Mayor Daniel Lurie has dismissed Florence Simon as director of the Mayor‘s Office of Innovation, The Standard has learned. The departure represents a major pivot for City Hall’s reform efforts less than a year after Simon, a former McKinsey consultant, was hired, and just as her department was set to expand.
The mayor’s office described the departure as a mutual decision, but a source with direct knowledge of the situation said Simon had been let go.
The office, essentially an in-house consultancy that implements tech solutions across San Francisco government, has been the tip of the spear for Lurie’s efforts to streamline city operations. Its work touches on such torturously bureaucratic areas as permitting reform, transit project management, and police hiring.
The Board of Supervisors in February approved a $7 million, three-year grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to partially fund the office, expanding its team from six to 10 people, under Simon’s purview. The city is also contractually obligated to kick in $2 million for the office’s operations…