CityOfMontebello.com 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 Darren Lew, Information Systems Supervisor for the City of Montebello.
- CityOfMontebello.com is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
We were the project managers for the City’s new website. Our role was to form a web committee and find a web company who offered the best design, usability, and content and also wanted to be consistent with the information provided on the city’s WebPages.
- Can you summarize the history of Montebello's web portal?
Our previous webpage was outdated and our directive was to update the website. As stated previously, our objective was to go out and find web developers to meet our goals and needs. The old web page was stagnant and not user friendly, just simply put, everything was outdated. Because of that we were not able to reach out to our community.
- What are the overarching objectives of Montebello's current e-government initiatives?
We want to empower our residents and give them all the information they need to see what goes on in our community and get more involved. We wanted to provide convenience for the community and quick answers as well. This is also a ‘green’ initiative for the city.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by CityOfMontebello.com, both on- and off-line?
From an off-line marketing standpoint, we’ve printed and advertised the city’s website on all city promotional correspondence. We’ve contacted the local newspapers and business community. The City’s new website from an on-line marketing standpoint is mainly through search engines.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Montebello's e-government services?
The main concern from our community was to have the ability to download and obtain forms and applications, and have the contact information and office hours available online.
- How have you joined with other city agencies to bring more online services to citizens (i.e. Online Police Reporting)?
We have on-line police reporting and also under ‘external links’ we have shortcuts to other agency websites.
- How have you worked to make your online services, features, and design user-friendly?
We have formed a web committee, which involved all city departments, to select the appropriate online services/company to be able to provide efficiency and effectiveness for the city and its residents along with the business community.
- 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 Montebello's web portal?
Our goal is to be able to do ‘real time’ notifications and alerts to our community of any safety issues or concerns. We would like for the community to be able to renew and apply for business license, dog license, building permits and online ticketing services via our website.
- What else that you would like to tell us about CityOfMontebello.com?
We are constantly looking for ways to improve our city’s website, to be more dynamic and have the users be engaged within our community.