In the 2022 edition of its yearly Digital Cities Survey, the Center for Digital Government* recognized four of the state’s medium-sized cities as winners in the category of 125,000-249,999 in population.
These municipalities made significant gains this year on everything from high-speed Internet to 311 services and from data visualizations to utility billing. (Industry Insider — California will spotlight other survey honorees in coming days.) Here’s a snapshot of each winner:
SECOND PLACE: CORONA
Corona tied with Alexandria, Va., for second place with an emphasis on user engagement. The Inland Empire municipality, which onboarded a chief digital officer in 2021 to focus on digital engagement, now uses chatbots, social media and public-facing data visualizations and dashboards to connect with residents. It also used a new cloud-based survey and analytics tool to do digital surveys and analyze their responses. Among the topics was its 2021-2026 strategic plan and Corona heard from 4,000 of its 160,000 residents. Just 10 percent of residents have had so-called fiber Internet, but the city is planning to build a fiber network to connect all homes and businesses, in partnership with Internet service provider SiFi. The city has migrated heavily into the cloud, which helps resiliency, and has adopted “geo-redundant” cloud infrastructure to mitigate any regional cloud outages. Corona contracts with two private incident response teams, and employees use virtual desktops that can be patched remotely and wiped when they log off. It’s part of a defense in depth approach to cybersecurity that also includes zero trust. Corona is contemplating new work models including full remote and hybrid and is in the works on a more standard, formalized data management process.
FOURTH PLACE: ROSEVILLE
Roseville’s technology staff, which numbers approximately 100, has recently focused on IT and infrastructure upgrades, as well as better rules and processes for the new work environment post-pandemic. City IT worked with Human Resources to create a formal remote and flexible work category that lets staff submit Telework Policy forms for management review and approval, and access terms, conditions and safety measures for remote work. The city, the most populous in Placer County, has also created RASCI (Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Consulted, Informed) matrices to precisely spell out how teams interface with each other and with city systems. Officials have also developed new job descriptions that line up with modern best practices, and increased pay. Like other munis, Roseville is continuing a move to the cloud, to reduce maintenance and generate internal and external efficiencies. Tech staff have designed modern geographic information and enterprise asset management systems that bring automation and backup and recovery tools to residential utility billing.
FIFTH PLACE: RANCHO CUCAMONGA
This Inland Empire city of more than 175,000 held its ranking from last year, building on earlier work that included expanding an automated license plate reader program and replacing an enterprise resource planning system. (Fort Collins, Colo., tied for fifth.) Its Department of Information Technology (DoIT) has provided network design and GIS data inventory to the Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Broadband fiber network now under construction. DoIT updated the city’s Technology Roadmap document and Strategic Services Plan, which link up to its Information Technology Master Plan. And to improve oversight of city and fire district wireless devices, the city moved to Microsoft Intune for mobile device management. Elsewhere, Rancho Cucamonga’s GIS team deployed RC2GO, a mobile app that lets residents report issues like potholes with back-end staff visibility. DoIT increased public access to open data through tools and resources on the city’s IT and self-service GIS Open Data Portal. Officials expanded access to public information through the city’s RC Docs website portal; and DoIT, Building and Safety and Public Works leaders implemented the texting system Quiq, which has saved time and improved communication. DoIT deployed drones this year to assist several city initiatives. It also created a new Cybersecurity Division and is formalizing a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan.
10TH PLACE: MODESTO
Modesto claimed 10th place by improving digital services. The city launched a new language translation tool, Wordly, which delivers real-time captioned translations for City Council meetings in Zoom into 20 languages — empowering virtual attendance and making the meetings more inclusive and accessible to non-English speakers. Modesto has plans to upgrade its 311 service tool, GoModesto!, and prioritized strengthening its cybersecurity posture. City IT deployed multifactor authentication for staff in May for Microsoft Office 365 and will do targeted security awareness training for staff. Modesto also partnered with a local broadband carrier to improve enterprise communication services to more than 34 city facilities.
*The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology are part of e.Republic, parent company of Industry Insider — California.
Find full coverage of this year’s Digital Cities Survey in Government Technology magazine.
