April 2, 2010 --The City of Santa Monica recently won two Technology Solutions Awards and received an Outstanding Achievement from the Public Technology Institute (PTI), a national nonprofit technology research and development organization based in Washington DC that represents local governments

The recognitions were for three new technology projects by the City. This is 11th consecutive year Santa Monica has won an award from PTI.

“Personal computers are sometimes left on regardless of whether they are being used or not,” a press release from the City stated. “This results in unnecessary energy consumption, which drives up costs and increases the generation of greenhouse gasses. Individual power management schemes, available through Windows, have proven ineffective.”

The City’s homeless count won the award in the category of Geospatial Information System (GIS). The City organizes an annual homeless count with volunteers who walk an assigned neighborhood on a specific night. The data is put into the City’s GIS, where is it is used to produce maps and reports that provide detailed and accurate statistics on the homeless population.

This year’s count saw a 19 percent decrease in the homeless population. See: ("Homeless Population Sinks;" Feb.23, 2010)

The City’s fully automated beach parking meters received a Significant Achievement honor in the category of Sustainability. Several of these meters were installed in a pilot program that allows pre-paid parking reservations and provides real time credit card reconciliation, monitoring and reports.

This system has proven more effective at helping to manage Santa Monica’s beach lots than any previous solution, according to the City. Santa Monica has plans to deploy an additional 14 meters in other beach parking lots in the near future.