The winners spanned a broad range of departments and projects, and awards recognized best collaboration, best workforce initiative, excellence in customer experience, innovation serving an agency’s business needs, innovation serving the public, innovative use of data analytics, and innovator of the year.
More information about the teams and individuals recognized this year is available below.
Best Collaboration
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) were recognized for their work to modernize the state’s hiring system with an API that securely connects CDCR’s HR management system with CalHR’s examination and certification system.
The California Department of Technology (CDT), the Office of Data and Innovation and the California Government Operations Agency were recognized for their work on the CA.gov fire portal in response to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. The centralized, multilingual portal served as a lifeline for families impacted by the fires and is being used as a model for future digital response efforts.
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and CDT’s Critical Services Team were recognized for their work on a centralized position control system to reduce wait times and offer visibility into staffing gaps. Appointment wait times are projected to drop from an hour to just 10 minutes as a result of the system.
Best Workforce Initiative
The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) was recognized for its Knowledge Base project, a centralized, searchable platform with over 600 modules that cover everything from FAQs to videos and step-by-step procedural guides. The platform allows CRD investigators to access information about complex cases in real time while also reducing onboarding time and improving training.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) was recognized for its recruitment platform, JoinCALFIRE.com, which has reduced staff workload and vastly improved candidate experience.
The Employment Development Department (EDD) was recognized for its Plain Language Initiative, which used live webinars, short videos and a workbook with real-world examples to bridge the gap between unemployment benefits and those with limited English proficiency.
Excellence in Customer Experience
The CAL FIRE Web Development Team was recognized for its work on the Fire.CA.gov website, which features real-time data, 3D GIS maps and a mobile-first design. The platform consolidates evacuation info, fire maps and emergency tools in one place and was a central part of the response to the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
DMV’s MyDMV platform was recognized for its personalized, secure dashboard that offers access to essential vehicle-related services.
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) IT Specialist Jarrett Heather was recognized for efforts to revolutionize the department’s digital presence.
Innovation Serving an Agency’s Business Needs
CDFA’s IT Services Division was recognized for its migration to Microsoft Intune. The effort modernized the management of 1,800 endpoints, 1,400 mobile devices and more than 150 applications.
Monterey County Sustainability Program Manager Cora Panturad was recognized for the Zero Carbon Resiliency Plan, a program to modernize, reduce emissions and save money through solar power.
EDD’s Investigation Division Fraud Hotline was recognized for its efforts to create an automated system with Google’s speech recognition to detect language, transcribe and translate calls from non-English speakers.
Innovation Serving the Public
The California Department of Public Health was recognized for its Epinephrine Standing Order Application, which used the Microsoft Power Platform to streamline school access to unassigned epinephrine auto-injectors for emergency allergic reaction response.
The Office of Technology and Solutions Integration and the Department of Social Services were recognized for the EBT Card Security Modernization Project, which implemented chip- and tap-enabled EBT cards, upgraded software in 33,000 stores and deployed a new national transaction standard.
Innovative Use of Data Analytics
DMV partnered with CAL FIRE and the California Highway Patrol and was recognized for its efforts to join vehicle registration and fire damage data into a real-time web application for officers to use in the field.
Adam Romero from the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) was recognized for the Data Lake Modernization Project, which created a centralized, cloud-native platform that integrates structured and unstructured data across DIR’s systems.
Patrick Weed from the Department of Managed Health Care was recognized for modernizing violation referral processes with a new system that features templates, one-click automation and new data analysis capabilities.
California Innovator of the Year
Christian Beltran, legislative director with the Department of Finance, was recognized for his leadership for the department’s GenAI proof of concept to use the technology to analyze the cost of bills proposed by the Legislature and their impact on the state budget.
*Note: Government Technology is part of e.Republic, Industry Insider — California's parent company.
