizational processes.

Are there any recent projects you have been working on, and what are some of the process elements leveraged to make them successful?

We recently developed a smart city master plan to implement data-driven systems in Goodyear. As part of this initiative, we established key performance indicators (KPIs) internally and externally for departments, the city council, and citizens to measure our performance and bring transparency to our processes. This required establishing internal data governance and managing a data lake to build an external platform leveraging cloud solutions to make data available for our citizens. We are building on Power BI as our business intelligence tool for internal decision-making, while the data views and decision-making will be done leveraging the Azure platform.

In light of your experience, what will be your advice to fellow peers in the industry?

The success of an organization lies in its ability to build good relationships. Working with industry leaders to understand the scope of leveraging technology to introduce new systems and processes to support business needs is necessary. More importantly, the coordination within the team will lead to effectively implementing newer technologies. Without building relationships across teams, all attempts to implement organizational transformation would be in vain.