Oceanside Web site increases access to information

By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer | Saturday, October 1, 2005 11:02 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- The city of Oceanside has a new Internet home with digital doors flung wide open for residents to come in and gather information.

The city's new Web site, its third iteration since going online nearly 10 years ago, was launched this weekend. Among the virtual amenities boasted by the new site are live video broadcasts of City Council meetings, a one-stop shop for finding and applying for city jobs, and a wide variety of downloadable city documents.

With a sharp and streamlined layout, the new site also makes finding information easier, with an ever-present menu bar that never leaves the left-hand side of the screen, and a prominent search tool.

The city's old site, which had been online since 2000 and gotten more than 4,000 hits a month, had no such search tool or menu bar.

The new site is "more polished, more professional, and easier to use," said Gina Walsh, a developer with the city's information technologies division.

The Web site, which is run off two servers that are each about the size and shape of a pizza box, cost Oceanside no more than $30,000 to build, said Michael Sherwood, Oceanside's chief information officer.

A beaming Sherwood sounded like a proud parent last week as he showed journalists the new Web site. The city's tech wizard couldn't refrain from taking a playful dig at Carlsbad, Oceanside's neighbor to the south that many in this city of 175,000 envy with a hint of bitterness.

When asked how the Web sites of other North County cities stack up to Oceanside's, Sherwood quickly quipped that Carlsbad's is good, though it's "second best to us."

Digital documents

One feature of Oceanside's new site ---- the availability of digital documents ---- is something Carlsbad has offered for nearly four years, said Carlsbad spokesperson Denise Vedder.

While skeletal agendas were already posted on Oceanside's old Web site, residents who wanted to get their hands on staff reports and backup material, which supplement bare-bones agendas with pages upon pages of details, had to go to City Hall and request copies, for which they were charged 10 cents a page.

"That's ludicrous," said attorney Nadine Scott, a City Hall watchdog who often attends several Oceanside meetings a week.

Sherwood said that within 60 to 90 days of this weekend's launch, Oceanside's new site would feature archives of those documents for meetings of the City Council and every city panel.

Because the council just voted last month to approve posting those documents online, Oceanside's technology specialists are still coordinating with city departments to train employees to upload such documents themselves, Sherwood said.

As soon as they're posted online, links to those documents will be automatically delivered to the personal e-mail accounts of interested residents. All residents have to do is create an account on the city Web site and choose from a long list of different types of documents, from Arts Commission agendas to Youth Commission staff reports.

Whenever those documents are posted online, Web links will be automatically e-mailed to residents.

Digital worldThe subscription service will also be used to send interested residents news releases and information on special events, something Scott said would probably boost attendance at community happenings by giving people more time to plan.

"A lot of times, you only read about it in the paper the morning of the event," she said.

Residents can also request to receive information about job opportunities with the city. Anytime a new position is posted, residents who signed up for a subscription would receive an e-mail.

Oceanside's Web site is one of the first in San Diego County on which residents can apply completely online for city jobs, Sherwood said.

Brian Kammerer, the city's personnel director, said the online applications will speed up the hiring process by as many as 10 days. That's because instead of having to come to City Hall to pick up an application, take it home, fill it out, and mail it in, applicants can now knock out all those steps from the comfort of their own homes.

"This is going to be fantastic," Kammerer said. "This is really outstanding."

Looking to the future

Sherwood was already talking last week about how he'd like to enhance the new Web site in coming months and years.

"It's a work in progress," he said of the site.

Within six months, Sherwood said he's hopeful that the site will boast extensive weather forecasts that allow residents to view a map showing temperatures and conditions in various parts of this 42.2-square-mile city. The weather forecast would also feature surf reports and water temperatures.

Also in the works is a series of Web cameras that would be installed at various locations throughout the city, such as the beach and the harbor, Sherwood said. Residents would be able to monitor those locales at all times via live video feeds broadcast on the city's Web site.

In the next few years, Sherwood said he's like to set up a system in which residents can get questions answered without coming to City Hall, by engaging in live online chats with city staff members.

The city is also working on bringing City Council chambers into the information age, officials said. Later this month, a mechanical vote board will be replaced with a plasma screen that will not only display votes, but also describe the agenda item being discussed, Sherwood said.

At the dais, the city clerk and mayor will each have their television screens supplemented by touch screen panels, Sherwood said. The city clerk will be able to use hers to tabulate votes, while the mayor's will keep a running record of the order in which other council members have requested to speak, Sherwood said.

The city's Web address is www.ci.oceanside.ca.us.

Contact staff writer Ben Frumin at (760) 901-4067 or bfrumin@nctimes.com.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.