Lee’s Summit has again been recognized as one of the top ten cities in the United States for its use of technology to better engage citizens with local government!  The ninth annual Digital Cities Survey ranked Lee’s Summit sixth of the most advanced digital cities in America in its population category (75,000 – 124,999).   This is the second consecutive year Lee’s Summit has been recognized for this achievement, increasing our standings by three spots from last year.  

The City of Lee’s Summit unveiled a new Web site in June of this year (www.cityofls.net).  The new site represents an accumulation of improvements, starting with an easier, more efficient way to navigate through the City’s vast amount of information by the use of ten main service categories.   Several new features were also added including RSS feeds, automatic updates to social networking sites, E-newsletters, E-Subscriptions, on-line meeting documents, large file transfer service, expanded on-line services such as live view of adoptable pets and on-line scheduling.

The City continues to expand on digital services with the addition of AT&T U-Verse TV, making Lee’s Summit the third government entity in the metropolitan area to broadcast on AT&T.  This year also welcomed a major upgrade to the City’s Government Cable Access Channel system; the upgrade provides staff with greater efficiency and extended technical capabilities for enhanced programming.  The City continues to offer other digital services, such as:  streaming video, live and archived meeting broadcasts, downtown Wifi, and many other E-government services.

“It’s an honor to be nationally recognized by the most demanding measure of a city’s ability to apply technology to benefit citizens.  This has been an exciting year to be able to share these innovative advancements in digital communications with our residents” said Randy Dickey, Chief Information Technology Officer.

City Manager Steve Arbo commented “This reaffirms that transparency in City government continues to be our guiding principle.  The ability to utilize new technologies in order to be effective in quickly informing citizens is of the utmost importance.”

The awards will be presented by the Center for Digital Government during a special awards ceremony at the National League of Cities Conference in San Antonio, Texas on November 12.  This is the second time Lee’s Summit participated in this national survey with only two other Missouri cities recognized across all categories.