Last year, Roseville parents who wanted to sign their kids up for summer swimming classes had to rise at dawn and stand in line for hours.
Now, it's just a matter of a few clicks of the mouse. In Davis, parks and recreation personnel used to watch mail-in registration cards pile up for weeks before tossing them into big tubs and randomly drawing the winners.
But after launching a new, online registration program last week, their recreation lottery is done by computers -- and takes just seconds.
Cities throughout the Sacramento region are offering a growing number of online services, from booking tee times at golf courses to paying traffic tickets and utility bills and applying for simple building permits.
Residents and city officials are basking in the joys of e-government because, in addition to the convenience of taking care of business from home, the services bring thousands of dollars to city coffers with a minimal amount of staff effort.
"Everybody is going that way," said Tony Stanco, an expert on e-government at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Roseville's Parks and Recreation Department implemented online registration for a handful of classes about a year ago, according to director Mike Shellito. In February, the city added youth camps and the popular summer swimming lessons that served 5,400 kids last year.
The first day of registration, 600 of the 700 sign-ups were done over the Internet, Shellito said. "In one day, $60,000 in revenue came into the city without anyone in our office ever having to handle it, because the money was immediately deposited," he said.
"We knew it would be successful, but the volume and overnight success was surprising. We thought people would ease into it, but really what people did was jump on it."
During the first month, out of 3,056 class registrations, 2,398 were completed online and brought in $309,000. And now, roughly 80 percent of class registrations are done over the Internet, Shellito said.
Parents used to line up beginning at 5 a.m. to get the swimming class times they wanted, while 30 staff members worked for hours taking registrations.
"It was very expensive for our staff, very inconvenient and not very customer-friendly for our citizens," Shellito said. "So, to think about 2,400 registrations happening without anyone coming into the office in person, and still taking in that amount of money -- it's a huge convenience for our residents and an enormous cost savings to our city."
For the city of Davis, online registration for recreation classes was the city's first foray into e-government, said Diane Medlock, an administrative analyst with the city's Parks and Community Services Department.
"It's something that's been driven by our public demand, especially in this day of working parents," Medlock said.
"Our first three days, we had 81 percent of registrations online. And during the first 24 hours that we had the recreation schedule posted on the Web, it was downloaded 2,449 times. So it's going great."
The success local governments are having on the Web isn't surprising given the Sacramento region has the third-highest number of online shoppers in the nation -- behind San Francisco and New York -- according to a recent survey conducted for America Online.
With 65 percent of the homes in El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties connected to the Internet, the region also is one of the most plugged-in areas in California, according to a study by AeA, a high-tech trade association.
"That's second only to the Silicon Valley," said AeA spokesperson Taryn Lynds. "California overall is 55.4 percent."
Many city officials say signing up for yoga online is just the beginning.
Already, job seekers can apply for positions with the city of Roseville and submit résumés over the Internet. Residents can put books on hold at the library, schedule building inspections and sign up for conferences sponsored by the city.
Roseville's Computer Operations Manager Joe Accurso said that by next year, the city will have online utility payments and golf reservations and that residents will even be able to download aerial photographs of their homes.
"It's the way life has gone," Accurso said. "Roseville is a very connected city. People want online services, and success breeds success. The more they get, the more they want."
Just ask Shannon Vitro, a 34-year-old Roseville mother of two, who said she was thrilled when she received the latest parks and recreation catalog and read about online registration.
"It's a great idea," Vitro said. "I haven't used it yet, but I'm going to register for the swimming classes online. I try to do as much as possible over the Internet, so I always am looking for Web sites first."
While many residents and officials are enjoying the venture into online libraries and services, some cities have been relatively slow to catch on to e-government.
In Sacramento, for example, residents still have to download, print and fax class application forms. Bernadette Cheek, a program supervisor for the city, said she hopes to have online registration up and running in the next six to 12 months.
"We haven't selected the software yet, and we're still in the very early stages of it," Cheek said. "It's something we want, but it's a budgetary issue."
Roseville spent $75,000 about 18 months ago for a class registration computer software package that included online capabilities.
The city of Davis spent $12,000 for its program.
Rick Guidara, information systems manager for the city of Davis, said that while his staff is excited about being able to process traffic tickets, utility bills and some building permits online, they're moving slowly because they want to make sure the system will work the way it's supposed to.
"When somebody pays a bill, we need to know that it will go into the proper billing system without us having to intervene," Guidara said.
Despite the growth in e-government, many cities say their front counters will continue to be staffed with human beings for many years to come.
"We still want to be both high-touch and high-tech," Roseville's Shellito said. "At the end of the day, we're still in the people business. We want to be customer-friendly, and we want government to be convenient, but still personal."
Quelle: Sacramento Bee
