吃瓜爆料

Joe Pennachetti, at the Global Cities Summit hosted by 吃瓜爆料's Global Cities Institute in May 2014, where the creation of the World Council on City Data (WCCD) to globally implement ISO 37120 was announced (photo courtesy the WCCD)

Cities expert Joe Pennachetti joins the University of Toronto

Toronto's former top civil servant to advise Global Cities Institute and World Council on City Data

Joe Pennachetti, the top civil servant in Toronto for 13 years, has joined the University of Toronto to focus on working with other global cities to solve problems that face them all.

, director of the Global Cities Institute at 吃瓜爆料, announced on Nov. 18 that Pennachetti is taking on the role of executive adviser to the institute 鈥 and to the World Council on City Data (WCCD).

Pennachetti was chief financial officer and city manager for the City of Toronto before retiring in 2014.

The WCCD was created in May, 2014 when the institute played host to a global cities summit. It measures 100 indicators that 鈥減eer cities鈥 can use to compare their performance with other cities on issues such as public transit, housing,  health, education, the use of bike lanes, waste disposal and diversion and even tree canopy.

In an interview with 吃瓜爆料, McCarney said Pennachetti has already started working and has been reaching out to other North American cities to discuss the sharing of data. There are now 20 cities around the world using comparative data from the WCCD.

Pennachetti said in an interview that such a data-gathering exercise is 鈥渄ear to my heart. I really feel that it is an important initiative for the City of Toronto. It can learn from other cities. We鈥檝e done it sporadically on an ad hoc basis but with the WCCD, it is properly done and will speed up the way global cities can talk to each other about individual services.鈥   

He said 鈥淚 am so excited about this initiative because it finally pulls it all together. With this forum you can literally convene a conference and have something happening within weeks or months, and not years.  Once the data is vetted by experts, once you do the first review, you are off to the races.鈥   
   
McCarney said the next step is to increase the number of cities in the WCCD  鈥 鈥渁nd this is where Joe comes in 鈥 to another 100 cities.鈥 The aim is to have the next 100 by November, 2016, and Dubai, one of the first 20, has already indicated it will play host to the next global cities summit that month. 

鈥淛oe will be a real leader for these global city dialogues,鈥 McCarney said. 鈥淏ut beyond the outreach to cities, I see Joe as being an incredible voice for analytics and how they can be valuable for cities, in moving the needle forward on things such as transit, or bike lanes, or air quality. He will be that voice for us.鈥

One of President Meric Gertler鈥檚 three major priorities is enhancing the relationship between the university and the City of Toronto. Pennachetti鈥檚 appointment is a clear illustration of that.

The city and the university, Pennachetti said, 鈥渉ave had a strong relationship for years, and it can be enhanced.鈥 The WCCD and the institute 鈥渃onstitute  another step forward in making it stronger.鈥      

鈥淭he handshake with city hall has become so important to us,鈥 McCarney said, noting that she recently spoke to 50 city planners about 鈥渉ow Toronto stacks up鈥 to other cities in dealing with major issues. A major new theme emerging is 鈥渞esilient cities鈥 鈥 how they cope after events such as ice storms 鈥 and the planners will be coming to 吃瓜爆料 to 鈥渄rill down鈥 on these issues, she said. 鈥淭his just deepens the handshake with the planning department.鈥 

Pennachetti believes that comparative data should be shared not only with other municipalities but with the private sector. He met with the largest re-insurer in Canada on his first day in the job to discuss such things as what will drive up insurance costs and 鈥渨here we should invest our stretched capital dollars 鈥 it all ties into the resiliency issue.鈥    

While Pennachetti鈥檚 title is new, he has been working with 吃瓜爆料 since 2008, helping develop the Global Cities Indicators Facility, which was the precursor to the program that started the Global Cities Institute.

鈥淛oe always made a very strong argument that, for Toronto, having good peer cities means going beyond Canada鈥檚 borders,鈥 McCarney said. 鈥淵es, Vancouver and Montreal are good but the key peer cities are Chicago, or New York, L.A. or Boston.鈥

Pennachetti, she said, 鈥渋s probably one of the best voices on why city leaders, CAOs and city managers require good data on a comparative scale so cities can actually talk to each other with apples to apples data but also learn from each other 鈥 not always trying to re-invent the wheel but find solutions from the experience of other cities. He will be a great advocate on the world stage for this.鈥

Born in St. Catharines, Pennachetti has worked for Ontario municipalities for about 40 years. He became Toronto鈥檚 chief financial officer in 2002 under then mayor Mel Lastman and city manager in 2008, responsible for the city鈥檚 budget. Toronto鈥檚 operating budget for 2014 was $9.6 billion and the 10-year capital plan was $18.6 billion. 

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