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Public Officials Win PTI's Technology Leadership Award

A city manager and two technologists will take home awards on Friday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three local government officials will have something to be proud of when Public Technology, Inc., formally recognizes the winners of its 2001 Technology Leadership Award this week at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Valerie Lemmie, city manager of Cincinnati, Ohio; Gail Roper, director of information technology of Kansas City, Mo.; David Molchany, CIO of Fairfax County, Va., are the winners of the 2001 award.

Valerie Lemmie
Lemmie, who was the city manager of Dayton, Ohio, for five years, became Cincinnati's city manager on April 1. She led what Dayton officials called "an information technology revolution" for her former employer.

The investments in technology the city made during her tenure include replacing the organization's disjointed desktop computer system with an award-winning thin-client network and using video cameras to catch illegal dumpers in city neighborhoods. The combined result in Dayton is a more effective and efficient government whose array of customers benefit through increased information and accessibility.

In addition, Lemmie directed an aggressive overhaul of the city's technological backbone -- wiring all 122 city buildings with fiber-optic cabling; helping the city's ITS department evolve its centralized computer facility to become Dayton's current application service provider; installing a kiosk in the lobby of its Department of Building Services to allow homebuilding and contracting customers to check the status of their building permits; and advocating for new technology investments in the city's public safety agencies, including the purchase of six new thermal-imaging cameras in the Fire Department.

Lemmie served two two-year terms on the PTI Board of Directors culminating Dec. 31, 1999.

Gail Roper
Roper has been called "a business-savvy executive who epitomizes technological vision and leadership" that includes overseeing such initiatives as construction of a wide area network connecting more than 200 municipal buildings and implementation of the Kansas City's first electronic-government applications.

Roper developed a strategic plan in conjunction with a consulting group that outlined the technology framework for the future of city government.

In just the past two years, Roper has implemented an Enterprise Project Management Office; a PC life-cycle program; site licensing of Microsoft Office and operating system software for nearly 3,000 PCs; upgrading the city's antiquated telephone system that produced a savings of nearly $400,000 the first year and is projected to save a total of $1.2 million after seven years; and established a technology planning division in the Information Technology Department (ITD) to help city departments develop proposals for IT projects.

David Molchany
As Fairfax County's CIO, Molchany has cultivated a strategic enterprise-wide role that includes IT and e-technologies; as well as overseeing a broad range of information-related departments, including consumer protection, cable TV, business licensing, the public library, document services and data, voice and video telecommunications.

He also hosts visits for governments worldwide to observe what the county is doing with technology and speaks nationally and internationally about e-government, technology, strategic planning and other topics.

Molchany, also a deputy county administrator, leads the strategic direction of the county's award-winning e-government program; addressing the digital divide; and creating a "government without walls, doors or clocks." The e-government program utilizes multi-channel service delivery via the Web, Kiosks, IVR and Cable TV. Using these service delivery channels, the county provides business transactions and information to residents and businesses.

He is also a strong proponent of the Government Without Boundaries project, a partnership between the General Services Administration, Fairfax County, New Jersey and Virginia. Its vision is to create seamless government online, with a virtual pool of government information and services available from all levels of government and accessible by all constituents.

"PTI has spent more than 30 years emphasizing the use of technology in local government, and these three have and continue to fall in line with this emphasis," said PTI President Costis Toregas. "They are wonderful representatives of the growing family of public technologists. The PTI Technology Leadership Award is in recognition of those public officials who have pioneered the use of technology at the local level, and quick review of past winners affirms the notion that the award recognizes true achievers who continue to contribute innovation and spark to the public arena."

PTI is a non-profit technology research, development and commercialization organization of the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and the International City/County Management Association.

Public Technology, Inc.