Biggs-ca.gov has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of California. Below you'll find an interview with Pete Carr, City Administrator for the City of Biggs.
- Biggs-ca.gov is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
Biggs is too lean to afford its own IT team. We are a small but full-service city providing electric, water, sewer, police, fire, parks and street maintenance. We accomplish a lot by contract with the private sector. As City Administrator, I initiate changes and additions to our website in partnership with our outstanding designer-host, Escudero Web Services in Elk Grove, CA. We have an internet provider that hosts our IT access, and Escudero does the website work. My staff and I feed content to Escudero, they post it. The vendor bills us for their time bi-monthly.
- Can you summarize the history of Biggs' web portal?
This small city started its web portal about five years ago with a simple, single page effort managed by a local citizen on a practically volunteer basis. With no other community services like a chamber of commerce or visitors bureau or daily paper, the city is really the only source of local information. We recognized three years ago that developing technology had enabled us to do more with the site, and we were eager to provide more information to our residents and prospective businesses. I scanned the city website environment and discovered that most of my favorite city sites were products of one designer, so we called and engaged their services. Staff collected photographs, forms, Q&A, reports – all the things we thought people might be interested in, and forwarded them to the designer. We update and add more content every month. We invest maybe a few hours a month into it.
- What are the overarching objectives of Biggs' current e-government initiatives?
We are primarily trying to make information easily available to our citizens. We focus on answering the questions they ask most. Next, we want to tell important stories and alert residents to current events. We also are finding that other agencies and prospective businesses are getting information they need about our city from the site. We also solicit feedback through “click here” contact links at the website.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by Biggs-ca.gov, both on- and off-line?
When people ask questions of staff, we usually remind them that the info they seek is on the city website -- then we provide the answer or form they are seeking. City Council and staff are updated by email on what new or updated content has been posted this week. City utility billings and newsletters frequently refer people to the website for more information. My email signature line invites the reader to “Check us out at www.biggs-ca.gov!”
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Biggs' e-government services?
We actively seek e-feedback as well as in more traditional methods, and are always eager for more. When staff is asked a question that didn’t have an answer on the website, we add more content.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
We periodically analyze the site’s usage stats. Utility rates and current events get a lot of hits. Some residents pay their utility bills online thru the portal. Many have used the website to sign up for the “Connect-CTY” telephone call service where city hall automatically alerts them to hot issues. Business people enjoy having our fees, municipal code, planning documents and forms right there online at their convenience. We’d like to see more people access information about our services like home improvement loans and energy efficiency rebates.
- How do you plan to develop your site's media content in the coming years?
We intend to continue to keep our content fresh, accurate and complete. We add more as interest indicates. With little streaming video content available relative to our city, we’ll likely continue to focus on written content in easy-to-locate, easy-to-read format.
- In developing Biggs-ca.gov, what were the biggest hurdles that needed to be overcome?
Settling on a cost-effective partnership was surprisingly easy with our vendor’s excellent service and modest fee. Collecting content for the initial launch was a staff-team chore, and keeping content fresh and accurate requires some ongoing attention -- but it is too important to neglect. It is important to us that we use all genuine local photos, not generics from other communities, although that takes effort to produce.
- In what ways has social media (YouTube, Flickr, etc.) allowed you connect more directly and personally with the citizens of Biggs?
Other than the website, we have not yet joined the live social media world as a city. We are considering the opportunities and risks with social networking, and of course would have some limitations in depth of staffing resources to attend to it.
- Where do you see Biggs e-government heading in the next 2-3 years? Are there any exciting new features or services currently in the works for Biggs' web portal?
So far the information push has been so one-sided, just city to citizen. We’d like to see more citizens contact us about content, respond to issues posted online, and voice their ideas and concerns. We want to maximize the conversation while saving the city and citizens time and money.
We were selected last year to host an innovative new software being developed to introduce school-age children to city services. People ought to understand and appreciate how clean water gets to their home, where their wastes go when they flush, and how their electricity is made. It will be fun to work with the schools, families and web developers on this venture.
- Is there anything else that you'd like to tell us about Biggs-ca.gov?
Our city council and staff consider it an honor to serve this community. We are committed to having a well-served community, and that includes served with information. We hope our citizens and outside parties interested in Biggs will learn more and tell us more, using the website as a tool to get work done, share information and enjoy the conversation.