2006 UBCM Community Excellence Awards Best Practices – Website

www.kamloops.ca

City of Kamloops - Tournament Capital of Canada

Award Submission _________________________________________________________________________________________________

2006 UBCM Community Excellence Awards Best Practices – Website Project Summary: City of Kamloops Website Redesign In the public eye, City Hall is often perceived as a bureaucratic merry-go-round. For this submission, the challenge lay in defining areas of excellence. Guidelines observed for this project are based on a dedicated team effort and consultative process to improve the user experience. We want to promote our city and the services available on our website. We also needed to update and prepare our site for a Content Management System. The website was officially launched at a public Council meeting on June 6, 2006. To evaluate our website visit: www.kamloops.ca.

Delivering More Value Using In-house Resources The benefits of rich and current information on the City’s website can only be maintained with input from staff that regularly interact with the public and have a good understanding of the public’s demand for information. The Business and Client Services Division sought a proposal from a local communications company to compare costs and benefits for redesigning the City’s website. The City realized that full redesign services – from developing the concept, to technical interface, to content contribution – would be more comprehensive and less time-consuming from an administrative perspective if performed through direct consultation with staff (the primary content contributors) and other stakeholders, rather than through a third party. With a talented webmaster on staff and using his creative abilities, the redesign of the website – a fairly arduous process – proved more cost-effective than outsourcing. A project schedule and timeline helped keep the project on track. An initial site blueprint using MS Excel was created to provide a general overview of the proposed redesign. This proved to be an invaluable tool to assist departments to detail their revisions to meet our criteria. Content was re-organized to be user friendly by applying simple logic. Staff members volunteered (or were appointed) to gather and update content for the website. Periodic meetings with stakeholders helped to keep everyone informed and problems were identified earlier rather than later. Design Elements Our design process remained focused on visitors to our website. Content providers were encouraged to break down complex organizational structures in favour of providing a simpler, intuitive selection of choices for our visitors. The result is a top-of-page navigation menu targeting the various profiles so popular with municipal websites today; Online Services, City Hall, Business, Residents and Visitors groups. This provides 5 main gateways to browse our website and to tailor our content to the various profile of the user group. Our previous site was designed using HTML frames and this structure was discarded in favour of a single document presentation. This yielded an immediate improvement for onsite search engine query results and more illuminating traffic reports. HTML tables were virtually eliminated in favour of using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Using CSS we are able to lock down formatting for text, fonts, headings, layout, backgrounds and even our images. Tables were only used when representing tabular data such as spreadsheets or charts. The result is faster loading web pages which afforded us to offer a richer look on the site using images and background colours. Visitors to the site were served pages quickly and are rewarded with visually appealing pages. A separate style sheet was created to control the print output of web pages in order to improve formatting and eliminate non-relevant information from the page. Using style sheets assists in reducing maintenance as changes to the master documents results in instant changes across the entire site.

Server Side Includes (SSI) is also implemented in the redesign. This simple solution offered us the capability to create a single text file and share it across multiple web pages. We use SSI for our menu structure, our masthead and other recurring elements. Some design features can be attributed more to social engineering than to technology. When undertaking a project of this size, our focus tends to be on what content, or services can we offer? Through feedback from various users and discussions with internal staff, we perceived a shift in our strategy to what we could offer and evolved into improving how we could offer these services. When developing our web pages for various departments we saw another avenue to make improvements. These pages often consisted of “Mission Statements” or a listing of official duties. There was no doubt that this material made for arduous reading so we decided to soften up these pages. Our profession is to serve the public and most of our staff consists of dedicated individuals with a sincere desire to resolve our citizen’s concerns, complaints and questions. We needed to communicate this to the public.

We wanted to alter the public’s perception to show visitors that City Hall was about people and that we are responsive to their concerns. Our design strategy was to create a “people friendly” website and now casual photos of staff are featured prominently in sections featuring our organization. Virtually all of our web pages have relevant contact information, including email contacts, directed to the appropriate staff responsible for that web page.

A unique feature of our newly designed site incorporates actual photos of staff at work and this has been warmly received by both the public and staff. Kamloops wishes to be known as the Tournament Capital of Canada and to support this claim Adam Chadwick, our GIS Manager has worked closely with our Parks, Recreation and Culture Department to create interactive maps identifying all of the available fields, facilities, community rooms, sports arenas, pools and similar venues. Visitors to Kamloops can use this service to find a facilty, cross reference it with nearby hotels, restaurants, shopping and parks. They can enter in a number of locations and have a map dynamically drawn and zoomed into those coordinates within the City. Marketing Public Sector Services When reviewing our feedback from over the years and surveying our staff we identified a common problem, which could be attributed to a lack of awareness. In many cases our

citizens simply did not know about many of the services that were available to them. To address this we created an awareness strategy. Using SSI we created a “Library of Notices” with images that could be served as static inserts or randomly served using a simple Javascript. We typically offer information in more than one place on our website and SSI when used in tandem with CSS is an effective method to achieve consistent messaging without sacrificing visual integrity. We use these notices to keep visitors informed of Open Houses, Surveys, Events Around Town, and other current activities. You could think of it as an “Infomercial”, and we view it as an opportunity for marketing our municipal services. During inactive periods we offer random notices designed to expose visitors to services and information that they may not have been aware of. Notices are featured on the section homepages for Business, Residents, Visitors and Online Services. We have over 50 notices in our library with many more notices considered for development. This year, once again, we mailed out notices announcing our Electronic Home Owner Grant (eHOG) service with our Property Tax invoices. The eHOG link on our website is a permanent listing under Online Services. In preparation for this summer’s tax season we also added 2 more eHOG links under the Residents and City Hall menus to offer homeowners at least 3 links site-wide, to provide easy access within a single mouse click. An eHOG notice, part of our SSI library, was also placed in the Residents > News and Notices page. Here’s the online notice we continue to run on our site.

The results speak for themselves. Completed on-line applications for this year’s provincial homeowner grants increased by 28% over last year, a total of 7,549 on-line applications out of a total 21,310. Physical visits to City Hall continue to drop, a further 16% over last year alone. Compared to other cities in the province that offer the eHOG application service, Kamloops leads the way. Our city website processes the highest percentage of eHOG applications filed online per capita. Initial figures for this tax season look promising and we expect to maintain this lead for a 4th consecutive year. Additional links, an online notice, and piggyback advertising using traditional mail increased our exposure and encouraged residents to file their eHOG application online. This inexpensive, effective strategy produced excellent results – which can be easily adopted by any municipality. Kamloops continues to raise the bar. Not only do we strive to improve our services internally, we also actively reach out to work with other organizations and levels of government to create new services and to bridge gaps in existing services. Working With Partners, Working as a Team This year our Online Services include Maps, Property Information, Home Owner Grants and Recreational Program Registration to name but a few. These services have been available for years and usually implemented with the assistance of consultants and 3rd party software solution providers.

Other Levels of Government A new Online Service for this year is BizPaL, our Business Permits and Licences Service. This service is the result of strong collaboration between the Government of Canada and participating provincial, territorial, regional, and municipal governments. Kamloops is fortunate to have Don Garrish, a Business Licence Inspector, for his pivotal role in this project. Don worked diligently to provide the Business Process Mapping to detail all of the various steps and procedures required in fulfilling a request to start a business for over 60 different types of businesses. Alex Kerr, our Special Projects Manager provided technical expertise and acted as liaison with Industry Canada. The BizPaL service allows a user to go online and through a series of questions will receive a report that offers all of the various permits and licenses required on all levels of government. Kamloops is proud to be a pilot city, one of 5 initial partners Canada wide, for the development of this project. This service will soon be rolled out to provinces and municipalities across Canada. Visit www.kamloops.ca/bizpal. Tourism Kamloops & Chamber of Commerce The webmaster works closely with the Kamloops Visitor Centre and Tourism Kamloops to provide strategic links, to meet the needs of visitors, and to leverage the delivery of Kamloops’ brand as a tourist destination. The City refers visitors to their website for viewing events on their Community Calendar. This practice was not all that it could be. Ideally we want to feature our own event calendar, but tourism is not our mandate. How could we even offer this service, let alone improve on it? During the development of our site, we learned that Tourism Kamloops is also re-designing their website. Our webmaster suggested that a Community Calendar be built to list all of the events held in our city and stored in a central database that would allow vested parties to contribute and share events. Vested parties would be notified of new entries, and if they so wished, could list them on their own website and apply their own formatting style to it. This shared resource is scheduled for release this fall. Venture Kamloops The webmaster also has an excellent working relationship with Venture Kamloops, the city’s Economic Development Office. Through conversations with their staff we learned that they would refer clients to the City of Kamloops website. These referrals were often conducted during a phone call with their clients. Assisting the client they would say, “Go to such and such a page and click on… and then for something else, go to another page and click on…etc.” Working together we identified resources and created a single referral directory page tailored to their specific needs. Today Venture Kamloops refers clients to a single City directory page for the Official Community Plan, Annual Reports, Development Reports, Demographics, Maps, etc. Consultation and Feedback Aside from our ever-present contact information throughout the site, we also offer other opportunities for feedback. A “Request for Services” link can found under our Online Services and this form allows users to report on any deficiencies they encounter within the City. Submissions are directed to the appropriate staff and followed up with a personalized phone call to verify and initiate service requests into our Land Information

System (developed by Tempest). We plan to expand this service form to cover a wider range of requests and to automate the process through future development with the Tempest Development Group. Since the City of Kamloops website was launched in June, Business and Client Services receives valuable feedback from residents, businesses and visitors – directly through a feedback link on the home page. Most of our feedback emails are praiseworthy. Surveys An important responsibility of local government is to engage in consultation and invite feedback on municipal projects and services. An outstanding feature of the new site is to offer on-line surveys of resident’s opinions, on topics such as community planning and parks maintenance. The process of posting on-lines surveys is a joint collaboration between Business and Client Services, the Information Technology division, and the department seeking community input. A permanent link to our Survey section is featured under the Online Services, City Hall and Residents menus. We use cross promotional techniques and online notices to announce all new surveys. The last survey; The North Shore Plan Survey, was our most successful to date garnering a healthy response with 515 completed online surveys. This is a marked improvement over the previous City Centre Plan Survey (which didn’t benefit from the same cross promotion) of just over 100 completed online surveys. When given sufficient lead time, our surveys are created using Touchpoll, a company specializing in offering online survey software. The software is easy for staff to use, and even in-depth surveys may often be created online within hours. Asking the public to take part in a survey has to have some benefits for them, so links to survey results are provided as soon as the survey findings have been tabulated. Content Management System (CMS) Now that the redesigned website has been officially launched, the next phase is to engage staff in sharing the responsibility for content management with the webmaster. Several regular contributors have also been set up with a few simple tools in order to keep their content updated. This is done in-house without the cost and installation of out-of-the-box software solution. Fire and Rescue Services, Building Stats, Job Postings Bid Opportunities, and daily Turbidity reports have all been turned over to their respective departments for content management. Implementing Cascading Style Sheets virtually eliminates the need for supervising content changes to ensure proper font usage and format styling being adhered to. Over the next year Content Management System software will be evaluated and appraised to find a solution so as to enable more staff to maintain their online content ad to streamline our administrative tasks. This move should provide us with version control, task assignments and scheduling alerts to insure that our web pages are current. Once installed and configured, our webmaster will be hosting training sessions for staff and provide personal assistance if and when required.

Kamloops is famous for its hospitality and community spirit which are traits that make us a leader in hosting major events that make us proud to be known as the Tournament Capital of Canada.

Kamloops, a city of 83,000 people, offers all the amenities of a larger centre, while maintaining the friendly atmosphere of a small town. Kamloops experiences over 2000 hours of sunshine a year and only 22 cm of rain!

Join our team of 650 employees, who work in a variety of fullfilling and challenging careers.

How To Apply

New job openings are posted every FRIDAY on this website. You do not need to submit a resumé and an application form (one, or the other is fine). Please list the "Competition Number" on your application. The best way to get employed with the City is to apply for a specific job posting. You can apply for a job in person, by faxing your application to us, or by submitting it through e-mail. To ensure that you meet the required qualifications of the job, please review your education, training, experience, skills, abilities, and knowledge before you apply. We thank all those who apply and advise that only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Contact Human Resources 105 Seymour Street Kamloops, BC V2C 2C6 ph (250) 828-3439 fax (250) 372-1351 email hr@kamloops.ca

Career Opportunities Human Resources

Consider A Career With Us

Page 1 of 1City of Kamloops Careers

7/19/2006http://www.kamloops.ca/hr/careers.shtml

The By-law Services Division provides enforcement services for the City of Kamloops, and our officers assist all City departments with their enforcement needs.

Our duties include: Animal Control Parking Control Property Maintenance Noise (General and Animal) Water Restrictions Snow Removal (sidewalk usage) Road Right of Way (sidewalk usage)

Our By-law Enforcement staff provides a proactive and reactive service to the general public. We patrol the City to ensure that by-laws are being complied with as well as investigating complaints by responding to the concerns of those individuals that have contacted the City regarding a specific concern in their area.

A general patrol is also carried out when we have not received sufficient information to attend at a residence for a complaint.

Contact By-law Services Division 7 Victoria Street West Kamloops, BC V2C 1A2 Downtown Parking & Court Inquiries ph (250) 828-3407 All Other Inquiries ph (250) 828-3409 (24 hrs) fax (250) 828-3578 email bylaws@kamloops.ca

Overview By-law Services

What we do

Page 1 of 1Kamloops Bylaw Services

7/19/2006http://www.kamloops.ca/bylawservices/bylawservices.shtml

Venture Kamloops and the City of Kamloops offer the following information to provide an economic snapshot of our business climate.

Recently issued Business Licenses Stats: New Licences Issued.

Census count and population estimates broken down for key areas in Kamloops.

City Area:

311 sq km (120 sq m)

Latitude: 50 41' 40" N

Longitude: 120 27' W

Location: 250 km (155 miles) north of US (Washington) border 310 km (193 miles) northeast of Vancouver 4,387 km, (2,726 miles) west of Toronto

Elevation: 347 m (1140 ft) (Thompson River Intake)

Population: 81,699 (2004) 45 minute commute population: 94,214

Major Industries Traditional: Agriculture Forestry/wood products Mining

Major Industries Emerging: Agri-food products/services High tech manufacturing Non-metallic mineral products

Major Private Sector Employers: Convergys – 1200 (growing to 1700 employees) Highland Valley Mine – 950 (Kamloops Region) Weyerhaeuser Canada – 850 Wal-mart – 322 Pollard Banknote – 250

Airport: Kamloops Airport Regional service Vancouver International - 310 km (193 miles) southwest Long haul service

Business Site Selector Criteria

Business Licence Reports Community Planning Demographics Industrial Land Vacancy Report KamPlan - Official Community Plan Maps Statistical Data Traffic Count Reports

Business Licence Reports

PDF Files Business Licenses (By Category) 5 yr. Summary Business Listing Directory Alphabetical Business Listing Directory Categorical Last updated: July, 2006 - Updated quarterly

Demographics

PDF Files Population Report

Page 1 of 3City of Kamloops - Business - Site Selector Criteria

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Contact Webmaster 7 Victoria Street West ph (250) 828-3615 fax (250) 828-3578 email webmaster@kamloops.ca

Arts, Culture & Heritage Parks, Recreation & Culture

Events Around Town

Kamloops Hosts BC Summer Games 2006

More than 4,000 of BC’s best athletes, coaches, managers, and officials will participate in 36 sports events. Visit www.kamloops2006.ca for more information about the BC Summer Games. July 27 - 30

Music in the Park Live, free musical entertainment is featured all summer long at the bandshell in Riverside Park. Bring your camp chairs, and relax each evening from 7 - 8:30 pm. Downtown - July 1 - August 31

The Wonderful Writing Machine See the curious history of the typewriter; this exhibit combines the art of design with exceedingly clever mechanics. Try your typing skill with this "hands on" exhibit. Kamloops Museum - Ongoing

Tradition and Innovation in 20th Century Chinese Paintings This exhibition brings together 66 Chinese scroll paintings (watercolour and ink paintings) that date from the first days to the last days of the 20th century. Kamloops Art Gallery - Jun 11 to Sep 3, 2006

Project X - Summer Theatre Production X Fest 2006 – This summer, our festival features Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex. Tickets for X Fest 2006 are available at Kamloops Live! Box Office. July 20 to August 12.

Kamloops Heritage Railway Tours The Spirit of Kamloops' has been fully restored to once again work the rails and offer passengers a journey back to the golden age of steam-powered railway travel. CN Station - Downtown - Check Schedule

Page 1 of 1City of Kamloops - Event Calendar

7/19/2006http://www.kamloops.ca/events/index.shtml

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This map is a user generated static output from an Internet mapping site and is for general reference only. Data layers that appear on this map may or may not beaccurate, current, or otherwise reliable. THIS MAP IS NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION.

Scale: 1:5,557Map center: 685456, 5619210