Missoula will soon have a new chief operations officer, as Eric Hallstrom was unanimously approved for the position Wednesday by the city council's Administration and Finance Committee.
The appointment was added to the agenda for city council's full meeting on Monday, Dec. 13, when it will become official. Hallstrom is expected to start work Wednesday, Dec. 15.
Hallstrom, 46, will oversee city business tools and information, as well as non-financial data reporting. He will be responsible for implementing city strategic plans and developing tools to measure whether they are working.
Data-driven decision-making has been a point of emphasis in the job description, as has communication with the general public and overseeing how public money is spent.
"I think there's now tools available that are sort of at the scale that municipal governments can use to drive decision-making — framework with good data or with systems that can actually support good data," Hallstrom told the Missoulian on Wednesday. "Part of the problem is it's hard to collect the right information to make decisions and so (we want to be) making sure we're being thoughtful about how you design a program, so you can assess its effectiveness.
"Instead of maybe a biannual report, you have a dashboard that's more real-time," he added. "And you can make a lot of dynamic decisions if you know whether or not you're hitting your goals instead of just getting an after-the-fact report."
Hallstrom's experience has been...
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