Boston has long ranked as a leader in local government tech, and this has been especially true over the past three years with Garces as CIO. He attributes this success to his team and their deep commitment to reconfiguring the way the department works to do important things at scale. Garces praised them for embracing user research, analytics and emerging technology to lessen the fragmentation that tends to exist in cities.
“Always at the heart of what we do is trying to make things better for human beings,” he said.
And, indeed, they have, such as by aligning birth records with public school enrollment. Previously, to enroll children in public school parents needed to have a copy of a student’s birth certificate. They often had to go to City Hall and pay $12 for it. After hearing about resident frustration, the tech team built a data-sharing risk management tool that enabled birth certificate authorization digitally, without exposing the data.
That’s just one example. In Garces’ time the tech department has also built an internal consultancy for complex problems, as well as started quarterly meetings with tech leaders from public safety, libraries and schools. The goal is to stay on top of what is and is not working.
“It’s all building the muscles,” Garces said. “It’s not only about the technology. It’s about the way we do work, leveraging agile practices.”
These are all lessons Garces has honed throughout a productive public-sector tech career, one that started in South Bend, Ind., and then continued in Pittsburgh, where he also served as CIO.
“I’m able to be as effective as I am because I make a lot of mistakes,” Garces said, “and I’ve learned from the things that have worked in other places.”
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to view the full digital edition online.
