PA-ComNet Meeting Feb. 2, 2000

Margaret Cooley began the meeting at 7:37 by introduced Rod Massey, Chief Information Officer in the Information Technology Division for Palo Alto. He has been with the city for 7 months.

Rod noted that the city does many of the same things as private organizations do when providing e-government. How are government services on the web similar to commercial services? What does it mean for city government to provide services over the Internet? Palo Alto has been a charter city since 1909, is the birthplace of H-P, and bought it’s first computer in 1963. It was the first city to have a presence on the web. We need to take activities further, not just have passive sites. Passing along information to the public is a special activity which is needed to help the community. Today the web is mostly static. Tomorrow e-government must be used to conduct city business and interact with citizens. Bill paying, applying for permits, providing information, encouraging 2-way communications, are all ways to use e-government.

The city needs to re-invent how they communicate with customers with specific web portals for citizens, visitors, businesses, kids, etc., and personalize it as with My Palo Alto. Special public needs and focuses have to be served.

They are reinventing doing business with services such as smart permitting, web utility payments, online class registration, lists of available classes, etc. Integrating the web into processes is reinventing internal working; city systems are web based (HR, finances, etc.), and have a virtual desktop. As the system is expanded it will give the ability to add services and be more efficient using the city network, without having to put applications on private PCs. When employees work from remote locations it can reduce commuting times and traffic congestion.

The next steps in the program are to implement a web site redesign, develop an e-government master plan, and implement specific components of the plan as funding permits. They need to have some small quick, cheap wins that allow staff to provide needed services efficiently. The plans for doing all this are just starting to be drafted.

The new Palo Alto web site will move frequently viewed material to the top for 1 click access, and it will associate common graphic elements across the site. Special interests such as kids, ads or businesses will have direct access. Attention getting links will have standard layout and attention getting. Maintenance of information will be decentralized.

The e-Government master plan focuses on business activities, provides a cohesive e-business vision for all city operations, and addresses integration of the present and future systems.

Jay Thorwaldson said the original city web site had no health information, so PAMF provided some. How can there be on-line public hearings? The city attorney is aware of the issue, but no resolution has been found yet. Making public participation easier will open up the government to those who find it hard or inconvenient to get out to meetings. PAMF signed a contract for fiber access to all their satellite facilities. Could the city work with non-profits to get economies of scale?

The city can explore ways to work with non-profits, and is interested in working with the community to make everyone’s use of funds more efficient. They are working with Smart Valley and will talk to PAMF to see how they can work co-operatively.

Keith Cooley asked about making City council meetings available on line and do it faster than at present.

Rod said the main issue with prompt posting minutes is any legal issues that may interfere with the technology. If the video tape of the meeting is recorded it is made available on the web, then either audio or video transcripts should be available on the web long term.

Warren Kallenbach asked about frequency count of visits to city sites.

Rod said the most often visited is emergency services, so it was moved to the top of the page.

Warren asked if there was much interest in the fiber ring, since many people are interested in signing up for high-speed access at the right price.

Rod said they need to get better use of the assets including the fiber to schools and other city facilities, but they lack adequate funding to do all the things that would be useful.

Keith Cooley pointed out that the Art Center is on the fiber ring, but main library next door isn’t. When will it and the other libraries be hooked up?

It’s a high priority to connect to the fiber ring, for the libraries and for all city facilities, but there’s no funding for it now. They are working up the costs, but there’s no plan in place now, and not all the costs are known. It’s important to get city facilities connected. Talk to elected city officials and explain to them the importance of getting city facilities connected, so it can be funded

Margaret Cooley noted that the libraries are important for Internet access, but some libraries aren’t tied in to the Internet yet. When will they be connected?

Rod said that supporting the libraries is a high priority, and they are talking to the library people about it.

Will residents participate in the master e-government plan?

They are working on the process for creating the plan, and don’t have it established yet. They focused very much on getting ready for Y2K until just recently. They know that they need to involve the customers in order to get a good e-government plan.

Keith Cooley suggested using PA-ComNet as a resource for developing the plan and to serve as a sounding board.

Rod said that getting input is important, and it need not be a formal process. If individuals or groups want to provide input that is fine. The only way to improve service is to find out what people want and need, so that they can be properly served.

Margaret Cooley asked about funding sources for connections to the Internet and fiber ring.

That’s a challenge. They will have to make the most of what funds they can get. There are lots of funding strategies to review and consider - grants, funding from the budget, issuing bonds, public-private partnerships, contributions, etc. They want to look at many sources of funding.

Bob Moss said that some city activities and information should be readily available on line – Council and committee agendas, action minutes, full minutes going back as far as possible, staff reports, etc.

Rod agrees that these kinds of things should be on-line, but they need funding and there are competing requests for funds.

Jay Thorwaldson asked how things fit together in the organization.

Rod’s boss is Carl Yates who reports to the city manager. Mohamed Fatah is in utilities and they work together to try to use the fiber ring effectively. They talk to each other often about improving data services.

The new city manager is very critical to the success of information services. The manager has to want to improve data services and Internet access, and they must be able to get support for an expanded role from other departments like utilities and public works, and then have the city council support it and fund it.

Rod has worked with fiber rings and backbones at previous jobs. They first need a plan for what they want to do, and how to do it, and then they have to find the funds. Connecting city facilities to fiber is very important and is a basic foundation of effective use of advanced technologies. Integrating city communications with the fiber ring and all the other services the city provides is a very important goal.

Margaret asked Rod about his prior experience. Before PA he worked for Milpitas and created the IT division for the city, put in a fiber hook-up for city hall, the corporation yard, and the fire stations. Previously he worked for Scottsdale in a wide variety of activities, including GIS, project management, programming, etc. Earlier he was an Army officer, and worked in finance.

(Rod –please enter more on your background and experience – I didn’t get all of it)

David Harris asked how is Creekwatch doing?

Rod said the recent incorrect information transmittal wasn’t a network problem. It was fixed and now it is fine. There still is a lot of work to do. The creekwatch and stream flow setup needs to looked at and improved.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30.

We need suggestions for speakers for future meetings. Please send them to Margaret or Mary Jo.

Next meeting will be Wed. March 1, 7:30 AM at Terman library. Speaker and topic TBA.