CentervilleUT.net has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of Utah. Below you'll find an interview with Lisa Bednarz, Information Technology Manager for the City of Centerville.
- CentervilleUT.net is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
As the city’s IT Manager, I am a member of the Web Development Task Force and primary point of contact for our web development consultant and all staff members.
- Can you summarize the history of Centerville’s web portal?
CentervilleUT.net's development funneled from the community to the elected officials who appointed a task force for the development and deployment of this site. This process covered approximately 18 months with regularly scheduled meetings, goals, priorities, objectives, time frames, and tasks determined for each meeting until the final meeting's objective was “deploy the site." The task force members worked closely with Loretta Gale, the Web Development Consultant from StarGOV. The new site launched in June of 2010.
- What are the overarching objectives of Centerville’s current e-government initiatives?
The City of Centerville maintains a rather conservative stance regarding utilization of web technologies for our taxpaying constituents. The demographics of our community are largely residential families with 2 or more children. It makes economic sense to provide online recreation sign ups and the ability to pay bills online. Many members of our community are younger and love to text via their cell phones, and implementing the free Twitter service was a perfect fit.
Twitter has been a huge success. Centerville uses a free web service to schedule all regularly scheduled events. We also use Twitter directly to quickly send out important notices or information. This summer there was a large fire on the mountain above Centerville. We were able to Tweet information regarding the fire to citizens and other subscribers. There is a Twitter feed right on the home page where people who don’t use Twitter can go and get the information on current events. Centerville City was the first municipality in Utah to implement and effectively utilize Twitter.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by CentervilleUT.net, both on- and off-line?
Offline mechanisms are still our strongest means of marketing distribution. We include information about the website in verbal and written correspondence and messages from the city; the website address is included on all letterhead, mailers, bills, and mentioned in public meetings.
Online mechanisms include strategic keyword implementation for search engines, cross linking with other entities, Twitter, and a strong e-mail notification system to residents and business in the area.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Centerville’s e-government services?
As previously mentioned, the development of Centerville's website and all e-government services is based primarily on citizen feedback and usage. Centerville quickly adapts to online solutions to assist the majority of our community.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
The weather feed on the home page is a standout. The entire interface of the site changes with the weather. On the backend of the site, we pull the weather feed every few minutes. Based on the weather information, we have over 40 different looks that will display based on the weather. We have heard numerous comments such as, “I didn't even know it was snowing, until I looked at your site. Sure enough, I looked up from my computer and it was snowing outside.”
Every department in the City might state that their area is the most used of the site. This feedback is paramount to the success of our site in that all of our departments actively update their content keeping information fresh and current.
Statistics on the site show that the majority of return visitors continue to hit the very first page of the site where Centerville places the top highlighted items for the entire City. From the first page, frequent visitors go to the City Council Agendas and Minutes, then Community Development, Court page, and Recreational Schedules and sign ups all closely follow in activity.
- In what way has harnessing Twitter allowed you to connect more directly and personally with the citizens of Centerville?
As mentioned above, Centerville was the first city in Utah to implement Twitter. The Centerville Community has a large population base of young professionals with families. This median group embraces technology particularly texting and Social Media. Twitter has been a perfect fit for a majority of our constituents. Many media outlets also subscribe to our Twitter feed in order to be able to get important information disseminated to the public.
- How can visitors and citizens contribute information or other content to the site? How does this add value to the city portal?
Traditional offline mechanisms are still an extremely viable solution for Centerville, via public meetings, recreational events or simply visiting City Hall and talking with us. Centerville's presence online reflects this community driven philosophy. Centerville City truly reflects a governmental entity “run by the people and for the people.”
Online, citizens can easily complete e-mail forms, contact us forms, requests for records, extra patrol, surveys and polls, and well as directly interacting with us via Twitter. CentervilleUT.net also has a form where citizens can upload photos of Centerville which they have taken to be rotated on the homepage.
- Where do you see e-government heading in the next 2-3 years? Are there any exciting new features or services currently in the works for Centerville’s web portal?
Several studies have shown that the main users of our site will be via mobile devices. Currently Centerville has RSS feeds and mobile translations for PDAs. However, within the next 2-3 years a complete version of the website will be deployed for mobile devices.
- What else that you would like to tell us about CentervilleUT.net?
Centerville continually monitors current and evolving technologies. There are numerous trendy technologies that bring a "wow" factor and could benefit a different entity or private company but would give minimal value to the majority of our constituents. We plan to implement those technologies that support and benefit our community the most.