Cool communities are not afraid to reframe their thinking. Our industry suffers from an endemic blindness to the unleashed capacity within our existing work force. Far too many governments pigeonhole employees as serving only a functional job title or classification, ignoring most all the untapped skills, interests and experiences those employees have.  We in local government are all living on top of gold mines, and we may not even realize it, much less understand how to dig it out! The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate how to “mine the minds” of our employees. Without needing consultants, additional training, or even spending money, the City of Rancho Cordova exposed a framework for building organizational capacity to meet future needs with existing staff.