![City and county of boulder seen from above](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-07/AdobeStock_609404359.jpeg?itok=z27pSBEP) # Fellowship Field Notes: Boulder's First 90 Days As part of The Responsive Cities Network, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and led by Data-Smart City Solutions at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard Universitythis series features learnings, insights, and reflections from the three Service Innovation Fellows embedded in Boulder, Philadelphia, and San Jose. July 08, 2026 [ Claire Benjamin ](/people/claire-benjamin) Squinting in the sunlight, we stared out across the vast parking lot, trying to imagine a new future. As the owners of the industrial site described their ambitious vision for the land and buildings, eight Planning and Development Services team members from the city of Boulder listened carefully. The city staff, with expertise ranging from zoning and code compliance to wastewater and engineering, walked almost two miles with the owners, asking detailed questions about the space. They took time to see the site, build a relationship, and get a concrete understanding of the owner’s intentions and goals and the potential positive impact on the city - before any paperwork was even submitted. I joined the site visit in my new role as a [Service Innovation Fellow](/responsive-cities-network "The Responsive Cities Network"), part of a new initiative funded by the [John S. and James L. Knight Foundation](https://knightfoundation.org/) and led by Data-Smart City Solutions at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University. In my role, I lead service innovation efforts, working across teams to identify opportunities to strengthen the city’s capacity to diagnose challenges, ground service improvement in community insights, and test data and AI-enabled solutions. I’m currently embedded in [Planning and Development Services (P&DS)](https://bouldercolorado.gov/government/departments/planning-development-services), the department responsible for defining and implementing an inclusive vision for the city’s future through comprehensive planning and for administering codes and policies through services like permitting, licensing, and inspections. In my first few weeks at the city, I focused on discovering: - The city’s data ecosystem and AI readiness - The in-progress AI governance and training plan - Existing data about community needs and challenges - Areas of opportunity to make the city more visible to residents and to bring residents’ voices into city work, especially within P&DS Throughout this, my goal has been to build relationships and understand and honor existing process improvement work that city staff is doing, especially those driven by community needs. ## The Opportunity While not every prospective applicant for P&DS services gets a preemptive site visit with a full team of city staff, I’ve already seen staff go out of their way to answer questions and help residents access services, such as the licensing manager who took the time to sit down with a business owner hoping to open a coffee truck and help them navigate the process. Results from internal customer surveys point to generally positive experiences with P&DS services, (78% of respondents said that their experiences met or exceeded expectations) but unfortunately small and minority-owned businesses have reported struggling to navigate the permitting and licensing processes required to open a restaurant or retail location. This not only delays or even prevents opening, resulting in economic losses, it also requires additional time from both the applicants and P&DS staff going back-and-forth over the process. This points to another area for improvement; not only can the permit and licensing process be improved, but the mechanism for feedback can as well. On the city data and AI readiness side, the rollout of city AI governance and training is approaching quickly, but the distributed IT model has presented challenges in getting a clear, centralized picture of current AI use, hopes, fears, challenges with data challenges, or staff-identified opportunities for experimentation. I recently read Jennifer Pahlka’s insightful observations about sustainable, transformative reform in [A Three Horizons Framework for Government Reform](https://www.eatingpolicy.com/p/a-three-horizons-framework-for-government?publication_id=2164237&post_id=195337125&isFreemail=true&r=5ugfmg&triedRedirect=true). They sparked questions for me about how the Responsive Cities Network work can drive meaningful, structural change. Pahlka suggests that, because of a focus on visible accomplishments within an electoral cycle, the political system may mistake small-scale successes that embody the future system for proof the whole problem is solved, rather than evidence that structural change is needed, collapsing what could be transforming reform back into sustaining reform. At the same time, AI is compressing timelines and raising expectations across government functions, from service delivery and responsiveness, to regulation, permitting, and enforcement. It’s making today's multi-year rulemaking timelines increasingly indefensible. Navigating this unstable environment requires both near-term progress and upstream and downstream alignment towards ambitious structural transformation. ## Looking Ahead As I move forward with my Fellowship, I’m asking myself: - How might we strive for quick, meaningful changes while avoiding incorporating AI as a band-aid that doesn't address underlying structural, process, or data issues? - How can I build both upstream and downstream relationships? Do we have opportunities to incorporate structured feedback loops that support leaders valuing outcome over output? - How can the Responsive Cities work serve as connective tissue that carries lessons not just to other cities, but upwards to state and federal levels? I’m excited to dig deeper into P&DS team members’ processes and challenges with accessing and using data for diagnosing issues, making decisions, and completing daily work. I want to know where P&DS staff challenges result in points of friction for applicants, and how we can reduce P&DS staff burden while empowering them to address challenges. I also want to build connections with small businesses and applicants, conducting surveys, interviews, and co-design activities to better understand their challenges and where they see opportunities for improvement from their perspective. Overall, we need to learn what city data community groups need for decision-making, what process challenges and data workarounds city staff are already managing, and the areas where everyone is ready to experiment. With that grounding, we can identify relevant and meaningful AI use cases, like an easier process for applying for and reviewing a permit, with support that allows applicants to confidently submit accurate information and frees up staff to better use their time on substantive work that requires human expertise, like visiting sites and building relationships with city residents and businesses. ## About the Author ### Claire Benjamin ![Claire Benjamin headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum10826/files/styles/hwp_1_1__100x100_scale/public/2026-07/CB%20Headshot%20square.png?itok=CHJF8XK5) Claire Benjamin (she/her) is a human-centered designer and user experience researcher dedicated to designing impactful and sustainable government services grounded in deep understanding of people. In her current role as Service Innovation Fellow with the City of Boulder, she works to strengthen the city's capacity to diagnose service delivery challenges, integrate community insight into service improvements, and test scalable data- and AI-enabled solutions. Claire brings deep expertise in partnering with government agencies and social impact-focused organizations to make sense of complex challenges and build equitable and meaningful solutions across services such as hospital operations, city permitting, and elections data and voter information. See also:- [ Artificial Intelligence ](/topics/artificial-intelligence) - [ City Administration ](/topics/city-administration) - [ Civic Engagement ](/topics/civic-engagement) - [ Operations ](/topics/operations) - [ Performance Measurement ](/topics/performance-measurement) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)