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Meet our 2022 Special Districts Technology Innovation Award Winners

The annual Technology Innovation Award Program recognized 10 special districts this year for their achievements in citizen service, internal operations and leadership. We also choose one overall District of the Year.

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Congratulations to this year’s winners!


District of the Year

Southern Nevada Health District

The district launched an online application to give residents easier access to comprehensive vaccination services. It also digitized the process for renewing state-required food handler cards.


Citizens Category

» Detroit Water and Sewerage Department created a customer portal that now handles 80% of water and sewer service requests online.

» Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority launched an easy-to-use online application that increased participation in the authority’s Youth Pass discount fare program by 112%.

» Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library distributed “tech bundles” containing a laptop, Wi-Fi hotspot, mouse, flash drive and headset to underserved residents in five communities.


Operations Category

» Illinois Tollway created a mobile friendly web application to give traffic and incident managers in its traffic operations center access to streaming video to support incident response.

» Metropolitan Water District of Southern California used agile project management techniques to comply with evolving regulatory requirements, automated the analysis of thermal imaging to spot problems in its solar farm and launched new technology to simplify strategic reporting.

» St. Charles Park District implemented a GPS-enabled paint spraying system for athletic fields that saves labor, reduces costs and improves the accuracy of field markings.

» Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District created an enterprise land acquisition system to improve the management of more than 65,000 acres of public land and automated its contract routing process to increase efficiency and transparency.


Leadership Category

» Rhiannon Gainor Sanchez, enterprise data architect for Lower Colorado River Authority, led an enterprise data governance initiative that addressed critical issues such as data protection, accuracy, quality and architecture.

» Ayanna Kennedy, senior project manager for Atlanta Housing, spearheaded a digital inclusion program that helps residents expand their digital skills and find well-paying jobs.

» The board of directors for the Soquel Creek Water District championed the use of innovative technologies such as electromagnetic imaging and wastewater purification to ensure a sustainable water supply.


Read all the 2022 Technology Innovation Award submissions at www.govtech.com/districts/awards.