Two Los Angeles IT Leaders, One Call to Action

Los Angeles has had a rough year, with social and natural disasters testing its resolve. For the region’s top government IT leaders, the chaos has only emphasized the importance of the work they do.

Los Angeles County CIO Peter Loo and city CIO Ted Ross called on attendees at the Los Angeles Digital Government Summit* Tuesday to bolster the citizen-centric technologies that Ross called the “backbone of public trust.”

“It’s how we deliver on our promises to residents, from the most basic services, like clean water, safe streets, sanitation [and] trash collection, to the more complex challenges like disaster response and disaster recovery, of which we’ve had plenty over the last year,” Ross said.

Ross called on attendees in both the public and private sectors to collaborate in that spirit.

“Let’s build the future one good idea at a time,” he said.

Loo’s comments struck a similar chord, calling on attendees to deploy technologies that consider all residents, whether they have the latest smartphone or no access to a device at all.

“At the end of the day, public service has always been about people — listening to them, understanding their needs and working to improve their lives,” Loo said. “But the ways in which we serve have changed dramatically. The digital age is rewriting the new playbook for government, challenging us to think differently about how we connect, respond and deliver.”

Like many IT leaders across the state, Loo and Ross underscored the importance of purposeful technology — especially in light of the constrained budgets the public sector is so familiar with.

In the case of the county, Loo noted that there are 13 call centers and 1,300 individual systems across the region, all in some form or fashion trying to reduce what he called the “time tax” for residents.

Both IT leaders underscored the need for new implementations to be both mission-critical and planned around the real-world needs of government.

“These are not just technical upgrades, these are service upgrades,” Loo said.

Long story short, vendors with their hearts set on cozying up to L.A. government need to know the mission and bring solutions that will make a measurable impact without breaking the bank.

*Note: The Los Angeles Digital Government Summit is hosted by Government Technology. Industry Insider — California and Government Technology are both part of e.Republic.