New Berlin connects online with residents

New Berlin - For being brave enough to stick its chin out farther than ever to get the public involved in government business, New Berlin has won a national award for its new-age approach.

The Center for Digital Government has declared New Berlin, population 39,894, as one of the 10 most advanced digital cities in America among communities of populations from 30,000 to 74,999. The honor is a nod to the city's latest efforts in using computer technology to connect with its residents.

In March, the city started making agendas, including background information, available online for all municipal meetings. Videos of meetings of major bodies also are available.

Three months later, the city came out with the full package that includes an option for residents to be notified via email or text messages of announcements, press releases, meetings, emergencies, new postings, activity cancelations, and crime.

A face on Facebook

The effort includes five Facebook pages where residents can learn about programs and, more importantly to city officials, give feedback about almost anything.

Officials want the Facebook pages to look out with a friendly face, but people can either smile back or give a poke in the eye. Either way, officials want to know if they got something right or missed it, said Nick Roethel, director of information technology, and architect of the award-winning system.

Already people are making use of the Facebook pages to give praise or reproof, Roethel said.

Plenty of viewers

Mayor Jack Chiovatero said the new system makes City Hall far more open to participation by citizens.

"New Berlin once again is on the cutting edge of open government," he said in a news release on the award.

As the city opens the door, its residents are walking in - virtually, that is.

About 24,000 people watched meeting videos or viewed meeting agendas in the six months from May to November, Roethel said. That averages 130 views per day. The number of people actually viewing meetings is significantly up, he said.

Information gathering

New Berlin has tried to make it easier for residents to get involved.

For example, if people hear that the Plan Commission might talk about something that affects them, they can go to the city's website and call up the commission's agenda to see if the item is on it.

If it is on the agenda, they can go further and call up the same information the commissioners will use to make their decision. If it isn't, residents can click the "notify me" feature on the webpage.

And if they think the Plan Commission already talked about the item, they can check previous agendas. If they find it, they can actually watch the meeting on their computers.

The city's website that strives to be more open than ever before tries to offer what people have said they wanted, Roethel said. So, along with meeting information, residents can even be notified of softball cancelations because of weather.

In addition, the Police Department is hoping to deploy a set of web-based services allowing some non-emergency issues to be reported online. Some police reports will be offered through the website, as well.

A friendly process

All the handy things that were added to the website would be negligible for a significant portion of the citizenry if the city had stayed with its old website, which was just to hard to navigate, Chiovatero said. The new website is clean and easy to get around on.

In fact, the award the city just received praises New Berlin's website for being user-friendly.

Chiovatero praised the city's IT department for using the input people gave him about what they wanted and molding it with what the department was hearing on its own to come up with an exceptional system.

"They took the ball and ran with it," he said.

It took a lot of effort by all the city departments to make the technology work to offer efficiencies and save labor, he said, but the staff proved its resourcefulness and resilience.

A model for others

Leaders in other cities are noticing.

At least 15 communities, from all over the U.S., have inquired about the system and how to set it up.

And they seem interested not only in getting agendas online, but the whole package, Roethel said.

"They like the concentrated effort to better engage citizens," he said.

AT A GLANCE

The Top 10 Digital Cities (population 30,000‐74,999) Ranking:

1st - Eden Prairie, Minn.

· 2nd - Carson City Consolidated Municipality, Nev.

· 3rd - North Port, Fla.

· 4th - Danville, Va.

· 5th - Jupiter, Fla.

· 6th - Schaumburg, Ill.

· 7th - Fayetteville, Ark.

· 8th - Town of Manchester, Conn.

· 9th - New Berlin

· 10th - Town of Flower Mound, Texas