September 29, 2026
Sagamore Institute is excited to announce that the City of Westfield, Indiana, led by Mayor Scott Willis, has been awarded the second annual Goldsmith Prize for Innovation in Local Government, presented by American Structurepoint. The award, which was presented at today’s Aim’s 2026 Ideas Summit, recognizes high-impact local government innovations that are addressing challenges in Indiana communities. The award provides the City of Westfield with a paid graduate student fellow to support the development and implementation of its Westfield Civic Intelligence Platform.
The platform aims to coalesce the city’s data sources and systems to create a unified layer of municipal information and infrastructure, empowering city employees to more efficiently and accurately serve community members. With support from the Goldsmith Prize fellow, the platform will serve as a single source of truth for key resources like the Comprehensive Plan, Unified Development Ordinances, and engineering and procurement requirements. This includes a Community Response Assistant to help staff improve response times for recurring questions about city services and policies and a Development Navigator to support architects, engineers, and businesses in understanding building process.
“We’re honored by this recognition and eager to leverage the Goldsmith Prize to build on the city’s existing AI learning initiatives, aimed at identifying high-impact and measurable needs that make our local government nimbler and more effective as the community continues to grow,” said Westfield Mayor Scott Wilis.
The Goldsmith Prize was launched in April 2025 to honor Stephen Goldsmith’s visionary leadership as Mayor of Indianapolis (1992-2000) and inspire the next generation of innovative public sector leaders. The inaugural prize was awarded to the City of Goshen and Mayor Gina Leichty, where Goldsmith Fellow Adithi Varadarajan, a recent graduate of Indiana University’s Computer Science Master’s program, is supporting the city with its AI Preparedness Initiative. Mayor Leichty says that “The Goldsmith Prize is helping Goshen turn big ideas into real solutions, giving us the capacity to explore innovative technologies that improve services today while preparing our community for tomorrow.”
Stephen Goldsmith notes that “Both Westfield and Goshen demonstrate that local leaders in Indiana are thinking thoughtfully and practically about integrating AI and other advanced technologies into their work. We’re excited to see local innovations like the Civic Intelligence Platform that solve real, pressing problems and improve local government’s ability to leverage resources to deliver faster and more efficient service to citizens.”
The Goldsmith Prize is co-chaired by former U.S. Representative and Indianapolis Deputy Mayor Susan Brooks and Cook Group CEO Pete Yonkman and led by Sagamore in partnership with Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (Aim). Earlier this year, the Goldsmith Prize announced a partnership with American Structurepoint, an award-winning national civil engineering firm headquartered in Indiana.
For more information, visit https://sagamoreinstitute.org/goldsmith-prize/
Media Contact Kristopher Kaliher, Communications Specialist, Sagamore [email protected]