More E-Government & E-Commerce Plays

Policymakers from small cities, counties, and towns would like to take advantage of the opportunity to save money and improve constituent services that larger localities can more easily afford by offering government services online. But, while the cost of buying technology and hiring people with the technical expertise to run websites is feasible for governments with larger tax bases, until recently localities with small populations and small budgets could not afford to establish and maintain their own government website.

Thanks to the creativity of leaders working through the League of Minnesota Cites (LMC), policymakers from small localities across the country now have a model for partnering with private companies to create affordable websites that meet their particular needs. Minnesota's model partnership first began when LMC policymakers decided to solicit a "Request for Proposal" to see if a private company could devise a mutually beneficial way to develop websites for the League's member cities. A company called Avenet responded by creating GovOffice.com, a Content Management System with interactive features designed to meet the needs of local government. GovOffice^TM is now offered to government officials nationwide thanks to sponsorship by 17 state municipal leagues and the International County/City Management Association (ICMA). To date, GovOffice^TM has been employed in more than 1,000 local governments in 43 states and Canada, serving populations ranging from less than 100 to over 300,000.

"The public sector has yet to take full advantage of e-government for making public services that are more effective, efficient, and responsive. The opportunities are great and emerging tools offer great promise of success." -- Lyle Wray, Executive Director, Capitol Region Council to Governments

Officials can buy into this model or develop a partnership with other Web companies, building on what works. For Minnesota city officials who developed this model, "what works" included the options to offer services ranging from accepting utility or tax payments to issuing business permits and automatically sending notices about civic meetings to constituents who have requested such updates.

This model has also proved successful, since extending government services through these public-private partnerships is relatively inexpensive. Governments do not have to purchase or install software or expensive hardware. All they need is a computer, an Internet connection, and a Web browser. In the GovOffice^TM model, costs are based upon population to ensure that even the smallest communities can have a state-of-the-art Web presence. The cost of a webpage can be as low as a $200 initial fee and a monthly hosting fee of $20.

Teaming up with the private sector to offer more efficient, user-friendly, 24-hour service to constituents is a cost-effective way to leverage government services, extending their reach and personalizing them to meet individual needs.

Resources for Action

GovOffice^TM
http://govoffice.com/index.asp

Additional Reading

Ellen Perlman, "E-gov on the Cheap," Governing Magazine, September 2001
www.governing.com/archive/2001/sep/techtalk.txt

Andrew Leigh and Rob Atkinson, "Breaking Down Bureaucratic Barriers: The Next Phase of Digital Government," Progressive Policy Institute, November 2001
www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?
contentid=3966&knlgAreaID=140&subsecid=290

National League of Cities
www.nlc.org

Contacts

Marc Shapiro
The National League of Cities
1301 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Suite 550
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 626-3019
Shapiro@nlc.org

Lyle Wray
Executive Director
Capitol Region Council for Governments
241 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 522-2217, ext 32
lwray@crcog.org