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Two California Cities Plan for Year of Coding

West Sacramento and Vallejo will focus on health, and engagement between citizens and law enforcement, respectively

Vallejo and West Sacramento already have laid the groundwork for their 2015 Code for America participation, announced on Tuesday.

The city of Vallejo’s application to Code for America focused on developing technology tools to promote better engagement between the community and the Vallejo Police Department. Three staff members from Code for America will be embedded next year and will work with city staff to develop public safety technology solutions utilizing government data.

The Code for America Fellows will be funded by a grant from the Irvine Foundation and a $220,000 allocation from the city’s Measure B sales tax, Vallejo said.

“The City Council and I are thrilled to have been selected after having made the application to Code for America a top priority this year. We look forward to the many possibilities that will surely come from this fantastic partnership,” Mayor Osby Davis said.

West Sacramento’s work, on health, as announced on Sept. 23, will be collaborative from the start.

“West Sacramento is excited to lead the nation in partnership with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments as a Code for America city, working not only to spur civic innovation in our own town, but to design that innovation for widespread adoption region wide … spreading Code for America’s transformative impact to small cities and rural towns,” Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said in a statement.

As Cabaldon mentioned, SACOG will be participating in West Sacramento’s Code for America project. The council includes 22 surrounding cities, including Sacramento, Davis and Roseville. Code for Sacramento — a Code for America “brigade” that has been working on web apps and open data projects with the City of Sacramento — also will be supporting the effort.

This story was originally published by TechWire, a sister publication to Government Technology that covers IT in California state and local government.