Pasadena Named a Top-Ranked Digital City

The City of Pasadena was ranked as a top digital city this year by a judging panel for the 2016 Digital Cities Survey, undertaken every summer by the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government.

Now in its 15th year, the survey recognizes cities using technology to improve citizen services, enhance transparency and encourage citizen engagement. Cities that make it to the list are recognized as among the most strategic, efficient and innovative guardians of public-sector tech in the nation.

Pasadena was ranked 8th in the category of cities with a population of 125,000 to 249,999.

The survey cited Pasadena as a city that’s making a name for itself as an innovation hub for technology and design.

“Leaders across the city government, business and education communities have been working together over the last three years to draw technology and design businesses to the area through the Innovate Pasadena partnership, which promotes tech entrepreneurship and collaboration through meetups and educational events,” the citation said. “It also connects residents who want tech jobs with business leaders who need to hire employees. These efforts are helping the city become a welcoming home for tech companies while at the same time ensuring that it has a steady source of revenue.”

The survey also mentioned Pasadena’s IT priorities as being “aligned with the City Council’s goals,” with an IT Governance Committee that reviews project requests each year. It said business intelligence and dashboards have been a recent area of focus in the city, with the visual presentation of data leading to an increase in evidence-based decision-making for city operations. The report cited as an example the internal fire service dashboard at the Pasadena Fire Department, which shows five years of activity and response times and is being used to align equipment and staffing resources.

The survey also cited how Pasadena keeps itself updated on the dozens of projects in the works each year and more than $10 million in projects in the city’s IT portfolio, by using a resource tracking tool  that helps keep the numerous initiatives on time, on budget and on scope.

“A mobile-first strategy helped guide the launch of a of a new city portal this year that ensures content can be viewed on any device, and numerous mobile apps have been rolled out for both internal and public-facing programs,” the survey said.

In the same survey, the city of Los Angeles was ranked first in the category of cities with a population of 500,000 and above.

The top-ranked cities will be awarded at the National League of Cities’ annual conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.