Governing Magazine/April 2000

WEB GUIDE

GUIDE TO WEB-ENABLED GOVERNMENT: WAITING FOR E-COM

No doubt about it: This is a busy and innovative time for state and
local governments on the Web. Some jurisdictions are rolling out their
third- and even fourth-generation sites. User-friendly features
ranging from economic-development site locators to Web-video
broadcasts of public meetings to unclaimed-property registries are
being placed within a mouse-click of millions. New sites and pages are
popping up by the thousands: It's getting hard to find a hamlet or
village anywhere without at least a rudimentary Internet presence.
 The incentives for governments to do more on the Net are only getting
stronger: Nearly half of all adult Americans now have access to the
Internet from home. That increasingly Web-savvy population is coming
to expect information and services to be available "24x7," as the
current business cliche puts it. And as every government finance
officer knows, any information or service that can be made available
over the Web will be provided at a fraction of the cost of
transactions taking place between human beings over a government
counter.
 The Web efforts profiled on the pages that follow give just a glimpse
of the energetic activity taking place: virtual high schools in
Kentucky and Florida; online procurement driving purchasing costs down
in Orange County, California; data for sale from the Los Angeles
Public Library; fair warning about traffic-ticket-generating cameras
in Charlotte, North Carolina; online payroll information for West
Virginia state employees.
 There's more to the story, though. Some of those who follow public-
sector information technology thought the year just past would be the
one in which governments everywhere would be swept into a marriage
with Web-based electronic commerce. What it was, however, was a year
of tentative courtship: Some governments have begun making at least
limited forays into e-com, offering building permits or fishing
licenses or auto registrations online; at last count, at least 30
state governments were offering some sort of online-commerce
capability. Few at any level, however, are offering any kind of broad
menu of e-commerce services.
 That is going to change. The forces pushing even the smallest
governments toward e-commerce are becoming irresistible. International
Data Corp. predicts that more than 32 million U.S. households will be
banking online by 2003. It's safe to say that plenty of those
households will expect to be able to get their auto license plates or
pay their property taxes the same way.
 Governments also are going to be pulled along by the growth of e-com
generally--growth that is projected to come at a rate that at first
glance looks like a typographical error. The Gartner Group, for
example, is projecting that worldwide business-to-business e-commerce
will grow from $145 billion in 1999 to $7.29 TRILLION in 2004. In the
U.S. alone, another market research firm, Forrester Research, sees
that figure growing to $2.7 trillion over the same period.
 It's not easy to roll out these sophisticated capabilities, even for
state and big local governments with substantial in-house IT
resources. But that barrier is crumbling as more and more established
vendors and a host of startup dot-coms get into the business of
enabling government e-commerce. At some point, moving the business of
government to the Web becomes the path of least resistance.
 Will 2000 be the year of government e-commerce? We'll be watching
24x7.
--John Martin

GAVEL-TO-GAVEL ONLINE
It may not top a list of major quality-of-life improvements, but
residents of Bloomington, Indiana, can now catch every minute of every
city council meeting online, at any time of day.
 Residents already were able to watch live coverage of public meetings
of the council, the planning commission, the community school board
and other government entities on cable television. Cable Access
Television Services, a department of the Monroe County Public Library,
has been cablecasting the public meetings for television for quite
some time. Now, the department is helping put the meetings online by
joining with Bloomington and HoosierNet Inc., a local nonprofit
community network.
 Residents who can't attend the meetings live, don't have cable
television or are out of town can watch live or archived versions of
that cable coverage on the Internet instead. "If you missed last
week's council meeting, you can go get it and fast forward to the
issues you want to hear," says Michael Chui, Bloomington's chief
information officer. "It's opening up government to the citizens." The
hardware and software costs, shared among the three partners, came to
about $10,000 altogether.
 HoosierNet uses "Internet streaming," a technology that transforms
the television signal into a digital format that can run on the
Internet. Interested citizens click on http://stream.hoosier.net/cats
and go to the appropriate links for the meetings they want to see. A
free software program called RealPlayer is needed to view the
meetings. Those computer users who use the Netscape browser already
have RealPlayer loaded on their computers; others can download it via
a link from the Bloomington site. That software requirement amounts to
something of an unavoidable stumbling block to widespread use of the
streaming-video technology: Technophobes or inexperienced users might
be stymied by the process involved, and the instructions for
downloading are not particularly user friendly.
 But once they get set up with the Internet alternative, residents for
the first time can go into an archive to view meetings they might have
missed on issues they're interested in. "It expands access through
time and space," Chui says. "Someone on travel in D.C. can look at
what's happening in Bloomington, either live or through the archive."
--Ellen Perlman

WELCOME TO CYBER HIGH
The Florida High School has 1,400 students, 33 full-time teachers and
a principal. But it has no campus. That's because it can be found only
at www.fhs.net, where it has been serving students from all over the
state since 1997. It currently offers 52 courses, and administrators
plan to have a full high school curriculum in place by the fall of
2001.
 Growth has been by leaps and bounds. About 200 students signed up in
January 1998; last year, the school registered 1,000 students; so far
this year, 2,200 have signed up, and plans are for 5,000 next fall.
Courses run the gamut from calculus to Latin to personal fitness, all
delivered online and with any necessary materials such as lab
equipment or videos loaned to students. One online physics student, in
fact, e-mailed FHS that she felt sorry for friends at her local school
who were stuck doing mostly bookwork in physics while she was learning
hands-on.
 FHS offers students an alternative way to learn, says spokeswoman
Phyllis Lentz. "We get the motivated, independent learner." Students
take classes at FHS to accelerate learning, avoid a schedule conflict,
get a course not available at their school or keep up while homebound.
Registration is free, whether students are in public, private or
charter schools or home-schooled.
 This year's budget is $4.4 million, most of which came from the
state. A little more than half a million dollars came from Orange and
Alachua counties, which founded the school.
 Kentucky, too, has a virtual high school, but KVHS strictly aims to
provide a service to the state's 1,400 public high schools by letting
students take courses they can't get at their regular schools. Right
now, that means offering a lot of language classes, says Linda
Pittenger, director of planning services in the state Office of
Education Technology.
 KVHS just opened its doors, so to speak, at www.kvhs.org in January.
There are 21 courses being taught by 15 teachers, all part-timers. A
tuition fee of $300 is charged per semester per course per student.
The online school charges the district, which then decides whether to
ask the student's family to pay. The state provides KVHS' $500,000
annual budget. Eventually, the school plans to be available for
students at private schools and those being home-schooled, and to
offer middle-school classes.
--Diane Kittower

E-COMMERCE AT THE LIBRARY
When the producers of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" needed to find a
full-size replica of the famed Bayeux Tapestry for their movie, they
didn't contact a studio props department--they called the Los Angeles
County Public Library. Researchers there tracked down a Long Island
woman who had spent years recreating the epic piece in her home, and
it was flown back to L.A. for filming.
 While a research request from Hollywood is unusual for the reference
desk at the library's Norwalk branch, receiving thousands of queries
from governments and businesses across the country is standard fare.
 Since 1989, Norwalk has operated a pay research service called For
Your Information, and last July the FYI system went online at
https://fyi.co.la.ca.us/city/. Processing all requests through its Web
site, FYI fulfills orders for regular users made up of nearly 60
different city governments and a core customer base of about 6,000
small businesses.
 Whether you're a planning official in need of a detailed set of
property records or a business owner shopping for a mailing list, FYI
will assist, at prices that are usually far below those of commercial
information providers. FYI sells, or gives away, everything from
criminal background checks for police departments to Web site
construction and marketing services for organizations that have
neither the know-how nor the funds to do it themselves.
 The virtual version of the service is the first e-commerce initiative
for Los Angeles County. Rather than bite off too big a chunk of the
Web by starting out with something tricky like online payment of
property taxes, county officials turned to FYI as a test because of
its already-established pay-for-service framework, which had been
processing orders for years over the telephone.
 Steve Coffman, FYI's director, says the effort exists to provide the
"best information at the best price." It's designed to recover its
costs more than act as a cash cow for the county. "We're there for the
customer," says Coffman, providing low-cost services in ways that
profit-oriented companies aren't. In fact, if there's a better place
to send customers to get information for free, says Coffman, "we'll do
it."
--Shane Harris

TOTAL DISCLOSURE
As cities around the country crack down on red-light running by using
automated camera and ticketing systems, perhaps the biggest obstacle
they are facing is the Big Brother problem. While cities
unquestionably have the right to use red-light cameras, a lot of
citizens feel that their use constitutes an invasion of privacy.
 Charlotte, North Carolina, is using the Web to help defuse the Big
Brother issue. Indeed, it would be hard for drivers to argue that the
city is up to dirty tricks, or playing "gotcha" with the cameras.
That's because Charlotte lays all of its cards on the table--face-up--
on its Web site .The site
(http://www.ci.charlotte.nc.us/citransportation/programs/safelight
.htm) not only spells out exactly which 28 Charlotte intersections the
cameras are located at, but even shows pictures of what the cameras
look like.
 Charlotte's strategy is one of total disclosure. "From the beginning,
our intent was not to fool anyone," says Brett Vines, special programs
manager with the Charlotte transportation department. "The more
information that we have on our site--the more people know about the
program--the less problems, complaints and headaches we have."
 To some, this sounds a little like cops telling drug dealers when and
where the next big bust will be. But it would only be self-defeating
if catching and fining people were the sole purpose of the program.
It's not. "We're in this to reduce red-light running and to reduce
accidents," Vines says.
 To that end, the program seems to have had an impact. In the 12
months ending last July, the number of accidents at intersections with
the red-light cameras dropped by 9 percent; during the same time,
accidents at other intersections in Charlotte increased by 6 percent.
Meanwhile, the city's outreach efforts, on the Web as well as in
television and print media, have fueled widespread support for the
cameras. An independent survey of residents conducted last August
found that 78 percent supported the program, whereas only 8 percent
opposed it.
--Christopher Swope


MORE INNOVATIVE SITES

Three sites in California illustrate different ways the Web can
support local economic development efforts:
 --Several Silicon Valley cities have teamed up in a project called
Smart Permit, using Internet technology to streamline and reduce costs
in the building-permitting process:
www.jointventure.org/initiatives/smartpermit/index.html
 --The economic development site for Rancho Cucamonga provides online
site-finders for businesses considering locating in the city:
www.insiderancho.com
 --The Economic Development Information System on Vallejo's site
provides voluminous information for companies, including demographic
reports for every area of the city: www.ci.vallejo.ca.us/ed.html

SERVICE TO CITIZENS
 --The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators
sponsors a multistate site, in partnership with the CheckFree Corp.,
that allows visitors to search for unclaimed property being held by
state governments: www.missingmoney.com
 --New York City's Independent Budget Office has a service allowing
taxpayers to get an itemized tax receipt showing how much they
contributed to various government activities: www.ibo.nyc.ny.us
 --Farmers who want to know what insect is eating their crops can go
to a site maintained by the Texas Department of Agriculture, which is
expanding an online picture gallery to include up to 5,000 of the
state's most common insects: insects.tamu.edu/insects
 --The Arizona Corporation Commission's Securities Division provides
information on enforcement actions against brokerages and complaint
procedures: www.ccsd.cc.state.az.us
 --The Madison, Wisconsin, Assessor's Office site allows users to
search for detailed property and tax information:
www.ci.madison.wi.us/assessor/property.html
 --The recently re-launched King County, Washington, home page
contains a number of interactive features, including live council and
committee meetings broadcast over the Web, as well as videos on county
programs and projects: www.metrokc.gov
 --Anaheim, California, is hosting one of the country's largest
Internet sites devoted to public works, on which residents can report
potholes, check commuter-service schedules and even find earthquake-
survival tips: www.anaheim.net/depts_servc/pub_works/index.html
 --On the Illinois Secretary of State's site, a joint project of the
state archives and the Illinois State Genealogical Society is building
a marriage-record database covering the years 1763-1900:
www.sos.state.il.us/depts/archives/marriage.html
 --The Texas Workforce Commission provides online job-matching on its
HIRE Texas site: www.twc.state.tx.us/jobs/job.html

SERVICE TO GOVERNMENT
--The Connecticut Department of Administrative Services site provides
several forms of help to other state government agencies and municipal
governments, including paperless government job applications, listings
of state contracts and online trading of surplus property:
www.das.state.ct.us
 --The Utah League of Cities and Towns site provides information
tailored to local governments, including a legislative bill status
report: www.ulct.org

WEB-ENABLED PAYROLL
Officials set lofty goals when West Virginia decided to update its
state-government payroll system. They wanted to create an online
database that would use the same programming code the state already
used. They wanted all state agencies to use the new system, rather
than their legacy payroll systems. And they wanted it done within 18
months. Right now, they feel they're right on target.
 A $1.6 million contract was signed in June 1998 with Systems
Consultants Inc. to provide the Web-based financial software. The
payroll information for all 45,000 state employees is on one online
system, and each agency has appropriate access. The rollout began last
April.
 Instead of sending paper reports back and forth between each agency
and the auditor's office, payroll clerks now simply go online to do
data entry and make corrections. The savings in paper and labor for
the state auditor's office alone come to some $250,000 a year, says
Robin Brumfield, director of information technology in the auditor's
office. In addition, the deadline for submitting biweekly payroll
information was extended six days. "Autonomy is back in the user
agencies," Brumfield says. He predicts more accuracy, with fewer
chances for errors in data entry.
 What the state payroll clerks see online via the Employee Payroll
Information Control System is basically a payroll register with the
traditional information about gross and net pay and deductions. The
payroll information is kept behind the state's network firewall so
that only authorized users can view and access it. Payroll software
doesn't have to be loaded--or updated--on each user's computer.
 Improvements are already in the works. The state plans to give
employees the option of having payroll withholding information sent to
them by e-mail, instead of hard copy. And for those who do want copies
of their pay stubs, eventually they will be printed at each agency
rather than at the auditor's office and sent out.
 State Auditor Glen B. Gainer III also expects that having all the
payroll information together on one database for the first time "will
give the governor and the legislature the power to better manage state
and employee resources." They will have unprecedented access to
historical and trend data, he says, and agencies already are asking
for customized reports.
--Diane Kittower

AN ONLINE ROUTE TO LOW PRICES
When the Orange County Transit Authority in California needs new bus
parts, it no longer types and mails solicitation letters, waiting for
bids to trickle in. Its new online procurement system automatically
develops bid solicitations and e-mails them to vendors who have
registered on CAMM NET, the online system operated by the authority's
Contracts Administration and Materials Management Department, and
found at www.octa.net/cammnet.
 The authority now can post the solicitations online in the morning
and often will get dozens of responses by that afternoon. That is
helping to shorten the procurement cycle. It's a far cry from the days
when the transit authority workers would page through phone books
looking for vendors to solicit, and people in the administrative
offices had the tedious job of manually sending out and receiving
solicitations and bids on paper. Administrative employees are no
longer tied up in that function, so the authority can use them in more
challenging ways.
 At the same time, the number of companies seeking to do business with
the authority has jumped. Previously, for purchases of less than
$25,000, the authority was required to get three bids and would
approach up to six companies inviting them to try for the business.
Now, the automatic system sends e-mails to all the appropriate
vendors, without picking and choosing. Sometimes that amounts to
hundreds at a time.
 The authority is seeing 25 to 30 bids on some of these procurements,
and prices are dropping. "The competition on procurements has
increased quite dramatically," says Neal Johnson, senior procurement
administrator for the authority and project manager for CAMM NET. "You
can just about guarantee the lowest price when you can get that kind
of competition."
 After the authority awards the bid, it posts who won, the unit price
and a description of the item. Because vendors have a lot more
information on winners, they can better tailor their bids the next
time. "Why would they price things at 5 percent above the price when
everyone else is bidding 3 percent?" says Johnson. "They'll never get
it."
 The system has been up for vendors to register since last April, and
it has been available for bidding since November. In the past 12
months, more than 2,650 vendors have registered to do electronic
business with the authority. The system cost $180,000 to develop, but
the authority expects it to pay for itself in cost savings within
about a year. There is another bonus. Many new vendors are approaching
the county with their goods. "We're picking up some new people here,
there and everywhere," Johnson says.
--Ellen Perlman

SCORN POWER
Toledo, Ohio, is combining an old trick with a new technology in an
effort to crack down on owners of blighted properties. With the help
of a Web page, the city is hoping a dose of good, old-fashioned public
scorn will bring Toledo's most notorious slumlords into compliance
with local nuisance and housing codes.
 The web page, known as the "Houses of Shame" and located at
www.ci.toledo.oh.us/neighbor/housesoshame.html, publishes the names
and addresses of slum property owners as part of a larger nuisance
abatement plan known as "The Dirty Dozen."
 Mayor Carleton Finkbeiner "wanted to focus more attention on
landlords who own slum properties and the owners who keep our building
inspectors in court," says Robert Burger, commissioner of the city's
neighborhood revitalization division. "The benefit is that it puts
slum landlords and property owners on notice that the city is aware of
them and that the city will use every available resource to bring them
into compliance with the code."
 So far, the Web page is producing impressive results. Of the first 12
landlords named to the "Houses of Shame," seven brought their
properties into compliance within a month or two of appearing on the
list. Of the remaining five, two are selling their properties, one
died and the remaining two will reappear on a new, updated list.
 "We consider it ten victories out of twelve," says Burger. "They
don't like it and they consider it harassment, but it was meant to
embarrass them."
--Charles Mahtesian

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