City Hall aims to continue improvements on website

By Kara Chalmers

Saratoga may never have a "virtual City Hall," an online community in which face-to-face interaction between residents and city officials is unnecessary, but the city is constantly improving its website and looking at ways to provide more services to residents electronically.

"We plan on expanding the web page with relevant information," City Manager Larry Perlin said.

The city's website, www.saratoga.ca.us, is a user-friendly site, with seven different sections clearly marked and organized. The first section, About Saratoga, is one that Perlin said he wants to expand. It contains the city's vision statement and the city's history.

"We want to create a web-friendly budget summary and city statistics, and work on the map," Perlin said of the three subsections of About Saratoga that are not yet online or are not yet fully developed.

Perlin said he thinks the City Council and City Commissions sections of the site are relatively complete. These sections contain photographs of the council members, current agendas, meeting schedules and minutes for the council and all commissions.

In the City Departments section, visitors can learn each department's responsibilities and find out which one to call with specific questions about issues like election information and traffic complaints.

The Applications and Permits section needs some work, according to Perlin, who added that he hopes to get the city code online soon. But in this section, people living or hoping to live in Saratoga can find valuable information on design review, the fencing ordinance, tree removal and use permits.

The city may add links to soccer and Little League teams to the Resources and Links section, Perlin said. On the site now are such links as U.S. senators, the Sheriff's Department and school districts.

Finally, everyone having anything to do with the city is listed in the Contact Us section, along with their phone numbers and email addresses.

The website contains no flashy graphics, only simple pictures of sights in Saratoga like Memorial Arch and the Mountain Winery, and the colors used throughout the site are mostly soft pastels.

"We want to keep the website as simple as possible to use, without too many graphics," Perlin said. The one exception may be the recreation department's pages, he said, which now have more photos and graphic elements relative to the rest of the site.

"We've gotten a lot of compliments on the overall look of the site; some say it's elegant and in keeping with the city," Perlin said.

The city has a technology master plan, which city officials will update in the next six months, according to Perlin. He said there are limits regarding what should be done online and that Saratogans will always need to interact one-on-one with city officials.

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