City staff told the council that Avondale placed among the top cities in its population category in the annual Digital Cities survey and that the city received recognition from the Public Technology Institute for its cybersecurity awareness training.

Why it matters: Those awards signal citywide investments in technology, cybersecurity and cross‑department collaboration that officials say improve service delivery, employee onboarding and emergency preparedness.

Jeff Sheets of the city's IT team described the Digital Cities program and highlighted categories that contributed to the recognition, including a citywide cybersecurity program, streamlined IT onboarding, emergency management tabletop exercises and business process reviews. Avondale competes in a population band of about 75,000 to 125,000 and the staff presentation said the city has ranked in the top 10 in recent years.

On cybersecurity training, staff and marketing developed an interactive program presented as a mini‑series with in‑chamber viewings, popcorn and a trivia component to increase employee participation. The Public Technology Institute award recognized that interactive approach. “We created a new solution to provide an innovative and interactive training program instead of just a mundane video,” Jeff Sheets said.

Council members thanked the IT and marketing teams and noted the awards reflect cross‑department cooperation. No policy vote was tied to the awards presentation.