New York State Secretary of State Rossana Rosado announced award winners of the Department of State's fourth annual Local Government Innovation Conference, including the cities of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
The annual conference, held in Albany, recognizes the work being done by local government leaders, as well as the creativity and resilience of local governments from around the state.
"I applaud these local governments for taking the extra step to marry technology and data to best serve their constituents," Rosado said. "The Local Government Innovation Conference highlights the best our counties, cities, towns and villages have to offer, and we are proud to host the annual event where we share ideas and work together to make a more responsive government for all."
The Trail Blazer Award recognizes local government pioneers of innovative practices, leading the way and serving as models for other municipalities. The 2018 recipients are the cities of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse for their efforts to use data to make better decisions for their communities. The three cities partnered with each other, with Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities initiative, and a nationwide network of local government visionaries to build teams that are rethinking how they deliver public services.
Over the past two years, Buffalo developed an open data policy informed by public comment and established a data governance committee to manage citywide participation. This year, the city launched Open Data Buffalo, the city's official open data portal, and held its first Civic Innovation Challenge to encourage the public to help with problem-solving, receiving submissions from across Western New York.
"My administration is proud to be recognized by Secretary of State Rosado as a Trail Blazer Award recipient for our commitment to informing and engaging the residents of the City of Buffalo through our Open Data Buffalo portal," said Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown. "Since launching Open Data Buffalo in February, we held our inaugural Mayor's Civic Innovation Challenge, which saw Buffalo's tech community develop apps using city data. Next week, a group of Buffalo neighborhood leaders and civic activists will start our inaugural 'Data 101' course, which will empower our residents with the skills they need to gather and use data from our portal for community projects that will make our city stronger. Our goal is to make Buffalo a data-smart city of opportunity."
The New York State Division of Local Government Services is a source of training and technical assistance to local governments. Learn more about the division's work
here.