Carson City finds new ways to distribute information

Carson City is taking something of a mom-and-pop approach to the Information Age.

A look at City Hall's Web site - www.carson-city.nv.us - will confirm that.

The city makes no bones about the blue-collar sophistication of its presence on the Internet.

"Our site is a cooperative effort of the employees of Carson City," reads the introduction to the site. "We are still under construction, and we will soon be adding more information (and) links to city departments."

Each city department is responsible for creating and maintaining its own Web page. The city launched its Web site in April 1997 but the contents and visitation remains thin.

"Right now it's fairly static," said Bill Naylor, the city's information services director. "What we see is it becoming more dynamic. The city manager has a team looking at posting Board of Supervisors agendas and meeting minutes."

So far, the only city offices with Web pages are the Recreation Division, the Fire Department, the District Attorney's Office, Cooperative Extension and Utilities. The Building Department should have a page posted in the next few weeks and the Parks Division is working on a Web page.

Laura Lau, who assembled the Building Department's Web site, is the typical example of a department Web master.

"It's not our job description," said Lau, a building technician. "I tried to work on the Web page on my down time. This is stuff I learned all on my own. I found it difficult to learn, but it was pretty exciting because I've done a search on the Internet to find building stuff in New Zealand."

Lau compiled suggestions from all building department employees and built a 12-page Web page. Much of the page answers the most commonly asked questions at the front counter or in phone calls.

"We know one of the issues we have in Carson City is that 40 percent of the people have access to the Internet, but that means 60 percent don't," Naylor said. "We're still trying to give people who don't have access to the Internet access to our services. The Internet is not a panacea, not the only way to get information. We're going on a two-prong approach."

Along with the Internet, the city in October launched the Carson City Connection. A call to 887-2138 taps into a citizen information system with more than 200 recorded messages answering questions frequently asked in 28 categories.

The guide with the three-digit codes for each subject are available at City Hall, the Carson City Library, the Carson City Senior Center and Carson City Convention and Visitors' Bureau. Naylor said Carson City Connection messages will also be available on the city Web site by the end of July.

Carson City Justice Court had eyes on a similar phone information concept before Naylor started work on Carson City Connection.

"We had already contacted Bill Naylor about setting up an information library," said court administrator Bill Milligan. "We provided 10 categories. We had polled the clerks. It was very easy to ask what the most common questions were. Probably the location of justice court would be No. 1."

In about a year, contractors will be able to apply for building permits by calling a voice response system. Without talking to a person, a builder will be able to find out the results of an inspection or why a permit has not yet been issued.

Building Official Phil Herrington predicts calls to the Building Department will drop by one-third once the interactive system is in place. The department gets some 64,000 calls a year, he said.

"I know it would reduce the number of phone calls by the number of inspections we do," Herrington said. "We do 20,000 inspections a year."

As much as Naylor is adding the impersonal techno-modern touches, he said residents may still talk to a real person on the phone or visit a city office to get an answer.

In the future, Naylor expects the Web site to have transactional abilities. First, to be able to look at assessors records, for example, and later possibly to pay utility bills or parking tickets.

"The city has to make decisions," Naylor said. "Do we let people pay with credit cards?"

How to get information about City Hall

- Call and talk to a real person

- Visit a city office

- Call the Carson City Connection at 887-2138

- Log on at www.carson-city.nv.us

- Pick up a copy of Capital City Focus