El Cajon wins Tyler Excellence Award for MyElCajon app; city highlights pothole challenge

Sarah Diaz, the city's director of information technology, told the El Cajon City Council on June 11 that El Cajon was one of four clients recognized with a Tyler Excellence Award for innovative use of Tyler Technologies solutions. Diaz said the award specifically recognized the city's MyElCajon app and the "pothole challenge" the app powered.

"We recorded a 500% increase in service requests since the MyElCajon implementation," Diaz said, and she told the council that many incidents are closed within 48 hours because operations staff receive real-time updates on iPads in the field. Diaz described the pothole challenge, which began as a council priority and a social-media call to action to identify and report potholes after unusually heavy rains.

As a result of the campaign, Diaz said the city completed what she called a year's worth of pothole repairs in five days, with employees and volunteers from multiple departments pitching in. She credited the city manager's office and marketing team for broad promotion that resulted in significant public participation and national media attention.

Diaz said she and other city staff accepted the Tyler award at the vendor's conference in front of about 5,000 attendees and named staff who attended, including Chris Berg (marketing and engagement), Dave Richards (public works operations) and Erin Jones (public works operations manager).

Council members praised the IT team's work and called the app intuitive. The council thanked staff for the cross-departmental effort that combined technology, public works and volunteers to speed repairs and improve responsiveness.

Diaz told the council the MyElCajon app is available on Apple and Android and serves both residents and staff by collecting quantifiable metrics that help prioritize and dispatch work.

The mayor and council congratulated Diaz and her team on the national recognition.