CivicInnAward

Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday recognized city sanitation workers for switching from using paper maps to a smartphone app designed to help with daily route navigation and speed up responses to trash collection requests.

The first of several Mayor’s Civic Innovation Awards that Garcetti plans to give to city departments was presented to the Bureau of Sanitation’s SAN STAR team, which is using a mapping application designed by software company Esri for Android and iOS devices.

The team is currently using Esri’s Collector app in South Los Angeles and expects to take it citywide by next summer.

The SAN STAR team “decided that city government should operate just like the rest of us do in our daily lives,” Garcetti said. “That’s exactly the type of innovation, and common sense, that we need to solve our city’s toughest problems.”

Bureau of Sanitation General Manager Enrique Zaldivar said his “drivers are on the front line of serving our city every day, and knew better than anyone how to fix a problem — stemming from our antiquated technology — to help us do our jobs faster and smarter.”

“It’s an honor for the sanitation department’s SAN STAR team to receive the very first Mayor’s Civic Innovation Award,” he said.

The free phone app is being used for answering requests to clear alleys and pick up bulky items, e-waste and other trash. It shows the sanitation drivers their daily routes and allows them to edit, update and share information with bureau headquarters and fellow drivers.

City officials said the app hel