Jacksonville ranks 3rd top digital city

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The city of Jacksonville ranked third nationally in the Center for Digital Government's Digital Cities survey results.

This is the second year that the city has earned a top three spot. Jacksonville was ranked 10th in 2012.

"We're committed to making Jacksonville city government more efficient, effective and responsive to community needs," said Mayor Alvin Brown. "Innovative use of information technology is key to improving our city government and achieving the best return on taxpayer dollars. We can be proud of Jacksonville's success in being recognized once again as a national leader in using digital technology to provide innovative, cost-effective services for our citizens and businesses."

The city of Los Angeles ranks first, and the cities of Kansas City, Mo., and Seattle, Wash., share second place. Jacksonville shares the third place ranking with Louisville, Ky., and is the only Florida city ranked among the nation's largest metropolitan areas.

"This year's Digital Cities' winners brought about impressive change across all aspects of government by leveraging information technology investments to expand open government, citizen participation and shared services," said Todd Sander, executive director of the Center for Digital Government. "Winning cities spanned the nation, indicating a trend that more and more cities are making it a priority that digital government be easier to access, navigate and interact with."

The Center for Digital Government's survey targeted which initiatives cities were most proud of in the areas of citizen engagement, policy, operations, and technology and data.

In the past year, the city's Information Technologies Division has implemented many projects to improve both internal and external operations. The division helped develop a comprehensive performance management system with a public-facing dashboard named JaxScore and helped fight blight in the city by providing valuable data and analytics. The division also developed various business intelligence tools to enhance efficiency in operations. To see the full list of 2014 projects, visit the division's webpage.

The top ranked cities will be honored at a special awards ceremony during the National League of Cities' annual conference in Austin on Nov. 20.

Top 10 rankings for cities with a population of 250,000 or more