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Digital Cities Survey 2022 Winners Announced

The Center for Digital Government (CDG)’s survey winners strengthen cybersecurity, enhance transparency and digital equity and plan for the future of work.

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November 10, 2022 – The top 10-ranking cities in each of five population categories and the Future Ready Award winner will be honored during the Digital Cities Awards event at the National League of Cities “City Summit” on November 17th in Kansas City, Missouri. Registration is complimentary and open to the public sector only.

“Constituents expect more from modern governments. Our Digital Cities survey winners have worked hard to keep the focus on the needs of the communities they serve while implementing technology to improve delivery and execution,” said CDG Vice President Brian Cohen. “We congratulate them for leading the way towards a smarter and more responsive government.”

This year’s first place winners in each population category include:
  • City of San Diego, Calif. (500,000 or more population category):
San Diego's digital equity program, “SD Access 4 All”, uses technology to drive decision-making and focus resources in the highest priority areas. The GIS Team mapped digital equity assets across the city - such as open public WiFi, hotspots, free tech support and free computer and internet skills classes - to provide access to free city Wi-Fi at over 300 locations in areas that would benefit most.

  • City of Long Beach, Calif. (250,000 – 499,999 population category):
Long Beach IT is supporting the city's strategic goals and plans for citizen engagement, economic development, Smart City, and Racial Equity and Reconciliation by development of the Equitable Data Collection Toolkit, by supporting the Digital Inclusion Resources Hotline, by enhancing the “GoLongBeach” app, and by providing permanent virtual participation during official city meetings, community listening sessions and townhalls.

  • City of Bellevue, Wash. (125,000-249,999 population category):
Bellevue launched four interactive, public-facing dashboards - "Economic Data", "Sustainable Bellevue", "Council Priorities", and "Police Transparency” which shows crime statistics, community engagement efforts, “use of force” reports, and information about diversity within the police force. In addition, a Future of Work cross-functional team put together resources, training, and policies; and facilitated the "Colleagues Connect" activities for navigating hybrid work.

  • City of Avondale, Ariz. (75,000-124,999 population category):
Avondale launched a Strategic Plan Performance Dashboard that allows residents to follow progress on the city's five-year goals, including 29 Key Performance Indicator metrics and capital and operations projects. In addition, Avondale partnered with the private sector to create “way-finding” kiosks powered by solar power and to establish Fiber-to-the-Home services to residents which increased property values.
  • Village of Schaumburg, Ill. (up to 75,000 population category):
The IT team of Schaumburg not only have traditional skills from edge networking to application and hardware support, but also business, municipal, and innovation analysis skills – providing excellent IT partners for all village departments. Among the team’s accomplishments is the production of a 30-factor Cybersecurity Report Card to inform village directors and the city manager and to implement cybersecurity best practices and trends.

To view the awards article and the winners summaries, CLICK HERE.

FUTURE READY AWARD 2022: The Future Ready Awards were created to recognize the innovative vision that cities, counties, and states have for the impact of technology on the people they serve – specifically those jurisdictions that are laying the foundation for the disruptive and converging forces that are shaping an uncertain future.

CDG presents the Future Ready award to the City of Allen, Texas. The city’s innovation processes have demonstrated success in both public safety and fire. Drones, SMS citizen interaction, a robotics process automation solution for Fire for vaccine data entry, 9-1-1 text and video capability and auto-dispatching of Fire units are great examples. In addition, using data visualization based on GIS and PowerBI, the city is measuring neighborhood equity to determine underserved areas for service provision.

CDG expresses its gratitude to the underwriters of this year’s survey: Premier Corporate Members - Accela, Amazon Web Services, Infor, Laserfiche, Microsoft, and Oracle America, Inc.; Standard Corporate Members - CAI, Elastic, LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Pure Storage, RingCentral, Inc., SHI International Corp. and VertiGIS.

Congratulations to the 2022 Digital Cities Survey Winners!

500,000 or more Population Category:
1st City of San Diego, CA
2nd City of Los Angeles, CA
3rd City of San Jose, CA
4th City and County of San Francisco, CA
5th City of Mesa, AZ
6th City of Phoenix, AZ
7th City of Charlotte, NC
7th City of Louisville, KY
8th City of Albuquerque, NM
9th City of El Paso, TX
10th City of Dallas, TX
10th City of Memphis, TN

250,000 - 499,999 Population Category:
1st City of Long Beach, CA
2nd City of Virginia Beach, VA
3rd City of Durham, NC
4th City of Riverside, CA
5th City of Scottsdale, AZ
6th City of Chandler, AZ
6th City of Madison, WI
7th City of Irvine, CA
8th Town of Gilbert, AZ
9th City of Wichita, KS
10th City of Tulsa, OK

125,000 - 249,999 Population Category:
1st City of Bellevue, WA
2nd City of Alexandria, VA
2nd City of Corona, CA
3rd City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge, LA
4th City of Roseville, CA
5th City of Fort Collins, CO
5th City of Rancho Cucamonga, CA
6th City of Tallahassee, FL
7th City of Norfolk, VA
8th City of Hampton, VA
9th City of Irving, TX
10th City of Modesto, CA

75,000 - 124,999 Population Category:
1st City of Avondale, AZ
2nd City of Westminster, CO
3rd City of Allen, TX
4th The City of Lynchburg, VA
5th City of Independence, MO
6th City of Columbia, MO
7th City of Roanoke, VA
8th City of Gastonia NC
9th City of Carlsbad, CA
10th City of Kalamazoo, MI

Up to 75,000 Population Category:
1st Village of Schaumburg, IL
2nd City of Tamarac, FL
3rd City of Williamsburg, VA
4th City of Shawnee, KS
5th City of Danville, VA
6th City of Rock Hill, SC
7th City of Punta Gorda, FL
8th Village of Tinley Park, IL
9th Lake Havasu City, AZ
10th City of Gainesville, GA

SELECTED SURVEY FINDINGS

Top 10 IT programs/projects that are likely to have an increased focus in the next 12-18 months:
1. Cybersecurity
2. Hire/retain/nurture competent IT personnel
3. Constituent/customer engagement/experience
4. Business intelligence/analytics
5. Data governance: transparency, open data
6. Networks: broadband, connectivity, addressing digital divide
7. Disaster recovery/continuity of operations
8. Business process automation
9. Modernization of legacy technologies
10. IT governance

Top 5 most pressing challenges your city faced in the past year:
1. Impact of extreme crises on constituents and businesses
2. Ensuring multi-year funding
3. Imposing federal policies and/or legal constraints
4. Staff reductions and operating hours to cut costs
5. Conflicting leadership and legislative agendas

Top 5 priorities that most closely match your leadership’s top priorities:
1. Expand, simplify and/or improve access to services available to constituents and businesses
2. Expand economic development opportunities for constituents and businesses
3. Increase constituent safety
4. Address or increase responsiveness to crises affecting constituents and businesses
5. Expand information transparency in government

About the Center for Digital Government: The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on technology policy and best practices in state and local government. CDG is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.

Contact:
Janet Grenslitt
Director of Surveys and Awards e.Republic | Center for Digital Government
916-932-1300
jgrenslitt@erepublic.com