Is this the answer to City Hall’s civic tech woes?

After a tumultuous first few months under new city CIO Charlie Brennan, the Office of Innovation and Technology’s civic tech and open data teams are moving to a different department.
Led by Chief Data Officer Tim Wisniewski, the two teams will become the Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation and report to Chief Administrative Officer Rebecca Rhynhart, the city announced this morning.
“This will allow OIT to focus on the core legacy systems and IT services to departments that are sorely in need of modernization,” Rhynhart said in a statement. “At the same time, this new structure elevates the prominence of the initiatives of open data and digital transformation.”
With Wisniewski at the helm of the office, it’s a return to the leadership structure that existed before Brennan.
It’s a move that reflects Brennan’s interests and expertise — he’s more focused on updating the city’s legacy systems than running an innovation team — as well as Rhynhart’s stated goal of making the city “more efficient and effective.” She also oversees Andrew Buss’s innovation management team, which used to be housed at OIT.
The civic tech team is currently working on alpha.phila.gov, a re-imagining of the city’s website, but complained of a lack of leadership and autonomy, once CIO Adel Ebeid and Civic Tech Director Aaron Ogle left. This change seems like a way to tackle both of those problems.
Former Chief Data Officer Mark Headd cheered the move:

I stand by this. Major props to @PhillyMayor and congrats to @timwis! https://t.co/4eHIeaxVaP

— Mark Headd (@mheadd) May 10, 2016

While Ogle raised a concern:

I don't think OIT and the legacy systems are going to benefit from the segregation. More of the same, tired #govtech.

— Aaron Ogle (@atogle) May 10, 2016