The County is one of three jurisdictions nationwide to be presented with the Public Technology Institute (PTI) 2015 Tech Savvy Designation for a culture of excellence in technology to find solutions and address challenges.
With this designation, PTI congratulated Sacramento County for its hard work and organizational vision, leadership and commitment to the use of technology. This prestigious honor was earned through the following:
The County places high importance on technology projects that streamline operations, create efficiencies and reduce overall costs. To achieve this, County department directors are part of a new information technology governance structure, headed by the Executive Technology Committee (ETC) that meets quarterly and reviews countywide IT project status from the annual Information Technology Plan, recommends project priorities/funding, creates countywide policies/standards, and discusses new IT initiatives or how to best manage existing information systems.
Sacramento County is data driven and embraces performance management practices through the collection and presentation of critical data to assist with decision-making. Performance metrics are tracked and trends monitored, which allows for the reallocation of service delivery staff to meet changing service demands.
In the quest for excellence in service delivery and implementing technology solutions to meet changing business needs, County staff training includes both technical and leadership knowledge. As a corner stone to delivering cutting edge technology solutions, Sacramento County looks for training opportunities to advance skill sets and brings training in-house whenever possible. In-house training reduces costs and missed work for traveling, and trains the greatest number of employees.
To protect the County’s information assets, adaptive, multi-layered defense strategies are applied at the perimeter with firewalls and intrusion detection systems at the network level – creating a ‘hard outer shell.’ Whereas, antivirus and vulnerability scanning systems provide security at the level of the user’s computer. Current projects include defense against advanced persistent threats (APT) and additional End User Security Awareness training for County employees.
Technology, sustainability and green initiatives go hand-in-hand. Sacramento County’s commitment to sustainability and green initiatives is reflected in its: Green.SacCounty.net website; Landfill Power Plant that reduces greenhouse gas emission and generates revenue; partnering with SMUD to implement several energy-efficient lighting projects; replacement of 7,500 old streetlamps with energy efficient LED lights by the Transportation Department; and new lighting and control systems in office buildings that reduce electricity usage by 80 percent were installed by General Services.
Sacramento County is moving more services online for residents to efficiently process their personal or business transactions from anywhere, complete secure payments and get timely responses from the County. More than 8,000 business license applications and building permits were filed online in 2014. Property taxes for more than 34,700 parcels were paid online through our E-Property Tax application. An additional 36,700 parcels used the system to print a payment stub and mail payment. Last year, there was more than 15 percent growth in online transactions. Innovative online projects include: Assessor’s Parcel Viewer; Planning Projects Viewer; and 311 Connect.
Sacramento County standard of excellence operating practices include:
1) Commitment to the County vision and mission
2) Focus on quality customer service
3) Employee customer service training courses
4) Effective communications with staff and constituents
5) Empowering staff to do their jobs efficiently
6) Valuing diversity
7) Maintaining high ethical standards
View highlights from the 2015 winners.
In addition to Sacramento County, PTI's 2015 Local Government Tech Savvy Designation Award went to Evanston, IL, and Pinellas County, FL.
ABOUT PTI
Created by and for cities and counties, the not-for-profit Public Technology Institute promotes innovation and collaboration for thought-leaders in government, and advances the use of technology to improve the management and delivery of services to the citizen. For more information, visit www.pti.org.
