SANTA CLARITA CYBER-HALL CITY FACILITY TO OFFER ONLINE BUSINESS SERVICES.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - In a matter of months, residents will get their first taste of doing business with City Hall, cyber-style.

If the pilot program proves effective, numerous online services that would liminate trips to City Hall will follow, including filing building permit applications and registering for city parks and recreation programs, officials say.

The first pilot program, expected to be online by summer, would enable residents to pay parking fines via the Internet, said Paul Zaengle, city information technology manager.

``We hope to eventually let residents access any aspect of government services online,'' Zaengle said. ``But right now, the city is still in the experimental stage.''

E-commerce, generally defined as an exchange of money via the Internet for goods and services, has become less foreign to businesses and consumers in recent years. But accepting parking fine payments over the Internet would mark the first time City Hall would accept money via the Internet, Zaengle said.

The city in recent years has used its Web site - www.santa-clarita.com - to post information such as phone numbers for city departments and contacts, meeting agendas, community events and announcements, as well as providing applications and forms for businesses and residents to download from their computers.

Six months ago, the city took two small steps in making City Hall more ``interactive'' online, by taking weekly opinion polls of timely issues on its Web site and periodically distributing city ``e-newsletters'' on city happenings to more than 1,000 e-mail subscribers.

Two months ago, the city teamed up with businesses, schools and technology experts from the area and launched ``Connecting Communities,'' an ambitious campaign that sets up partnerships among the groups to share resources that would encourage the community, as a whole, to maximize modern technologies and prosper from them.

One partnership, for example, has high school students working with local businesses to create the company's Web pages. Students get practical experience and training in graphic arts and Web design, while the business gets a free Web site and improves its marketability.

The city benefits because the businesses are more likely to continue fueling the local economy by staying competitive as e-commerce becomes more popular.

But the ``Connecting Communities'' initiative also lays out ambitious city goals to implement more interactive government services, so the city, residents and businesses may reap mutual benefits of added convenience.

Residents and businesses would save valuable time by avoiding trips to City Hall and other city facilities to conduct routine transactions, such as filing for building permits or registering for city recreation programs, city officials said.

``It's as easy as turning on your computer, like turning on your TV, for people to reach us. People will find it easier to communicate and conduct business with City Hall,'' said Steve Stark, city director of administrative services.

Stark also envisions cost-savings and increased efficiency of city services, as a result of the reduced strain on personnel and increased use of the Internet. Mass e-mails to more than 1,000 voluntary subscribers in recent months meant less money was spent on postage, he noted.

He also imagines a Building and Permitting Department program that would enable applicants to check the status of their requests online and review staff's notes and comments.

The pilot program for online parking fine payments eventually will expand to offer other financial transactions online, perhaps in as early as a year, Stark said.

Parking fees have simple, set structures and generate very little money for the city, he explained, and will pose little risk to the city as staff ``identifies any bugs in the system.''

But city officials agree that a major obstacle still stands in the way of progress.

``There's the digital divide,'' said Zaengle, referring to the unequal opportunities that exist between people who own computers and those who cannot afford them.

The city of Santa Clarita is trying to bridge the ``digital divide,'' he said, by finding other ways to provide online government services to residents who don't own computers.

The city continues to increase the number of computers available for residents free usage at several public facilities, including the city Community Center in Newhall and local Los Angeles County-run libraries, Zaengle said.

``Once you give people the tool, they have the same opportunities you or I have,'' Zaengle said. ``They can just go to their local library to do it.''