Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Tamlyn Shimizu: The City, the BABLE Podcast where we bring together top actors in the smart city arena, sparking dialogues and interactions around the stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations.
I am your host, Tamlyn Shimizu and I hope you will enjoy this episode and gain knowledge and connections to accelerate the change for a better urban life.
Smart in the City is brought to you by BABLE Smart Cities. We enable processes from research and strategy development to co creation and implementation. To learn more about us, please visit the BABLE platform at BABLE smartcities.eu.
[00:00:46] Tamlyn Shimizu: So welcome back, dear listeners. I'm thrilled to be on the ground in Chicago with the US Mayoral Roundtable, and with that, getting the opportunity to learn a lot about what Chicago is doing and share with you a lot of interesting stories and perspectives. So joining me today for this co branded episode is George Burciaga. He's a managing partner of the U.S. mayoral Roundtable. So welcome. George.
[00:01:12] George Burciaga: Hey there. How are you today?
[00:01:13] Tamlyn Shimizu: Doing well. Thanks for joining.
[00:01:15] George Burciaga: I'm excited to be here. You're in my hometown and I know you've had an incredible week here.
[00:01:21] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yes, it's the last day.
[00:01:22] George Burciaga: I'm so glad you're going home.
So we're glad you were here. We're glad you had a chance to really enjoy the city. Yes. So first of all, let me thank you and the entire organization for allowing us the opportunity to collaborate and shine the light on our city leaders across the country. And in this case, your first visit to the US Here was Chicago, my hometown. So this is a big day for us and you have an incredible city leader that you'll be spotlighting today. So we're excited to share the mic with Chairman Villegas.
[00:01:56] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. Thank you so much, George. And thank you so much to the US Mayoral Roundtable for helping facilitate this and connect us with great leaders. Yeah, you already hinted at it, so I might as well introduce him.
Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Alderman Gilbert Villegas. He's in his third term as alderman of Chicago's 36th Ward, a community of ethnically diverse neighborhoods on Chicago's Northwest side. And as if that's not enough of a job, he's also serving residents. He holds a leadership position in city government as a chairman of the Committee on Economic Capital and Technology Development. He also sits on the following City Council committees as Member Budget and Government Operations committees, and Rules, Contracting, Oversight and Equity Financing, Housing and Real Estate, License and Consumer Protection. I'm running out of breath here.
Zoning, Landmarks And Building Standards, and commissioner on the Chicago Plan Commission. And you've also been named to three national boards, the Democratic Municipal Officers Officials. Sorry, the national association of Latino Elected Officials, and the National League of Cities. And you also serve as the vice chair of the National League of Cities 2021 Large Cities Council. Did I get all of it?
[00:03:09] Gilbert Villegas: Yes.
[00:03:11] Tamlyn Shimizu: I feel like I'm missing something. No, no.
[00:03:13] Gilbert Villegas: That's enough.
[00:03:14] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay. Welcome, Chairman.
[00:03:16] Gilbert Villegas: Well, thank you for having me today, Tamlin. Excited to speak to your, you know, your listeners around technology and what Chicago's doing.
[00:03:23] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to dig into that. Before we get started, I like to start with a little bit of a teaser question so we get warmed up here.
So my question for you is, if you could trade places with any other elected official for one day, past or present, who would it be and why?
[00:03:41] Gilbert Villegas: Oh, man, that's a great question.
Yeah, I think I would.
Past would take a look at Abraham Lincoln.
He was a president that was leading during very challenging times while the country was trying to figure out its identity. And I think that he did a great job in finally allowing Americans to understand that we have a mutual interest in trying to be just a great place to. To live in. And I think that that's someone that I. When you take a look at his leadership in the past, I have a lot of respect for.
[00:04:22] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, great answer. Do you have an answer for present day as well? I'm just curious.
[00:04:27] Gilbert Villegas: Well, for. Let me see. For present day. Let me see. So we had a senator here that became President Barack Obama, and he did a lot of good things, and he was handed the presidency. We're not handed the president he was elected, but handed some very troubling times as we were just getting into the real estate collapse. And so he had put forward work with Congress to put forward some great initiatives around making sure that we were rebounding. And then he also took a gamble, a political gamble, in making sure that the Affordable Care act was in place. So those are two people, both from Illinois, that. That I. I think, both past and present, that I would love to, you know, have my leadership replicate.
[00:05:12] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, cool answers. That would be. Those would be some crazy days to spend in those shoes. Oh, yeah, I can imagine.
So I wanted to learn now a lot more about you as a person, your journey, your role. How did you come into this position and what led you to that?
[00:05:29] Gilbert Villegas: Yeah, so I'm born and raised in Chicago and had some very humble beginnings. The one thing I tell people is that wherever you start, just determine where you're going to end. And so I've always told people that I started in the projects, which is the Chicago Housing Authority, which is subsidized housing.
And my father passed away when I was eight. And so my mother had to raise two boys in the city of Chicago, Very challenging times. And had it not been for a federal program called Survival Death Benefits from Social Security, it provided my mom with a stipend and allowed her to work with dignity. And so that extra income that we received from the federal government allowed her the ability to put forward a life for both me and my brother with a lot less challenges because of the fact that she didn't have to work two jobs.
And thinking about the challenges in some of the neighborhoods that we lived in that were very challenging, that really put us on a course for potential success. And so as the neighborhoods got more challenging, my mom, with that extra money that would allow us to move out of the neighborhoods, and because she didn't have to work two jobs, she made sure that we were not on the. Not both me and my brother were not out on the streets getting into trouble.
So again, my mom was a very strong, is a very strong lady. She's still alive. But it was that type of program and very disciplined that put us on this path. And so we lived in Chicago Housing Authority and then we moved into regular apartments, moved here and there, went to Chicago public school system, graduated from high school and then not afford college. So I went right on to the Marine Corps. So I served in our. I served our country in armed forces in the U.S. marine Corps and served during Desert Seals and Desert Storm.
And after four years was honorably discharged and came back to Chicago where I went to Northeastern Illinois University, what's called the Illinois Veterans Grant. So in Illinois, if you serve in the military and you're honorably discharged, you can go to any state university for free. And so I had the opportunity to take advantage of that system or that grant rather, and study political science. And then, you know, was working and going to school at the same time, and then found myself with an opportunity to get into state government. And so in 2003, I started working for the Illinois Department of Transportation where I was a deputy director and I was in charge of what's called the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. And quite frankly, what that was was it was an opportunity to minority owned and women owned firms the ability to participate on publicly financed procurement opportunities, meaning that there was contractual opportunities for minority and women. So I oversaw that whole program for the state of Illinois within The Department of Transportation. I did that for five years. And then I got recruited to go run a not for profit trade association where our main focus was dealing with infrastructure. So I dealt in the state capital here in Illinois, but also Washington D.C. advocating for capital dollars to be invested within infrastructure.
Did that for three years. Very successful in introducing and passing legislation at the, at the state Capitol to the point where the governor decided, hey, you passed the bill that I'm having a hard time implementing. I need you to leave your not for profit trade association, come within government, help me implement, implement which what you passed. And so I went ahead and took chief of staff position with the Capital Development Board, another agency that did vertical infrastructure. So I did that for three years and then put forward a lot of successful agenda items. Make again, once again making sure that minority women owned firms are participating on public opportunities. And then in 2015, during a redistricting, there was a new ward that was created, that's the district. And so I was approached about, you know, potentially taking a look at running. I had always had, I had, I had always served my state, country, city in different ways.
So this would be from an elected position. And so I decided to take an opportunity and ran in 2015 and haven't looked back since then.
[00:10:04] Tamlyn Shimizu: What an incredible journey. Also, what strikes me so much with so many of the conversations I've had in Chicago is almost every single person I've talked to is very successful today. Very. But came from very humble beginnings. And I was wondering if you could also elaborate a bit more on that, on why, how you're able. What enabled you the most? Was it your family components? Was it these grants as you spoke about, what really enabled you to be successful? Successful when you come from humble beginning?
[00:10:33] Gilbert Villegas: Well, it's all around the family. So yeah, my mom is five foot one and a half and don't forget the half.
And she was. But she was very intimidating. Yeah, but she was, she was a strong lady that raised a strong woman that made sure that we did not miss anything, but at the same time understood that we appreciated everything that we had. And so when you come from Chicago, I mean this city is very resilient.
And so just think about why we live here in December and January when it's minus 20 degrees.
[00:11:13] Tamlyn Shimizu: You have to be resilient.
[00:11:14] Gilbert Villegas: You have to be resilient. Because a lot of times I've asked my family, like we're from Puerto Rico, what are we doing here in January?
[00:11:22] Tamlyn Shimizu: This is not our natural habitat.
[00:11:23] Gilbert Villegas: This is not our natural habitat. But my grandmother who came in the 1950s. I asked her that question at one time, and she's like, well, Miho, son, this is where the jobs were. And so they followed the migration of where the job and opportunities were. And so when, again, I said before, where you're born doesn't determine where you're going to end. And so in Chicago, there's a lot of grit, a lot of people that want to strive for things. And in Chicago, it's a big city, but it's, but it's a small city, too. And so you're able to leverage relationships. And as an elected official, the degrees of separation are way less than if I was just a regular, regular citizen, not elected. So you take advantage of it to the point where you're trying to help people.
And I think that's why a lot of Chicagoans are a lot more successful, just because the grit and resilience that the city portrays.
[00:12:23] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, I love, I love the message of resilience there. I was wondering if you could describe a bit more about the 36 ward and also describe a little bit more now about your role as chairman.
[00:12:34] Gilbert Villegas: Yeah. So the 36th Ward, we have 50 wards in the city of Chicago and are evenly distributed during redistricting. And so my ward has approximately 55 to 58,000 people, and it runs the gamut. So we have, I represent part of Ukrainian Village, which is West Town, and then we go up northwest to Humble park and to Belmont Craigen, and then to Little park called Dunning, where I reside at. And so it's a, it's an interesting ward because of the fact that you have, on one side of the ward, you have homes that are at $350,000. But on the east end of the ward, as you get closer to downtown, you have homes of 2 million-plus. And so it's like, how, how, how do I serve two communities that, that have different home values?
But what I notice is that they share the same value and that they want to save Chicago. They want good schools, they want economic development, and they want city services. And so when we're taking a look at how I serve the city, regardless if you're in a $2 million plus home or a 350,000 home, those are core pillars that service that people want within, within the ward. And so that's why I'm able to, to be successful.
In 2019, I became the chairman of the Economic Capital and Technology Committee. And I remember thinking about, well, I, I know the economic development portion of it, and I know the capital Development portion of it, but I'm a little short on the technology, technology development portion. And I remember talking to George and another gentleman about creating a working group to kind of advise me as to what it is that we should be doing around technology.
What are other cities, states and countries doing around technology? And I often tell people like city government, we don't manufacture cell widgets. Like we provide a service.
[00:14:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:14:30] Gilbert Villegas: And so if there's another city, state or country that doesn't have that technology copywritten, like we're taking it because all the research and development, they've already done it. And so why reinvent the wheel? And so we put this working group together and we started just having discussions around what are other cities, states, countries doing. And we started talking about what we need to do as a city. We have a great tech ecosystem here and it's been successful. But despite the city's efforts, because it hasn't been these city governments objective to, to really want to double down on technology, it's been the tech ecosystem that says, you know what, we're in a great position. We have a lot of universities, we have a lot of startup companies, we have a lot of VCs are here. We're going to do this. And so as a government leader, I just got out the way and say, well, how can I support you? And so having those discussions are important because we got to figure ways to get businesses up and running quicker and allow for constituents to interact with its government in a more efficient manner. And so that's why in 2019, we created this working group and we were, we were doing some great things. Right, George? But covet happened. Right. And so as a result of that, we decided, you know what, we're trying to fend for ourselves. Government, companies, you're trying to fend for yourselves as well. I'm not going to put an extra burden on you. So we just kind of shelved it.
But we learned a couple of things from, from, from that one year and a half of having those discussions around technology.
During that same time though, previous mayor decided to put the technology department within another department and name made some type of Frankenstein department called Asset Information Services. And so as a technology professional, you're like, where, where's the, where's the, where's the Innovation Technology department at? Well, it's, it's within this department over here. And within that department was also responsible for vehicles and facilities.
So I used to tell the, I used to tell the director all the time during the budget season, I say, you're the you're the Commissioner of Asset Information Services, so you're in charge of vehicles, buildings, and technology. So when I call your department looking for windows, what are we talking about? Are you talking about a vehicle window, a building window, or the software? And the commissioner would always get mad at me, but I always. I always made that point because I just felt it was one of the dumbest ideas that had been put forward, all in an effort to save $1 million out of a $15 billion enterprise. And so the question is, yeah, we saved a million dollars, but what did we lose? Because the tech firms were kind of confused as to like, well, who's like, what are you guys doing around innovation and technology?
And that had been because previous commissioners within technology had just never been supported. But I saw that there's a value with technology.
There's ways to save money, ways to create revenue. And we got to start thinking outside the box, because we cannot continue to go to businesses and residents with property tax increases, fines, fees, and tax increment finance surplus requests. We've got to be innovative here.
And the message is finally resonating because my colleagues are saying, hey, Gil, what are we doing around tech? What are we doing around tech? So the. The momentum's there.
And in 2023, when the new mayor came in, I said, one of the things that we need to do immediately is decouple the technology firm from this Frankenstein department, create its own department, and really uplift it. So that way, the tech firms that want to do business with us know that there's a department that's recognizable to them, and also that we want to lead with technology at the forefront around the delivery of the service.
And so we created, we reconstituted the working group, but we named it a task force. And I partnered with the chief operating officer for the city to really get this thing put together. And then working with George as well, with all the relationships that he has across the country, we decided to get this task force. It's called the Chicago Technology Task Force, Innovation and Technology Task Force. And so there's been a lot of exciting things that have been going on, a lot of discussions that are going on. We have a few cities that are part of this task force as well. We're having discussions with our peer cities as to what are they doing around solving an issue. Let us tell you what we're trying to do to solve an issue. And we want to be very intentional around creating pilot projects to figure out and test what works and what doesn't work. And if it doesn't work, we shelve it. But if it works, then we scale it and then we can report back to the task force saying, hey, this investment, we've been able to do this. And then other cities will take a look at it. If it fits what they're trying to accomplish, they can go ahead and take it as well.
[00:19:51] Tamlyn Shimizu: I love Frankenstein department.
I'm gonna use that because I've seen many Frank and Frankenstein departments over my career.
[00:20:02] Gilbert Villegas: Me, when, when, when the mayor, the previous mayor had said she was doing it all in an effort to save a million dollars, I started thinking about Austin Powers. When he says a million dollars, I told her, like, you need to say it like that, then I'll buy in. But other than that, this is a dumb idea.
[00:20:19] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, maybe, George, you were mentioned there. Maybe you want to contribute something.
[00:20:23] George Burciaga: Yeah, I just want to shine the light on the chairman for a bit because he said a lot that's really important. There's a few things I'm going to take a step back. There's one thing I have to absolutely say that probably isn't said enough with the chairman coming from where he came from. You'll notice that you heard him talk about family.
Family. Right. You heard him talk about innovation. Innovation. And we know that innovation normally is born from necessity, wanting something different, wanting to build, wanting to give, wanting to move forward.
And he has absolutely done that every day that I've known him. There isn't a day that goes by that I've reached out to him with an idea and he didn't say, yeah, let's do it, or let's look into it, or there's never been a no. And I'm not sure if he knows that, but it shows credit to his ability to see past himself, past the problem, past the city, to say, if other people are eager to share ideas, let's investigate it. Which. So I have to say thank you, chairman, for always looking at the potential in every conversation and then fighting that good fight when something's wrong. Because he's not the guy that just lets it happen. Right. So. And I've come to him with questions or ideas, and I've watched him stand up for those who couldn't stand for themselves in different scenarios. And he's gone through a couple of mayors and he's gone through growth in the city changes, Covid, all of the obstacles you can imagine. So I have to celebrate the chairman for the incredible work he's delivered while always keeping focus on people. Family. That's the. If someone was to Ask me where I think it comes from. It has to come from there. Because his intentional distribution of ideas or delivery of teams or concepts or projects or funding happens to be for someone else. It's actually not for him. It's always delivering this idea to help people. And that is incredible because sometimes elected officials lose focus there. Now, within what we do, we have the great fortune of working with so many city leaders from around the world. And if I was going to look at the city leaders that we work with in the US our closest group, which we have over 90 US mayors we work with and a number of other city leaders all have the same intention as the chairman. They literally see the same value. In fact, a good friend of mine who is now on our team, Mayor Hancock, used to say, as soon as you think it's about you while in working for government, you've lost.
And I can see that he's kept the chairman always keeps it very close to him. The second piece on the as he's grown to deliver this new task force which the last meeting we had had 25 plus of the largest technology firms in the world at the table, 10 of the smartest cities in the country, listening and collaborating. The mayor was in the room celebrating and pushing the idea forward. The chief operating officer was in full support and commitment to support this concept in this task force. That is not easy to do. And the chairman's been able to pull that off and has allowed our team to be a part of that, which is incredible. And when you do that, the initiatives that are coming out in 2025 will change the way cities around the world think about what's possible within city government. The idea of delivering a living lab that starts to change the way things are tested around intelligent infrastructure, public safety and smart government with local companies, MBE companies, large global companies, other cities.
That doesn't happen overnight. That's a vision, that's long term opportunity to change the way everyone lives.
I just want to be able to shine a light on the initiatives, but also the chairman for the incredible work as well.
[00:24:50] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, thanks so much for shining that light, George. And to you, Chairman. I also want to hear from you a little bit more around what the future has in store for this task force. Right. What are you pursuing? What are your goals for the future?
[00:25:04] Gilbert Villegas: Yeah, so one of the initial goals for 2025 is to really get a pilot program in place.
We're working on what's. What we're calling a smart, smart super block.
And if you think about it, you think about one city block with all types of technology associated with that block. So you could have a light pole that maybe has a drone on top that when someone calls 911 that drone activates and is able to to to direct the first responders to the correct building.
Gunshot technology where maybe there's a drone on top of a by where the gunshot detection technology is that's able to pop up and follow a vehicle. So that way there's no police chases which minimize the risk in the city.
Taking a look at WI fi, taking a look at using public assets to deploy kiosk where, where we're informing our visitors, 50 plus million visitors that come to Chicago, but also our residents on what's in the neighborhood, what's popping up, maybe having some free WI fi there in that area. So maybe there's a family that doesn't have the ability to afford WI fi. Well, they can have these hotspots in the area that provides free WI fi and maybe we can leverage that with the marketing income that we're going to receive off the kiosk and leveraging it where we're making them provide free WI fi for the community where the kiosk is. So there's a whole host of things around what the superblock is going to be able to do. But I also see where we could invite other municipalities, other states, other countries to take a look at, hey look, this is what we're doing.
Do you have firms that want to deploy and test something, bring it here to this block and let's all take a look at it and see what works. The one thing that government is risk averse and what I want to do is remove that because we have to be very innovative around the service that we're providing. As I said before, we don't manufacture cellwidgets and there's a lot of firms that are doing things out there that have spent millions if not billions on research and development.
We don't need to lead in technology as a creation of technology, but we do need to lead on how we're going to implement technology to serve our constituents and serve businesses that we need, that we count on to create revenue which in turn funds government.
[00:27:41] Tamlyn Shimizu: I love that perspective so much. Chairman and also I want to ask you, with innovation, what do you think are really the, what are you most excited about? I want to phrase it like that. What are you most excited about? What are, what do you think will have the most impact on citizens when you talk about these different innovations?
[00:28:02] Gilbert Villegas: So here I'm excited about trying to figure out how to incorporate AI into, into constituent and business engagement. And so what I mean by that is a constituent that wants to engage with the city through their computer or through their, or through their iPhone or their Android will be able to engage the city and put forward information.
AI then can determine, hey, based on the information that you've provided. You know, we also have another program that does this, or you qualify for this type of program that you might not even know. So it's really utilizing AI to maximize the opportunities for our constituents. Then from a business perspective, it's figuring out how to allow for predictability for businesses.
When you're a business owner, you want to know, when am I getting my permit, when am I opening? If I'm a developer, when am I getting my permit and when can I start putting shovels in the ground? Time is money. And so we want to make sure. And time kills deals. I should also say.
[00:29:11] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:29:12] Gilbert Villegas: And so Chicago being the third largest city, we're fortunate that a lot of people want to invest here, but we also want to make sure that it's easy for them to invest here because we have Phoenix, the fastest growing cities. We have Houston that's nipping at our tail right now. We're the third largest city, Houston's the fourth, Phoenix is the fifth.
So people, business owners have the ability to invest where there's least resistance. And so through the utilization of technology, you want to make it easier for them. And I think AI is going to be that tool to really put forward the predictability around how businesses can get up and running.
People can track requests from the city.
Bureaucrats that are in charge of delivering the service can be reminded by AI, hey, you have this document, you've had it for two weeks. Like what's the decision here?
Because a lot of times, you know, every two weeks there's a Friday for government employees and sometimes they don't have a sense of urgency. And so sometimes we got to remind people that when businesses succeed, they in turn pay taxes, which in turn funds government. So we're partners. And so we want to make sure that that message is getting out there that we're partnering with businesses to succeed and then also making sure that we're providing through the resources that we get from these businesses, services that the constituents need.
[00:30:40] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, sometimes we forget how interconnected everything is when we get stuck in our day to day. So we really have to remind people over and over again. Right. That this is all connected. So yes. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. I want to take a step back from the innovation piece and really talk about the, the people that you serve, because I know you're a major advocate for minorities, for women, for veteran owned businesses, for example.
So I want to ask you if you could implement, you wave a magic wand, you implement a policy overnight to better serve those people, what would that be?
[00:31:12] Gilbert Villegas: Yeah, so. So we're fortunate that over the last few decades we've enjoyed the minority women owned business enterprise programs here in the city of Chicago. During my tenure though, I created the veteran business enterprise program because we saw that that was a population that has done so much for this country that they deserve an opportunity to procure and benefit from contracting opportunities within public sector.
But a lot of that stuff around minority women I feel concerned about, given some of the rhetoric that's coming out of Washington D.C. and some of the challenges that are going on where diversity, equity and inclusion is being challenged. And we got to remind people that diversity is good. Diversity is a, is a strength. You know, when you have a product that sells to everyone in the country, the board that, that's in charge of, that corporation should reflect its constituency, consumers, or else there's no new ideas that's coming out of it. So I'm just a huge supporter of making sure that everyone's at the table. So I have the utmost respect for entrepreneurs because they're not tied to their desk. They're not having to get to work nine to five every day. They have the ability to do the things that they love, all the while making a living. And so that's why I respect these small businesses.
[00:32:41] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, I love that your approach there and how you're seeing really all the individuals that you're serving. So I want to ask really a lot, I'm really interested also about leadership in general and how you view leadership. So I want to ask you, what's something that you think that Chicago's leaders, including yourself, are doing right. That other cities maybe can learn from or that can. Yeah. You really want to share with them today?
[00:33:12] Gilbert Villegas: Well, I think when, you know, I have the, I'm fortunate to sit on a couple of national boards. And so I have a lot of, a lot of discussions with my colleagues from throughout the country. And Chicago's very unique in that prior to, during, during the, during the 70s and 80s, even going even further back, we had this stigma around how Chicago is a gangster town, Al Capone, and then we had the Chicago bulls in the 90s, in the 2000s, that really was great. But. And then the last few decades, the last decade, we've We've during some of the riots and stuff like that.
And then also the current administration blasting Chicago, our reputation has been damaged. And so just last year we had the Democratic National Convention in the city of Chicago, and a lot of my colleagues were able to come to Chicago, and you couldn't have picked better weather for that one week. And I told my colleague, hey, the weather's like this all the time here. We had. It was August, 70 degrees in August, which is unheard of because usually it's 90s, very humid. The city was on great display, and people were like, man, all those negative things we're hearing about the city, we're not seeing it here.
And so we've just got to continue to be our chief marketing office for the city, making sure that we're out there portraying what the truths are around the successes. We have our challenges like every big city, of course we do.
A lot of it is. Has been historical where there's been communities that have just not been invested in. And I think that the last administration, we really were intentional around making sure these investments were occurring, and we're going to continue doing that moving forward. You want to reduce crime, you got to give people opportunities.
You want to give people opportunities, you got to make it easier for people to do business here. So they're all connected. And it stems from leadership at the local level. And local government is what really gets things done. That's why I have a hard time when voters, constituents are not voting heavily in their local elections, because you're not going to see the president, United States, you're not going to see the governor, but you're going to see your local leader on a weekly basis or at the grocery store. And so I think it's incumbent upon people to recognize and get involved in local government. And so that stems from, you know, leadership and a vision. And so as a leader, I don't take that lightly. And I listen to my constituents, I listen to my colleagues from different cities about what they're doing.
Again, I don't have to have come up with the idea, but if you have a good idea, I'm taking it.
[00:36:12] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, I love that message about leadership, and I want to follow up with that. Really. What does leadership mean to you? That maybe is different, not a textbook definition of leadership. Right.
What is leadership really?
[00:36:29] Gilbert Villegas: Leadership, to me, means that you have a vision as to what you're trying to accomplish.
[00:36:34] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:36:34] Gilbert Villegas: And then you surround yourself with a team that's going to help you get this. This mission implemented. And so. And then also Making sure that you're able to provide tasks to your team in order to get accomplished. But you got to have a vision.
And my vision is always about figuring out how to keep the city moving forward.
And so I'm fortunate to have a great team that's around me. I'm fortunate to have a lot of friends that are in businesses or colleagues that are elected throughout the country to be able to bounce ideas off. But leadership to me is about having a vision and then sticking to it and being able to make decisions, whether they're bad or good. Making no decisions really frustrates me. So I make a decision, but it's an informed decision because I've been able to bounce it off my team and also my circle of. Of influencers.
[00:37:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. So much to learn from, also from you. So thanks for sharing.
I feel like there's probably many times where you've stood up against resistance, where you've been really resilient in times of difficulties. And I want to ask you, what's the time that you stood up against resistance to push forward something that you really believed in?
[00:37:50] Gilbert Villegas: Yeah, so it was just a couple years ago. I mean, every, as I've stated before, every 10 years, there's a redistricting that occurs. And so the census, they count all the people within the city or within the country rather. And then that information is disseminated to the local municipalities. And then from there is how you determine how the wards are going to be drawn. And so we saw that within the city of Chicago, there was a huge increase in the Latino community and a big decrease in the African American community. And we're trying to figure out how. What the balance is to make sure that the. The African American community was able to have enough seats to wield their influence at the same time taking a look at our growing power and making sure that it was representative. And so I found myselves. I found myself rather at loggerheads with some of my colleagues because I felt that it was important that as we're making these investments in the city and that we're coming to the city of Chicago, that it'd be reflective in opportunities. And so that was something that was very challenging.
And unfortunately, I was not successful in getting the ultimate goal that I wanted, but I was successful in increasing the number of Latino elected representation within cities. So I was shooting for a higher number. But in government, it's also my compromise. And so we were able to get one seat instead of two.
[00:39:38] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay, yeah, thanks for sharing. And now is the time at the End of the main interview, where I ask you, I'm sure there's many topics that you're passionate about that we didn't yet get the chance to talk about. Is there something that comes to mind that you really want to share with the listeners today?
[00:39:53] Gilbert Villegas: Well, you know, I'm. I'm a policy. I'm a policy guy. I'm. I'm kind of a nerd, and I introduce a lot of legislation around things that I think will make the city better.
And, and being part of the National League of Cities, I sit on that. I sit on. I sat on that board last year. Now I'm part of the Transportation Committee.
Everything that, that, that I do is really focused on making sure that we're making a better life for the people in the city of Chicago. And so all the policy ideas that I've put forward have always been about making sure that residents of Chicago, businesses in Chicago can have a better opportunity. So I know it's still within that same area of politics, but I kind of, I kind of eat, breathe and, and drink politics on a daily basis.
And I tell people all the time, it's like those people that don't participate in the process, you still get the same government, so you might as well have a say in government. I always encourage people to participate because you'll hear a lot of times people complain about government. And then when we ask them, well, did you vote or did you, you know, what did you. What have you done?
Nothing. Nothing changes. I said, you're right. If you don't get involved, nothing will change. And so we're constantly trying to educate people. That representation that's there is there for a time frame, but you can always change it. Right. Good thing about America is that we don't elect kings. Every two or four years or six years, you have an opportunity to elect or unelect someone. So we tell people, get involved in the process.
[00:41:35] Tamlyn Shimizu: Great message for, for everyone to. To remember to get involved. George, do you have anything that you want to bring to the open floor?
[00:41:42] George Burciaga: No, I will. Yes. I'd like to sort of echo the chairman's view on the National League of Cities and the role he plays there.
The current person, the CEO for the executive director and CEO, Clarence Anthony, is a good friend. He's been an incredible leader there. And having the chairman a part of this gives not only the chairman an opportunity to see what others are doing, but for others to see what Chicago, so that the ability to collaborate at that level with the third largest city in the country is really important. We have the great honor of working closely with the US Conference of Mayors, with Mayor Ginter, who's the current president, Mayor Holt, who will be the next president come this June, also with the African American Mayors association, which is Phyllis Dickerson, who's the executive director there. And we're hoping that we're going to get the chairman out to Barcelona to Smart City Expo World Congress so he can, he can kind of flex a little bit on what his technology committee and task force are doing here in Chicago, what his role is allowing him to do across the country with National League of Cities. So we're going to work on getting him to Barcelona with us with our US Delegation, who for the last seven years has been extremely powerful and very supportive in collaborating with city leaders from around the world. We've had representation and we were lucky that John Roberson has been a big part of being very vocal in ensuring Chicago is, well, representative. But to have the chairman there as well really gives us really put Chicago on the map, which they should be. So we're excited about that as well and we're looking forward to it.
[00:43:27] Tamlyn Shimizu: Thanks, George. I hope you can make it to Barcelona. We're there also, so we'll definitely see each other if you come. So that would be amazing if you can make it.
[00:43:35] Gilbert Villegas: Believe me, we're going to make every effort to get out there. And when we get out there, we want to talk about our superblock that's piloting and let people know in Europe like, hey, this is what we're doing here in Chicago.
[00:43:46] Tamlyn Shimizu: And you know, they have all these super blocks that they call them in Barcelona too. So it's definitely a good topic to bring too.
Great. Then we get to our segment and the segment I have for you today is called Trial and Error.
[00:44:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Trial and error.
What went wrong, what mistakes were made along the way and more importantly, what lessons were learned.
[00:44:14] Tamlyn Shimizu: Do you have an example to bring to the table as it relates to anything?
[00:44:19] Gilbert Villegas: Oh, wow.
[00:44:20] Tamlyn Shimizu: Could be something from your childhood, it could be something from your career. Anything that really. Oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that. But I learned something along the way.
[00:44:31] Gilbert Villegas: Yeah. So I think, I think it was in 2022, I was seeking a different office.
It was a congressional seat. And when you, you get out there and you're looking at trying to introduce yourself to a larger constituency base because you take a look at award, like I stated, it's anywhere between 55 to 58,000. But when you take a look at a congressional seat, it's like 780,000 people. So it's 12 times the amount of people that you have to introduce yourself to. Yeah. And so one of the errors I made was thinking that people were. People were just in. In tune what was going on with this whole new district that was created, and that because I'm from Chicago, that they're going to just easily. I'll be easily recognizable, but a lot of people know who their alderman is, but outside of that area, they'll know you're an alderman, but they just won't know exactly who you are. And so that was an error on my part because I thought, hey, I'm alderman of Chicago, third largest city. I think people are going to know who I am. Wrong. And so I ran. We ran this congressional race, like a aldermanic race, and we just got. We just got killed. But it was a lesson learned.
[00:45:52] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:45:52] Gilbert Villegas: And so. And that had been my first lost within. Within the political arena. I. I had been pretty sick. I had been pretty successful to that. To that point in. In winning races. And so it was a. It was a hard lesson to learn. But I had a. Another friend that was with me when I had to give my concession speech, because I had never given a concession speech. So I had to figure out, like, what do I say? And she's like, look, you know, you. You. You gave it. You gave it a. The old college try, but you. What you do is you keep your head up and you congratulate the. The winner, and you talk about how you want to see her succeed, and. And you want to see that the city, the country move forward. And so that was. That was a very challenging time where I learned that never underestimate your. Your opponent, number one.
Never take people's interaction into government for granted. Because a lot of times people are just, you know, it's not affecting them right then and there, then they're too busy doing other things. And so, yeah, you got to remember to talk about kitchen table discussions.
[00:47:04] George Burciaga: Right.
[00:47:04] Gilbert Villegas: Price of eggs, price of gasoline, price of rent, price of insurance, because those are things that people are affecting on a daily basis. And so that was. That was a. A time in two years ago where. Two or three years ago now where I wish I would have done things a little bit differently.
[00:47:20] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. Thanks for sharing. I think it's really important that we're also open and we share. Hey, I. I didn't do the best that I could have done at that time. We're all human, right?
[00:47:30] Gilbert Villegas: Exactly.
[00:47:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: And so we need to be more open. I think about, hey, not this time, but I do better next time.
[00:47:35] Gilbert Villegas: But I learned a lot. And so at some point, whenever I decide to do I have a better.
[00:47:40] Tamlyn Shimizu: Plan now then it was a success if you learned something right. So great. Now we come to our final question and it's a question we ask every single guest and it is to you, what is a smart city?
[00:47:53] Gilbert Villegas: To me, a smart city is a city that allows for government to act seamless and where a constituent can interact with its government, not be forced to come downtown city hall, be forced to go to multiple floors to engage with bureaucrats. I mean if you think about how you can track your Uber, how you can track your package from Amazon, why can't you track the service city service that you're requesting? Yeah, right. And so when I think about smart cities, I think about a vehicle that allows for people to have a seamless interaction with government. I take when I think about smart cities, I think about how technology can help with public safety. When I think about technology, I think about how it's, it allows for smarter infrastructure.
And so very excited about making Chicago a smart city. And that's why I'm working closely with George is because in his organization is because we've got to think outside the box and really put Chicago on the map as, as, as a tech focused government and we're competing against cities like Boston, New York, Austin.
But when people hear about Chicago and the tech scene that's here, as I stated before, the success we've had has been despite our efforts. And so if we're able to message out to the tech ecosystem that we want to partner with you, we want to work with you, we want to follow you, allow you to continue to be innovative. I think that the residents of Chicago and the business of Chicago will, will, will be more successful.
[00:49:42] Tamlyn Shimizu: I love the definition of this kind of seamless integration. So thanks so much for sharing, George. Did you want to add anything to that definition?
[00:49:49] George Burciaga: Well, I think you and I had this conversation and I kind of answered before and the idea, I'll keep it simple. When we lean into technology to transform a location, a city, a town, a village, wherever that person or that group of people live. And we can use technology to, to the chairman's point, transform and improve a balanced delivery of services to everyone.
You've heard me say before that it can't be that smart of a city if it doesn't actually improve everybody's life.
Usually as a chairman will point out, that we leave people out because it's just the way cities operate in silos. Sometimes the Chairman was very clear on some of the deficiencies that we might see. So in order to deliver or build our future city, which is going to be smart, it has to deliver equally, a balanced delivery of transformative services that change and improve the way people live. And then we will definitely one we're going to shine the light on, because the Chairman's been doing this, the city's been working on it. Now I think it's time you heard the Chairman say time kills all deals. And the truth is the timing is now and everyone is moving hard and fast to get there. And in November, the Chairman's going to talk about this superblock and the delivery of all these, all this tech and where Chicago's going with it. And there will be an invitation to all those other cities and the 1100 exhibitors that are in that conference center to come to Chicago and test and pilot your technology. Because that will literally be the idea of this living lab that we'll call a superblock.
[00:51:37] Tamlyn Shimizu: Really exciting things happening. So I just have to thank you both for your time. Thank you, Chairman. I really enjoyed learning about your journey. That's always my favorite part. Part is the journey to how you got here, but also about the transformative ways that you're changing lives in Chicago. And thank you so much, George, for partnering with us on this as well. It's been great to be here in Chicago with you. Thank you both.
[00:51:59] Gilbert Villegas: Thank you.
[00:51:59] George Burciaga: Absolutely.
[00:52:00] Gilbert Villegas: Thank you.
[00:52:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: And of course, thank you to all of our listeners. We wouldn't be here without you either. So don't forget, you can always create a free account on BABLE SmartCity EU. You can find out more about Smart City projects, solutions and implementations. Thank you.
[00:52:15] Tamlyn Shimizu: Thank you all for listening. I'll see you at the next stop on the journey to a better urban life.
