Baton Rouge, La. – Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced today that the Center for Digital Government had named Baton Rouge a Top 10 Digital City for the eighth consecutive year.
This year, Baton Rouge ranks third among mid-sized cities, highlighting the City-Parish’s investments in numerous initiatives to improve internal efficiencies, modernize critical systems, engage East Baton Rouge Parish residents in data-related areas and technology, and deliver more effective services.
“Since day one of my administration, we have been committed to leveraging technology and digital resources to enhance how we efficiently and effectively serve our community. Since then, our team has worked diligently to integrate innovative technology across our departments to expand the services we offer our residents,” said Mayor Broome. “Baton Rouge’s continued standing as a Top 10 Digital City is a testament to our progress while serving as a reminder of the value in our efforts. I am immensely proud of our City-Parish government. I look forward to building on this success in delivering a stronger digital foundation for our future in East Baton Rouge Parish.”
Each year, the Center for Digital Government—a national research and advisory institute on IT policies and best practices in state and local government—conducts the Digital Cities Survey to inform its digital city rankings. This comprehensive survey is distributed to all U.S. cities, towns, villages, and consolidated city-county governments.
The Top 10 Digital City rankings recognize a distinguished group of cities implementing best practices for public-sector IT organizations to improve their digital, citizen, and government experiences. In 2022, Baton Rouge will be ranked alongside leading digital cities, including Bellevue, Washington, and Alexandria, Virginia.
Over the past year, the City-Parish has allocated millions of dollars in one-time federal funding to enhance cybersecurity technology, software, and infrastructure, improve its cybersecurity operations, and strengthen its email security system. In addition to its investments in cybersecurity, the City-Parish has leveraged its vast data repository available through the award-winning Open Data BR platform to inform drainage maintenance work, public safety initiatives, and upcoming capital projects throughout East Baton Rouge Parish. The City-Parish has also invested in a unified communications system, which has consolidated 40+ disparate phone systems to maximize efficiency within our phone system and has already seen reduced operational costs while improving internal collaboration and communication.
Additionally, the City-Parish launched and expanded its Citizen Data Academy: On Demand, an award-winning video series designed to help empower residents with the tools and information to navigate and use its extensive open data and analytics resources.
The City-Parish and all of this year’s honorees will be recognized on Nov. 17 at an awards reception in Kansas City, Missouri. For more information on the 2022 Digital City awards and other honorees, visit https://www.govtech.com/dc/digital-cities/digital-cities-survey-2022-winners-announced and for Baton Rouge’s population category, https://www.govtech.com/dc/digital-cities-2022-125-000-to-249-999-population-category.
Comments