DPW Staff Recognized as IT Innovators of the Year

The new GIS program that DPW's Victoria Loftis and Mike Krosky helped develop maps and catalogues the County's more than 10,000 streetlights. It is shown here on a BlackBerry.

Victoria Loftis and Mike Krosky fix and monitor the County’s more than 10,000 streetlights. They also track and update the electrical infrastructure that connects them.

It’s a big task, and having precise, accessible records is essential.

So about two years ago, Loftis, an engineer technician, and Krosky, an electrician, set out to update the records and, working with GIS teams, create a sophisticated web-based program that can map and catalogue the streetlights. Last week they received the County’s 2012 IT Innovator of the Year award for their efforts.

The new GIS program can be accessed anywhere via smart phone on a secured site, saving tremendous amounts of resources and speeding up fixes and customer response times. Previously, they relied on hand drawn maps stored in a complex filing system, many of which were missing or outdated.

“It’s a simple tool but it provides great information and accuracy that we didn’t have before,” said their supervisor Carl Hickman, DPW’s program coordinator for Traffic Signal & Street Lighting Systems. “This makes their work much more efficient overall.”

Murali Pasumarthi, DPW’s Traffic Engineering Manager, said the upgrades are critical to public safety and protecting public infrastructure.

“They essentially automated the County’s electrical infrastructure,” he said.

The pair was selected from a pool of 10 winning IT Innovators named over the course of the 2011-12 fiscal year. After the first and third quarters of each fiscal year, the County identifies individuals or teams from each working group who have developed outstanding information technology.

Launched in late 2010, the program is part of a broader effort to increase County employees’ computer literacy. Any employee can submit a nomination by visiting the ITIQ Knowledge Center on InSite.

Victoria Loftis, left, and Mike Krosky, won the County's 2012 IT Innovator of the Year award. Loftis is an engineer technician and Krosky is an electrician, both in DPW. 

Loftis, who has worked for the County for eight years, and Krosky, who started at the County seven years ago, were recognized as the annual winners before County executives at a Jan. 10 meeting. They received plaques and an ovation.

Each day, Loftis receives dozens of emails from residents complaining of outages and broken streetlights. The County relies on these contacts because crews do not regularly monitor the fixtures. She also gets DigAlert requests from contractors, public utilities and others asking where electrical cables and conduits lie so as to prevent accidents. Previously, Loftis turned to several applications, including hand drawn maps stored in a complicated filing system, taking her hours each day. 

Now, she can turn to the updated database and electronic GIS program and gather the same information within minutes, saving the County hundreds of dollars a day.

“Now I couldn’t imagine not having this,” she said.

Loftis and Krosky then decide which cases to tackle for the day and head into the field. While Krosky focuses on streetlights, Loftis meets with the parties who have filed DigAlert requests. In the field, they use their BlackBerries to access the new GIS system.

The volume of cases they handle is staggering.

Krosky alone fixes between two and 14 streetlights a day. His record is 18 lights in one day.

To do that, he puts about 200 miles on his County-issued boom truck each day, reaching every corner of the County from Borrego Springs to Fallbrook to Otay Mesa. In all, he’s logged 201,000 miles on the truck.

He is out in the field most of the day, every day, rain or shine.

“I do whatever I have to do to get it fixed,” said Krosky.

Loftis, meanwhile, receives at least 50 DigAlert requests a day. She is required to respond to each within 48 hours, making accurate record keeping especially important. She researches each one, then may make between five and 10 site visits each day.

Among the many benefits of having updated records and a more efficient system, Loftis and Krosky can easily identify which streetlights are owned and maintained by SDG&E versus the County, eliminating billing errors. Staff can more easily identify where streetlights should be required in new development projects and those new lights and electrical infrastructure can be added to the program more easily, preventing future accidents.

Little by little, in between their day-to-day work, Loftis and Krosky would correct inaccurate records and work with the Public Works Department’s GIS team.

Loftis would work on it when she didn’t have meetings and on rainy days.

The work hasn’t stopped. Krosky continues to catalogue all streetlights with photos, which automatically register GPS coordinates. Sometimes, they come across streetlights that exist but aren’t even in their records.

As for the award, Loftis and Krosky say they are honored to receive it, but that they were just doing what needed to be done.

“This is what our job is,” Loftis said.