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Vice Mayor Greg Stanton's
North Central News Column
October 2003
Keeping ahead of our competition requires Phoenix to be at the cutting edge of economic development, technology, and ultimately, all services we provide to our communities. We have made great strides in recruiting new economy enterprises and have made user-friendly technology a priority.
E-government is transforming the way the city of Phoenix interacts with residents, businesses, and other entities. This innovative technology that provides electronic interaction and instant access to the city allows us to take advantage of trends that will improve customer service.
The bottom line is that technology can help serve our residents most effectively and we are taking every step we can in that direction.
Our City Council approved the e-commerce strategy that now allows Phoenix residents to access a multitude of things online. For instance, water bill payment, parking ticket payment; applications for city jobs, boards and commissions; grants and programs; Phoenix Sky Harbor airport flight information; city charter and codes; crime statistics; trash collection; news, and more. The city's Web team is working with Police, Finance, Engineering, Architectural Services and Development Services to expand e-commerce-based services.
The people of Phoenix showed their support for online services through their overwhelming approval of the 2001 Bond Program funding e-government services. More than 83 percent of voters approved Proposition 2, which provided new technology, including increased Web development.
The scope of this advanced and growing online technology is vast. Special workstations have been set up throughout the city in public places for people with physical disabilities. There are 380 workstations throughout the city, giving the public complete access to available Internet services. Workstations also are available in community and senior centers, as well as libraries.
The city also provides special outreach and training programs for elderly, disabled and economically disadvantaged residents. In its main library branch, the city has created a special work area for the disabled, called the Special Needs Center, where computer workstations have Braille keyboards, audio devices to read text aloud and special screens to make text more readable.
Giving the public a "voice" online is one of the top priorities of the city of Phoenix Web program. Using the Internet, Intranet and Extranet, residents, employees, businesses, special interest groups and many others can communicate electronically with elected officials and city staff. They can sign up for 31 different e-mail lists supporting more than 45,000 subscribers. And 200 specialized forms are online, including e-mail forms that give citizens a way to send comments directly to their City Council representatives.
The results are tremendous and I'm proud that, for the fourth consecutive year, the city of Phoenix received the CIO-100 award, which recognizes businesses and organizations around the world that excel in providing goods and services through the use of technology. The city of Phoenix is one of only 100 organizations worldwide to receive the award.
Each year the award focuses on a new area. This year the city demonstrated excellence in the resourceful use of IT systems, staff and budgets in a tough economic climate. We can improve interactions with business and industry, provide better delivery of government services to our customers, empower people with access to information -- with greater convenience -- and provide more efficient government management. Keep an eye on phoenix.gov to see what's new.
As always, if you have comments or questions about this program or any other issue, please feel free to call my office anytime at 602-262-7491 or send e-mail to greg.stanton@phoenix.gov.
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