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Weekly UpdatesVirginia Beach is located in the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The city was established in 1963 through a merger of the resort town of Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County. It is the most populous city in Virginia, with an estimated 2005 population of 437,206.
In the last decade, the City of Virginia Beach recognized the potential of utilizing the Internet to enhance the delivery of services to its citizens. In 1990, the city launched an electronic bulletin board service known as the Services and Information Directory (SID). SID contained content from city departments and documents highlighting city services and information. In 1996, SID became the content basis for the city's first Web site, www.virginia-beach.va.us. At that time, a local government Web site was a rare entity. The site continued to grow and evolve throughout the late 1990s as its traffic and popularity increased. On March 17, 2000, Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf established the Mayor's Special Advisory Commission on e-Government to "advise the mayor, city council and various city government departments as to how numerous techniques, technologies, functions and services of e-government might best be considered, adopted, and integrated into the operating structure of Virginia Beach." Out of this commission was born www.VBgov.com, the city's Web portal. VBgov.com was designed to provide online services and interactivity structured around the needs of the citizens and businesses of the city. The site was designed to break down the departmental and bureaucratic barriers to effective communication and interaction with the city's constituents across the Web. Today, the City of Virginia Beach's Web presence is a multi-award winning site recognized as one of the leaders in the application of e-government at the local level.
VBGOV.COM: INCREASING GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
VBgov.com is structured to provide access to all areas of city government operations as well as other useful information for citizens, the business community and visitors to the city. Access is provided to all city departments, departmental services, and historical information and related links are provided to other sources of information.
A good relationship between local government and its citizens is a long-sought-after goal. By adhering to the principles of transparency and accountability local government can enhance its relationship with its citizen base. According to Wikipedia, "Accountability is an important factor in securing good governance and, thus, the legitimacy of public power. Accountability differs from transparency in that it only enables negative feedback after a decision or action, while transparency also enables negative feedback before or during a decision or action. Accountability constrains the extent to which elected representatives and other office holders can willfully deviate from their theoretical responsibilities, thus reducing corruption."
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Accountability is the obligation to answer for the execution of assigned responsibilities. Government must be held to the highest accounting for how it collects, allocates, spends, and treats its financial assets. The City of Virginia Beach is dedicated to the principal of good stewardship and therefore strives to demonstrate its accountability to all of its citizens routinely.
In 2003, GFOA recommended "every government publish its budget documents and its CAFR on the government's Web site" (See the entire GFOA Recommended Practice at www.gfoa.org/services/rp/caafr/caafr-budgets-to-websites.pdf.) When posting these documents, GFOA recommended complying with the following guidelines:
* The electronic budget document and the electronic CAFR should be identical to the printed versions of these documents.
* The Web site should prominently notify users that the information in the CAFR has not been updated for developments subsequent to the date of the independent auditor's report.
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* The Web site should inform users prominently whether the budget document presented represents the preliminary budget or the approved budget.
* If a government elects to present the budget documents and CAFR of prior years, the Web site should clearly identify these documents as "dated information for historical reference only" and clearly segregate them from current information. A "library" or "archive" section of the Web site is advisable for this purpose.
* The security of the Web site should be evaluated to protect it from manipulation by external or unauthorized persons.
PROVIDING CRITICAL CITY FINANCIAL INFORMATION
To underscore its commitment and be in accordance with the GFOA recommendation, the city makes financial information readily available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the city's Web site. The city believes that by providing this information in a more accessible manner, it will encourage stakeholder participation, increase awareness, and demonstrate financial accountability. This information includes, among other things:
* Operating Budgets--Available on the Web site are operating budgets for the current biennium as well as the adopted operating budgets for the prior three biennium budgets.
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* Capital Improvement Program Information--Provides current information and detailed status reports of all active, individual CIP projects.
* Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR)--The most current CAFR as well as each CAFR since 2002 are available.
* Interim Financial Statements--The most current interim financial statement is available.
* Bond Preliminary Official Statements--Provides the banking community and potential investor information on the city to assist them in bidding on the bonds. Rating agencies have viewed the POS, as well as underwriters preparing bids who refer to the Official Notice of Sale in the POS for information on bidding.
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* Procurement--When announcing bids and issuing Requests for Proposals (RFPs), the city strives to attract a competitive pool of prospective vendors. By encouraging competition among vendors, the city can compare prices and qualifications, leading to the best buy for goods or services. Onvia DemandStar provides the purchasing department with a comprehensive, electronic, and transparent procurement tool that efficiently connects with vendors online.
PROVIDING INFORMATION FOR ALL CONSTITUENTS
The challenge for any government entity is to provide information that meets the needs of a diverse constituent population. Each set of constituents will focus in on a different level and type of information; each operates under different time constraints and patterns of access. VB.com has proven to be a useful tool to expand the scope and breadth of information available to the general public and key constituents.
I. General Business Community
Businesses can use the Web site to access services and information related to businesses, including construction, doing business with the city, local business information, starting a new business, and tax and real estate information. Also available is a business directory, as well as the economic development strategy for the city.
2. Real Estate Interests
Real estate assessment information provides transparency and helps reduce the number of persons who drive to city hall to research assessment information. There is information on the assessment process, how to contact the Real Estate Assessor, and a schedule of when taxes are due. Property records can be accessed by address or by GPIN (property identifier number).
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3. Miscellaneous City Financial Transactions
VBgov.com provides access to a number of online transactions, including paying taxes, parking tickets, water bills, personal proper real estate, police citations, and payment for parks and recreation classes.
4. Pressing Community Issues
Another section of VBgov.com is devoted to "Hot Topics" These are generally issues that are important to the community, such as BRAC, and various other projects. For example, Town Center is a public-private partnership that involved considerable debate. Every briefing, council action, and related contract were posted to this Web page.
An "In Touch with Government" section provides access to police crime and traffic accident reports, a public documents archive, and city code information.
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The City of Virginia Beach feels that it has a moral responsibility to enhance the relations between the government and those being governed. This can only be accomplished by opening up avenues for citizens to play much more active roles in policy making. The inactivity of people as citizens allows narrow groups to use public power and public resources to their own advantage. Transparency demands that citizens have the ability to provide "negative feedback" and influence policy before it is enacted.
5. Access to City Council Members
To encourage citizen input, VBgov.com contains a section listing all members of the city council and providing contact information, including e-mail access, to all members.
In addition, current council meeting agendas and the ability to view live council meetings as well as archived agendas and council sessions, including all meetings for the current and previous month are available through e-streaming. This ensures openness and accountability of all council sessions, thereby providing citizens the ability to become involved in policy making during the process.
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To enhance citizen relationships, the City of Virginia Beach continues to refine its Web site and to redesign with citizens in mind, featuring real-time local information, improved search functionality, and expended self-service capabilities for many city services. The commitment is to continue to provide an ever more valuable resource to all of the citizens of the city.
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