Chester County retains Top 10 national digital ranking
WEST CHESTER >> For the fourth year in a row, the Center for Digital Government and National Association of Counties have placed Chester County in the top 10 best technology practices among U.S. counties.
The ranking is based on initiatives that streamline delivery of government services, encourage open data, collaboration and shared services, enhance cybersecurity and contribute to disaster response and recovery efforts.
The award was presented to Chester County Commissioner Terence Farrell this week at the NACo annual conference in Clark County, Nevada. The Digital Counties judging panel noted: “Chester County’s website is built on a responsive-design content management system, and several forms and applications have been digitized such as those needed for family court, park events, foster parent reimbursement and more.
Earlier this year, e-filing became available on the website with the goal of saving money and benefiting taxpayers, attorneys and government staff. This service takes advantage of the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System, which saves Chester County from spending more than $100,000 to store court documents in its own cloud.”
The judges also highlighted efforts to provide translation for key webpages for Hispanic residents. A menu option on the www. chesco.org homepage lists all information available in Spanish, and the County’s decision to use a local translation service instead of standard translation software was made so that the translations reflect the cultural language of the Chester County community.
“Every year, Chester County makes tremendous strides in offering digital services to better serve our citizens, save taxpayer money and protect citizen data,” said Commissioner Farrell. “This award showcases that effort and I congratulate staff from our Department of Computing and Information Services, our digital communications personnel and representatives from many other departments who helped us earn this honor.”
The Digital Survey is conducted annually in the spring. All U.S. counties are invited to participate in the survey which examines the overall technology programs and plans of the county. For more information, visit https://www. govtech.com/dc/digitalcounties/Digital-Counties-Survey-2019—Winners-Announced.html.