LA Sanitation Bureau wins technology-related awards

A software-development team from the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works LA Sanitation Bureau (LASAN) has won a Los Angeles Excellence in Technology award, which is given in conjunction with a local government-technology conference.

Representatives of LASAN will receive an Outstanding Information Technology (IT) Project Award at the Los Angeles Digital Government Summit, sponsored by Government Technology magazine. The awards ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 30, 2016, in downtown Los Angeles.

The Excellence in Technology awards have been designed to honor innovative technology initiatives in Los Angeles city and county governments.

The winning LASAN team invented SANStar, a smartphone application now used by refuse truck drivers to map and record their daily routes. Previously, drivers had used paper guides to map their daily routes. The mobile app allows drivers to complete their routes faster and respond to more customer requests, according to LASAN.

The mobile app also won Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s first Civic Innovation Award in November, 2014. That award is given for creative solutions that provide more efficient, economical services to city residents. 

The award is one of two LASAN will receive at the late August awards ceremony. The bureau also is being honored for its CleanStat computer program, which was developed to provide a street-by-street assessment of the cleanliness of each street with a grade. LASAN uses the information to determine where to allocate resources and prioritize for cleaning.