In this year's Digital Counties awards program, the Center for Digital Government* named Ventura County its sixth-place winner for the 500,000 to 999,999 population category.
It was one of seven California counties recognized in the awards.
Ventura County, home to just over 820,000 people, was badly impacted by the Mountain Fire in November 2024, which tested the county’s preparedness and cross-collaboration capabilities. Multiple departments have been working to use technology, like GIS and communications infrastructure, not only to assess the damage but also prepare for the next natural disaster.
Despite the challenges, 2024 was a good year for the IT Services department. In addition to the use of UserWay ADA compliance and accessibility tools across county websites, GIS is helping to address homelessness across the county’s vulnerable populations. Plans to include a chatbot feature across the jurisdiction’s digital assets are also on the horizon.
In 2024, the Assessor’s Office implemented the Just Appraised AI-enabled solution to streamline, automate and digitize the many manual processes surrounding deed documents and title transfers. Quickly implementing the solution saved the county around $225,000. In a similar vein, the Resource Management Agency developed a voicemail CRM to help address workload constraints at their public counter. The tool automates and transcribes voicemails for staff to review and has saved an estimated 1,556 staff hours.
In the justice and public safety arena, the county is working to bolster its communication capabilities, and IT recently implemented multifactor authentication for all county law enforcement agencies in accordance with state and federal system requirements.
Digital Counties 2025: Ventura County Leans In on Access, IT Resilience
The county was given a sixth-place award in this year's Digital Counties program.
