Executive Summary
In a state as large and diverse as California, the right to access government records is not merely a legal entitlement — it is a pillar of democratic accountability. For millions of residents, workers, journalists, researchers, and advocates, the Public Records Act (PRA) represents one of the most direct points of contact between a citizen and their government. Yet for years, the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) — an agency serving over 20 million Californians — managed PRA requests through a fragmented, paper-intensive process that was slow, difficult to navigate, and inaccessible to many.
Under the strategic leadership of DIR’s Chief Information Officer, the DIR and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) undertook a comprehensive digital transformation of its Public Records Act service delivery. Launched on December 4, 2025, the PRA Digital Services initiative replaced an antiquated manual workflow with a fully modern, end-to-end digital platform built on the DIR Cloud Platform — a secure, state-managed infrastructure purpose-built for enterprise government operations.
The results are transformational. PRA request processing time decreased from 15 days to just 2 days — an 87 percent reduction. Over 60,000 annual requests are now handled digitally with the same staffing complement. Staff time previously consumed by manual routing, tracking, and correspondence has been redirected — a 35 percent efficiency improvement applied directly to higher-value constituent services. Users rate the new portal 5 out of 5 for satisfaction. The platform is fully mobile-responsive, ADA-compliant, and supports multilingual access — ensuring that no Californian is left behind because of language, ability, or technology.
This nomination, submitted by the Deputy Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, recognizes the DIR and the Project team, led by the CIO of the Department of Industrial Relations for delivering one of the most impactful and measurable digital experience enterprise solutions improvements in California state government — demonstrating that strategic vision, disciplined execution, and a citizen-first design philosophy can fundamentally change the way government serves its people.
