FAR WEST CITIES RECEIVE PTI WINNING SOLUTIONS AWARDS

Twenty-eight city/county initiatives that tap the power of technology to improve service to citizens, cut operating costs, and enhance public revenues won Public Technology Inc. (PTI) recognition in the 1995 Technology Achievement Awards competition. The annual awards program, also known as SOLUTIONS, is one facet of a broader PTI effort to encourage and honor innovation in local government.

"SOLUTIONS is a consistent way that local governments have been benchmarking their excellence, contributing best-of-class efforts that can act as beacons not only for the membership, but for local governments at large," Costis Toregas, PTI President and member of the FLC State and Local Government Committee, said. "Their investment to document, capture, and share through the PTI program their innovative practices is the strength of the PTI membership."

The Community and Economic Development winner was Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix brought water-saving plumbing retrofits to inner-city homes through a unique neighborhood-based conservation program. Thirty-six plumbing students upgraded over 130 homes in the first year alone, repairing leaks; replacing inefficient showerheads, toilets, and water heaters; and rebuilding shower and faucet controls. These enhancements will reduce water usage by 65 percent.

Phoenix was also the Leisure Services and Libraries winner. Phoenix expanded citizen access to information with electronic links to periodical, business, and health databases at all 12 public-library branches, as well as remote dial-in access to these information repositories.

The Public Works and General Services winner was San Diego, California. San Diego took control of its extensive residential refuse-collection network - encompassing hundreds of routes and over 15,000 stops each year - with a powerful geographic information system (GIS). Using a workstation networked to the GIS, staff can restructure routes or crews, adjust routes to respond to fluctuations in refuse tonnage, and produce instant route maps.

The Transportation winner was Portland, Oregon. Portland enhanced safety for schoolbound children by designing pager-controlled flashing beacons for the city's school crossings. The new technology ties beacons system-wide to a single pager phone number, but assigns each a unique six-digit message code for independent operation, allowing staff to customize beacon operating schedules from their desktops.

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