Announcing the winners of the 2024 LocalSmart Awards

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

The LocalSmart Awards highlight the leaders improving city, county and municipal government.

Starting in July, members of the state and local government technology community nominated more than 250 leaders and projects, and the StateScoop team narrowed the list to approximately 100 finalists. Readers cast more than 850,000 votes between Sept. 16 and Nov. 8 to decide this year’s winners.

“When we think about the shortest path to making a positive impact for residents, local government is the key,” said Jake Williams, senior vice president of modernization at Scoop News Group. “This year’s group of LocalSmart Award winners demonstrate how important the delivery of that impact is. We’re proud to recognize them today and all year long.”

Since StateScoop launched the LocalSmart Awards in 2019, the program has recognized nearly 250 people and projects. This year’s awards recognize leaders in cities and counties from 18 states, ranging from governments in communities with fewer than 28,000 residents to those with more than 8 million.

The winners:

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Brendan Babb

Chief Innovation Officer, Anchorage, Alaska

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Brendan Babb is the chief innovation officer at the Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska. In this role, Babb leads Anchorage’s Innovation team and innovation efforts. Babb has led efforts to improve digital services, build process improvements, utilize human centered design, leverage behavioral insights, and harness data to help residents and save money for Anchorage.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Kavita Deepak

Chief Information Officer, Irvine, California

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Kavita Deepak is the chief information officer for the city of Irvine, California. Deepak has a strong background in information technology and has worked in several roles at the City of Irvine, as well as the Newport Corporation.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Lea Eriksen

Chief Information Officer, Long Beach, California

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Lea Eriksen is the Director of Technology and Innovation and CIO for the City of Long Beach, California. In this role, Eriksen is in charge of implementing the City’s technology vision and managing a $73 million budget. With more than 25 years of experience working in local government, Eriksen’s background includes positions related to economic development, budget and finance, as well as technology.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Matthew Fraser

Chief Technology Officer, New York, New York

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Matthew Fraser is New York City’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the leader of the Office of Technology & Innovation (OTI). Under Fraser’s leadership, several technology offices were combined into the Office of Technology & Innovation. These included the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), the Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (MOCTO), NYC Cyber Command (NYC3), the Mayor’s Office of Information Privacy (MOIP), the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA), NYC311, and the Algorithms Management and Policy Office. By consolidating all the City’s information technology offices, Fraser has put forward a central strategy to bring agility, efficiency, and modernization to the city’s IT infrastructure.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Brian Gardner

Chief Information Officer, Dallas, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Brian Gardner is the Chief Information Officer for the City of Dallas. Gardner joined the city in 2017 to develop IT Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance programs and later served as the city’s chief information security officer. During his time in city government, Gardner has implemented a risk-based framework for cybersecurity strategy to assess and mature the city’s security capabilities, assure regulatory compliance, and mitigate enterprise-wide technology and business risk.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Araceli Guerra

Director of Information Technology, El Paso, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Araceli Guerra is the director of information technology for the city of El Paso, Texas. Guerra began her career with the City of El Paso, TX, in 2006, providing support for enterprise applications.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Steen Hambric

Chief Information Officer, Phoenix, Arizona

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Steen Hambric is responsible for leading the Information Technology Services (ITS) department for the City of Phoenix, and federated IT management services over Sky Harbor International Airport, Water Services, Phoenix Police, and Phoenix Fire. Hambric has more than 33 years of IT experience at the federal and local levels, with 17 of those years spent in executive leadership.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Michael Hamel

Chief Information Officer, Worcester, Massachusetts

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Michael Hamel is the chief information officer for Worcester, Massachusetts. Before joining the city as its IT lead in 2022, Hamel spent nearly two years as the Chief of Enterprise Applications for the City of Boston. Before that, he worked in IT roles for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the City of Boston.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Craig Hopkins

Chief Information Officer, San Antonio, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Craig Hopkins is the chief information officer for the city of San Antonio, Texas. Before joining city government, Hopkins spent more than 20 years at USAA leading the company’s customer service, digital transformation, corporate strategy, IT, procurement and innovation efforts.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Melissa Kraft

Chief Information Officer, Frisco, Texas

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Melissa Kraft is the Chief Information Officer at the City of Frisco, one of the fastest growing cities in Texas. Prior to that she served as the Chief Information Officer for Dallas County. Kraft has led several technology and infrastructure transformation initiatives, a data academy, 911 quality assurance program and assisted in launching the city of Denton’s first co-working space for technology startups.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Bianca Lochner

Chief Information Officer, Scottsdale, Arizona

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Bianca Lochner is the chief information officer for Scottsdale, Arizona. Lochner has laid the foundations required to implement the city’s official smart cities roadmap. This process required a rapid assessment of the city’s existing infrastructure and, in turn, identifying technology solutions that will meet community needs by prioritizing the right initiatives to accelerate the deployment of those solutions, and rolling out processes that will ensure high-trust outcomes for the city residents. Through a series of newly established public-private partnerships, Lochner developed a pilot program to leverage and expand the city’s existing wayfinding and city data infrastructure to support the massive demand for information and connectivity from the annual influx of more than 11 million visitors to the city.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Suma Nallapati

Chief Information Officer, Denver, Colorado

GoldenGov: City Executive of the Year

Suma Nallapati serves on Mayor Mike Johnston’s cabinet as the Chief Information Officer for the City and County of Denver. Before joining the city, Nallapati served as Global CIO at Insight and as chief digital officer at both Dish Network and Everbridge. Previously, she was the chief information officer for the state of Colorado.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Ted Ross

Chief Information Officer, Los Angeles, California

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.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Margaret Brisbane

Chief Information Officer, Miami-Dade County, Florida

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Margaret Brisbane is the Director of the Information Technology Department for Miami Dade County. In her current role she is responsible for leading a team of IT professionals in servicing the technology needs of the County. The primary IT pillars are Security, Platforms and Applications along with Administration to support all operations. The team provides support to all County Departments including enterprise solutions for Financial, Payroll, Human Resources, Public Safety, Legislative, Commerce and the PeopleSoft systems. The team also supports document and asset management and geospatial systems as well as major technology projects, to include, but not limited to Criminal Justice, Permitting and Code Enforcement, Radio and INFORMS.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Shannon Ramsey-Chessman

Chief Deputy Clerk & Chief of Staff - Clerk of Circuit Court & Comptroller, Palm Beach County, Florida

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Shannon Ramsey-Chessman is the Chief of Staff, Chief Deputy Clerk, and Chief Information Officer for Palm Beach County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. Her twenty-seven years of diverse public sector experience also include careers with Palm Beach County’s Office of Financial Management and Budget, the 15th Judicial Circuit, and Martin County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Megan Clarke

Chief Information Officer, King County, Washington

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Megan Clarke is the chief information officer (CIO) for King County, Washington. Clarke is a highly experienced, successful, and well-regarded business leader and CIO. Before joining the staff of King County, Clarke worked as the assistant chief information officer for the city of Burbank, California. Clarke brings nearly 20 years of experience as a CIO field and has also previously been in the role of CIO with Stanford University, University of Southern California, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars), and The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (The GRAMMYs).

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Rod Davenport

Chief Information Officer, Oakland County, Michigan

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Rod Davenport is the chief information officer for Oakland County, Michigan. Before joining the county in 2023, Davenport was the CIO for the Lansing Board of Water & Light, and before that was the chief technology officer for the state of Michigan.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Adam Frumkin

Chief Information Officer, Franklin County, Ohio

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

As CIO for Franklin County, Adam Frumkin oversees the Franklin County Data Center and is responsible for providing centralized technology services in support of all county agencies. Frumkin coordinates strategic long-term planning, implementation and operation of countywide IT systems, and organizes, directs, controls and defines goals for the efficient management of the agency. Frumkin is also actively involved in CompTIA’s Public Technology Institute City/County CIO Leadership Council.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Mark Gager

Chief Information Officer, Bexar County, Texas

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Mark Gager, Bexar County, Texas’, chief information officer, has more than 20 years of leadership experience in multiple industries. Gager has specialized in establishing and leading all aspects of enterprise-wide information technology, project management office (PMO), and strategy management office (SMO), and performance excellence functions.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Tom Lynch

Chief Information Officer, Cook County, Illinois

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Tom Lynch is the chief information officer for Cook County, Illinois, one of the largest counties in the U.S. In this role, Lynch oversees the county’s information technology department and initiatives. Lynch came to the role in 2018 after more than four years with the county government.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Richard McHattie

Chief Information Officer, Maricopa County, Arizona

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Richard McHattie is the chief information officer for Maricopa County, the 4th-largest county in the country. McHattie leads a talented team of over 200 professionals supporting technology and innovation for over 50 county departments. Prior to joining Maricopa County in 2005, McHattie was a business development executive in the energy industry developing large-scale energy projects including energy efficiency upgrades and complex cogeneration projects for manufacturing and large industrial customers.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

M.C. Neal

Chief Information Officer, Champaign County, Illinois

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

M.C. Neal is the chief information officer for Champaign County, Illinois, where he is responsible for overseeing all IT functions. Neal was previously the CIO for Urbana School District #116, and prior to that was the Manager of Information Technology for The Urbana Free Library. Prior to that, Neal worked in IT support for University Housing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in IT roles at the Champaign Public Library.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Rami Zakaria

Chief Information Officer, Sacramento County, California

GoldenGov: County Executive of the Year

Rami Zakaria is the CIO for Sacramento County, California.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Aaron Bentley

Chief Information Officer, Salt Lake City, Utah

Local IT Leader of the Year

Aaron Bentley has worked for Salt Lake City for over twenty years, currently as the city’s chief information officer. Prior to taking on IT leadership, Bentley held several roles in the city’s Information Management Services department. Bentley is passionate about tackling the digital divide in the city and has worked with the mayor and city council to establish programs to help address these issues.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Roderick Burton

Director of Information Technology, Albemarle County, Virginia

Local IT Leader of the Year

Roderick Burton is the director of information technology for Albemarle County, Virginia. Burton started his career in the county in 2001, and has served in several different roles across the county’s IT operations.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Kai Fan

Web Programmer, Macon-Bibb County, Georgia

Local IT Leader of the Year

Kai Fan is a web programmer for Macon-Bibb County, Georgia. Fan has spent more than 6 years in the role.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Michelle Hoffman

Information Technology Services Director, Cape Coral, Florida

Local IT Leader of the Year

Michelle Hoffman is the information technology services director for the city of Cape Coral, Florida.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Katy Leggett

Chief Information Officer, Woodstock, Georgia

Local IT Leader of the Year

Katy Leggett is the first-ever chief information officer for the city of Woodstock, Georgia. Leggett was previously the city’s geographic information systems manager, and stepped into the CIO role after the city restructured the department. As the leader of the department, Leggett will lead a proactive, data-driven team while ensuring greater organizational efficiency.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Al Miles

Director of Technology & GIS, Newtown, Connecticut

Local IT Leader of the Year

Al Miles is the director of technology and GIS for the city of Newtown, Connecticut.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Michael Pegues

Chief Information Officer, Aurora, Illinois

Local IT Leader of the Year

As the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the City of Aurora, Illinois, Michael Pegues leads the Information Technology (IT) Department and manages the citywide IT strategic plan for technology services that serve all departments and hundreds of thousands of direct constituent interactions. Pegues has developed a passion for city work and has become an urban-tech champion, driving smart city efforts from plan to execution to achieve the goal of making the City of Aurora a regional technology hub.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Eric Romero

Director of Information Services, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Local IT Leader of the Year

Eric Romero is the director of information services for the Parish of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In this role, Romero oversees all operations for the parish’s information technology and is working to create a more efficient parish government by using technology. Romero has been with the parish since 1995.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Amrit Singh

Associate Commissioner - Application Engineering, New York, New York

Local IT Leader of the Year

Amrit Singh serves as Associate Commissioner of Application Engineering for the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI). In this role, Singh leads the development and implementation of technology strategies on behalf of New York City and its 300,000 municipal employees. His team supports critical citywide initiatives including New York City’s 311 service, NYC.gov, Next Generation Data Platform, and the MyCity Portal. 

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Michael Sylvester

Chief Information Officer - Department of Public Social Services, Los Angeles County, California

Local IT Leader of the Year

Michael Sylvester is an Assistant Director and Chief Information Officer for Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Social Services (DPSS). In this role, which he has held since 2006, he presides over the Bureau of Contract and Technical Services, with a workforce of over 400 IT professionals, responsibility for more than 150 IT vendor staff, and oversight over the department’s property management operations.

2024 LocalSmart Awards

Jorge Valens

Innovation Manager, Miami-Dade County, Florida

Local IT Leader of the Year

Jorge Valens is an innovation manager in the information technology department of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Valens manages technology and innovation projects, as well as mayoral programs, for the county’s IT department. Valens also drives strategic planning, research & development and project management of key innovation projects.