Government innovation is a phrase many today would consider a contradiction in terms. The life and enduring legacy of Frederick O’Reilly Hayes proves this notion wrong.
In 1966, Hayes joined Mayor John V. Lindsay's administration as its Budget Director with a radical idea for the time: the Budget Bureau could be a hub for citywide innovation. By introducing a new system of program planning and budgeting analyses, Hayes challenged city agencies to sharpen their missions, pursue new paths to meet their objectives, and closely measure their progress. After all, the public expects nothing less.
Hayes’ budget and management principles are, in many ways, the antecedents of the modern mechanism of budget development the city uses today. In paving this foundation, he showed that government can do big things to change the lives of New Yorkers – all while accomplishing this feat with a sense of humor.
Public service matters today just as much as it did in Hayes’ heyday. More than five decades after Hayes left City Hall, the size and complexity of New York City’s municipal government remains unmatched. Every day, 300,000 people across more than 100 city entities work tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to deliver the daily services that 8.5 million New Yorkers depend upon. The times have changed over the past half-century but our municipal government’s mandate has not: to tackle and solve challenges on a size and scale that have no peer in American life.
Processes, no matter how efficient, are designed and run by people, a dynamic that Fred understood intrinsically. That's why, for the past 20 years, a group of his former employees have funded the Hayes Foundation Prize in his honor to celebrate forward-thinking, high-impact city workers early in their careers. More than 150 city employees have been honored during that span – people who, like Hayes, questioned convention and dedicated themselves to making our city a better place for all.
In 2023, the Hayes Foundation Board partnered with the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, the citywide tech authority, to honor our city’s best and brightest. OTI, led by NYC Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser, is no stranger to big ideas, having published the nation’s first Artificial Intelligence Action Plan, launched the nation’s largest free municipal broadband program Big Apple Connect, and the MyCity portal that rebuilt how city residents receive services from government.
This spring, we celebrated the prize ceremony at Gracie Mansion for the third straight year. Twenty-two city employees from 13 agencies received recognition and a $1,000 cash prize for groundbreaking initiatives that included:
- Improved response times for emergency vehicles;
- Reduced carbon emissions in public housing;
- Increased access to college for public school students;
- And enhanced e-bike charging infrastructure for delivery workers.
NYC is a better place to live, work, and raise a family because of these innovative public sector projects. And in this way, Fred Hayes’ service to New Yorkers – and his belief in the power of good government – continues to reverberate through the generations.
Jonathan Weiner is president of the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Prize Foundation.
