Announcing the winners of the 2023 LocalSmart Awards

The fifth annual LocalSmart Awards highlight the people and projects making city, county and municipal government better.

Scoop News Group is thrilled to announce the winners of the fifth annual LocalSmart Awards.

The LocalSmart Awards highlight the people and projects making city, county and municipal government better. Starting in September, members of the state and local government technology community nominated more than 200 leaders and projects for this year’s awards. Then the StateScoop team narrowed the list to fewer than 100 finalists. Readers cast more than 815,000 votes between Nov. 6 and Dec. 1 to decide this year’s winners.

“Local government is playing an increasingly large role in the day-to-day lives of residents as more services continue to shift online,” said Jake Williams, the vice president of content and community for StateScoop and EdScoop. “The winners of this year’s LocalSmart Awards are the ones working to make that experience a good one for residents, and at the forefront of a changing government landscape.”

Since StateScoop launched the LocalSmart Awards in 2019, the program has recognized more than 200 people and projects. This year’s awards recognize leaders in cities and counties from 16 states, ranging from governments in communities with fewer than 30,000 residents to more than 3.5 million residents.

The winners:

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Patrick Duhaney

City Manager, Virginia Beach, Va.

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Virginia Beach City Manager Patrick Duhaney spearheaded a new wave of data-driven leadership with the introduction of an enterprise-wide, performance-based program. Since assuming the executive role in 2020, Duhaney streamlined organizational structure and enhanced operational efficiency to better align departmental initiatives with City Council goals. He continues to demonstrate a fervent commitment to thoughtful decision-making that is rooted in sound data-driven principles which elevate service delivery and resident experience. Duhaney’s focus on garnering results for Virginia Beach constituents has reinforced the city’s position as an award-winning high-performance organization. His strategic approach empowers city departments to determine their own KPIs, develop a roadmap toward business success and design experiences for the benefit of employees and citizens.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Keith Durbin

CIO, Nashville, Tenn.

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Keith Durbin is the chief information officer and director of Information Technology Services for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Durbin has led the IT strategy for the government since 2009 with a focus on reliability, availability and security of services. In his tenure, he established the government’s information security program, the open data program, the government’s fiber network and the 311 system. He also established the Metro Employee Emergency Support Fund, which provides financial assistance to Metro employees in times of catastrophic need.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Santiago Garces

CIO, Boston, Mass.

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Santiago Garces is the chief innovation officer for the City of Boston. Before coming to Boston, Garces held CIO positions in South Bend, Ind., and Pittsburgh, Penn. Garces is a member of Mayor Michelle Wu’s cabinet. He grew up in Bogota, Colombia.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Kevin Gunn

Director of IT Solutions, Fort Worth, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Kevin Gunn is the director of IT solutions for Fort Worth, Texas. In this role, Gunn is responsible for the computing systems, as well as voice and data communications for all city departments. Gunn joined the city in December 2014. He has had a distinguished career in government service including active duty U.S. Navy, federal government service and local government experience in the cities of Killeen and Denton in addition to Fort Worth.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Craig Hopkins

CIO, San Antonio, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Craig Hopkins is the chief information officer of San Antonio, Texas. Hopkins has more than 20 years experience in the private sector, most recently at USAA leading efforts in customer service, digital transformation, corporate strategy, information technology, procurement and innovation.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Mark Leech

Director of Technology and Innovation, Albuquerque, N.M.

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Mark Leech is the director of technology and innovation for the city of Albuquerque, N.M. Leech started in the role in 2019, and before that, led the city’s police department technology services unit. Leech also previously led open data efforts for the city, and has spent time in both the public and private sectors in software development. He moved to New Mexico in 2002 from England.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Rob Lloyd

Deputy City Manager, San Jose, Calif.

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Rob Lloyd is the deputy city manager for aviation, transportation and technology for the City of San Jose. Before being promoted to the deputy city manager role, Lloyd was the city’s chief information officer. He remains a leading voice and advisor nationally. He was among the first to advance measures for privacy, equity through tech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity alliances and 311 as a community platform. He guides his fellow CIOs on procurement, blight solutions, AI, public participation and strategic planning.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Ted Ross

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Ted Ross is chief information officer for the City of Los Angeles and general manager of the information technology agency. In this role, Ross leads a department of 450 employees and delivers enterprise IT services to 48,000 employees across 41 city departments and digital services to more than 4 million residents. Appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2015, Ross has more than 21 years of private and public sector technology experience.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Michael Rupert

Associate CTO - Customer Experience, Washington, D.C.

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Michael Rupert is the associate chief technology officer for customer experience in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer for the government of the District of Columbia. Rupert was previously the interim CTO for the city, and before that, was the communications director for the city’s technology department.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

William Zielinski

CIO, Dallas, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Bill Zielinski is the chief information officer for the City of Dallas, Texas. In this role, he directs information technology operations for the ninth largest city in the United States. Zielinski works toward creating greater digital equity for a population of more than 1.3 million people. Before joining city government, Zielinski spent more than 30 years in executive roles at the U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration and in the Executive Office of the President.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Nina D’Amato

CIO, Santa Clara County, Calif.

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Nina D’Amato is the chief information officer for Santa Clara County, California. D’Amato joined the county in 2019 and helped lead the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the role, D’Amato is responsible for the countywide management and implementation of technology services, projects and special initiatives.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Robyn Doughtie

CIO, Fort Bend County, Texas

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Robyn Doughtie is the director of information technology and chief information officer of Fort Bend County, Texas. In this role, Doughtie provides information technology services to support county business programs, customer departments and offices. Doughtie was previously the applications and systems programming manager for the county. Before that, Doughtie was a software development lead for the county’s tax assessor.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Jonathan Feldman

CIO, Wake County, N.C.

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Jonathan Feldman is the chief information officer for Wake County, N.C. Feldman leads the county’s information technology team, which includes over 100 members, to help expand broadband and technology access in the country. Feldman was previously the chief information officer of Asheville, N.C., for 17 years where he focused on customer service, digital inclusion and cloud computing.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Lynn Fyhrlund

CIO, San Bernardino, Calif.

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Lynn Fyhrlund is the chief information officer for San Bernardino, California. Fyhrlund joined the county in May 2023, after serving for nearly seven years in Milwaukee County, Wisc., most recently as its CIO. Fyhrlund is a U.S. Army veteran and has previously worked as a consultant in the private sector.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Bob Leek

CIO, Clark County, Nevada

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Bob Leek is the chief information officer for Clark County, Nevada. In the role, Leek leads the county’s IT team of nearly 200 employees and drives the county to innovate and efficiently deliver solutions. Leek comes to the role after more than 30 years experience in IT in both the public and private sectors.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Sindhu Menon

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Sindhu Menon is the chief information officer of Harris County, Texas. Menon joined Harris County as the county’s first female CIO in March 2022. Before joining the county, Menon was the CIO for Raleigh, N.C., and before that, was the CIO of College Station, Texas. As CIO, Menon leads the IT operations for the third largest county in the nation.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Stephen Pereira

CIO, Calvert County, Md.

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Stephen Pereira is the chief information officer for Calvert County, Maryland. Appointed in 2022, Pereira is responsible for leading technology operations in the county. Before taking on the role as the county’s CIO, Pereira was the county’s deputy director of technology services where he was responsible for technology budgets and contracts, records management and new IT policies, standards and training.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Marc Shorr

CIO, Contra Costa County, Calif.

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Marc Shorr is the chief information officer and director of information technology for Contra Costa County, California. Prior to being named to his current role in 2018, he was the chief information technology director for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. He was also director of corporate technology and CIO for the district. Previously, Shorr was the assistant director of information technology and manager of information systems at San Joaquin County, California.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Logan Steese

IT Director, Currituck County, N.C.

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Logan Steese is the director of information technology in Currituck County, N.C. Before joining county government in June 2019, Steese was an IT support engineer for Sandy Hills Information Security. As director of IT in Currituck County, Steese is moving from an XDR solution to Sophos MDR.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Ralph Warren

Director of Information Technology, Travis County, Texas

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Ralph Warren is the director of information technology of Travis County, Texas. Before joining the county in April 2020, Warren was the deputy chief information officer for the City of Austin for nearly 20 years.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Bruce Coffing

CISO, Chicago, Ill.

Local IT Leader of the Year

Bruce Coffing is an information security professional with more than 25 years industry experience in information technology and cybersecurity. He is currently the chief information security officer for the City of Chicago. Prior to joining the city, Coffing held senior vice president information security positions at Bank of America and was a senior manager at consulting firm Accenture.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Brian Dillard

Chief Innovation Officer, San Antonio, Texas

Local IT Leader of the Year

Brian Dillard is currently the chief innovation officer for the city of San Antonio. He began his career in public service in 2018 as the smart city administrator for the city. Prior to joining the local government sector, Dillard was a cybersecurity consultant in the private sector following a career as a member of the United States Air Force where he served 10 years on active duty.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Sylvia Harris

Local IT Leader of the Year

Sylvia Harris serves as the chief information security officer for the City of Pittsburgh. In this role, Harris works within the Department of Innovation & Performance, and oversees IT operations and support for the city, both on-site and remotely. She has been working for the City of Pittsburgh since 2008 and has been an IT professional for more than 30 years.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Sanford Hess

IT Director, Urbana, Ill.

Local IT Leader of the Year

Sanford Hess is the IT director for the City of Urbana in Central Illinois. In this role, Hess is responsible for the IT operations for the city of more than 40,000 residents. Before joining the city, Hess was a consultant for CGI. In addition to technology-focused roles, Hess has overseen operations at both The Art Theater and The Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois. Hess is also an active member and executive leader in the Illinois chapter of GMIS.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Kerrica Laake

CIO, Austin, Texas

Local IT Leader of the Year

Kerrica Laake is the chief information officer for the City of Austin, Texas. Before joining the city as its CIO, Laake served as its deputy CIO from 2021 until 2023. Before that, Laake spent 11 years with Austin Energy, the primary energy utility for the Austin, Texas metropolitan area.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Kim LaGrue

Local IT Leader of the Year

Kimberly LaGrue is the chief information officer of New Orleans, Louisiana. LaGrue has lead IT operations in the city since 2017, and has weathered (and recovered from) the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a 2019 ransomware attack.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Timothy Lee

CISO, Los Angeles, Calif.

Local IT Leader of the Year

Timothy Lee is the chief information security officer for the city of Los Angeles. Lee is responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy and program for the city to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Luke Mason

Senior Cybersecurity Analyst, Columbia, Mo.

Local IT Leader of the Year

Luke Mason is a senior cybersecurity analyst for the City of Columbia, Missouri. In this role, Mason is tasked with fortifying the city’s cybersecurity posture, which includes protecting residents’ sensitive information and securing the systems that power the city’s critical infrastructure. In 2023, Mason oversaw the implementation of easy-to-use encryption and more stringent access rights policies to better protect resident data, as well as the migration of its DNS systems to the cloud, upgrading/patching of hundreds of servers, and the creation of a central security operations center to ensure constant uptime of the city’s critical infrastructure.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Greg McCarthy

CISO, Boston, Mass.

Local IT Leader of the Year

Greg McCarthy is the chief information security officer for the City of Boston, Massachusetts. In this role, McCarthy is responsible for establishing the city’s security program and building consensus for decisions across the city. Before taking on the CISO title, McCarthy served as a project manager for IT security for the city. Before that, he was a technician and project coordinator for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Jason Sankey

CIO, Atlanta

Local IT Leader of the Year

Jason Sankey is the chief information officer for the City of Atlanta, Georgia. Sankey also leads the department of information management for the city. Before joining the Georgia capital city, Sankey was the CIO for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Before that, he lead the IT department at the Franklin County, Ohio, Clerk of Courts. Before the public sector, Sankey spent more than 13 years in the private sector.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Chris Sternal

Local IT Leader of the Year

Cheris Sternal is the chief information officer for the City of Joliet, Illinois. Sternal has served in this role for more than 20 years. Before that, he was an enterprise application services manager for the city, and before that, was a GIS technician.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Shelby Switzer

Director of Digital Services, Baltimore, Md.

Local IT Leader of the Year

Shelby Switzer is the director of digital serves or the City of Baltimore, Maryland. Switzer was previously a fellow for the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University. Before that, they were a digital services expert at the U.S. Digital Service.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

DiverseTech Apprenticeship Program

Local IT Innovation of the Year

Chicago’s DiverseTech apprenticeship program is in the process of training more than 20 apprentices in subjects, including cybersecurity and digital services. The program partners the city government alongside community colleges with a focus on recruiting people from historically underrepresented communities in Chicago.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

El Paso Helps

Local IT Innovation of the Year

El Paso Helps is an online portal intended to make it faster and easier for residents to connect to social services in the Texas city. Through the new design, El Paso Helps enables residents to connect with live agents who can help users secure more food, housing and access benefits through emergency directives.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Police Department Case Service

Police Department Case Service, El Paso, Texas

Local IT Innovation of the Year

The City of Austin’s public safety IT staff, along with the Austin Police Department, launched a new non-emergency online reporting system that uses AI to communicate with the community. The department is one of the first in the country to use the technology to file non-emergency cases. The platform reduces wait times for community members and speeds up the investigation process. The new reporting system supports multiple languages including English, Arabic, French, Hindi, Korean, Simplified, and Traditional Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese, among other languages.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Property Valuation Tool

Property Valuation Tool, Mecklenburg County, N.C.

Local IT Innovation of the Year

The Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Property Valuation Tool was an immediate benefit to the Assessor’s Office, as it finalized property revaluations for Jan. 1, 2023. The county faced staffing shortages and a volatile real estate market that saw historic growth over a short period. The tool helped the Assessor’s Office identify errors, determine if estimated values were reasonable and reduce the amount of work compared to its typically manually process. The tool expedited the consolidation of approximately 3,000 neighborhoods into just a few hundred to allow for a quick and decisive adjustment and quality control process.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Secure Boston

Secure Boston, Boston, Mass.

Local IT innovation of the Year

Secure Boston is a free, privacy-first mobile security app for City of Boston residents that alerts and protects them when suspicious activity is detected. The app helps protect their mobile device by detecting unsafe links received via text, email, a messaging app or social media. The app also protects mobile devices by scanning QR codes and links for phishing attempts, alerting residents of untrusted networks when using public Wi-Fi networks, and protecting their personal information and credentials from attackers. Secure Boston will analyze potential mobile device threats while operating under a strict privacy policy and technical controls that ensure your privacy is respected.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Sheriff’s Office Transparency Dashboards

Sheriff's Office Transparency Dashboard, Ventura County, Calif.

Local IT Innovation of the Year

The Ventura County, California Sheriff’s Office is a pioneer in public transparency among U.S. law enforcement agencies. In 2023, the office continues to build out and publish public transparency dashboards that are designed to build citizen trust. Community members can access dashboards that provide instantaneous access to information about traffic accidents, homicides, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts and arson. All use-of-force incidents and officer-involved shootings dating back to 1965 are included. Another dashboard reports race and ethnic demographic data on persons detained or searched. Citizens can easily access this data online and compare communities to see statistics on crimes and police interactions with the public.

LocalSmart Awards 2023

Special Events Management System

Special Events Management System, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Local IT Innovation of the Year

With more than 1 million people visiting the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the world’s premier golf tournament, the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale became a city within the city each day of the event. Scottsdale’s IT and GIS team developed an innovative digital map application showing the real-time location and status of the first responders on site. When every second counts, the application helped public safety command staff to dispatch the crews nearest to each incident, and provided first responders in the field with advanced maps of the venue so they can find the quickest path to those in need.