Redmond, Bellevue cited for digital savvy

By Rachel Tuinstra
Times Eastside Bureau

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The city has spent the past several years updating its online services, and its efforts have been noticed: A survey by the Center for Digital Government has ranked Redmond the nation's top digital city for its size. The survey results were released earlier this week.

"In the last couple of years, Redmond has made great strides with our Web page," said Mayor Rosemarie Ives. "A lot of people might assume this award is because we are Redmond and Microsoft is headquartered here. But this culminates for us an investment in technology that has been ongoing for the 13 years I've been mayor."

This is the fourth year the Center for Digital Government has done the survey and the first year the survey has a 30,000-74,999 population category, which includes Redmond.

The city of Bellevue was ranked sixth in the 75,000-124,999 population category.

No other Washington cities were ranked. But a separate Center for Digital Government survey recently ranked Washington second in the nation — behind Michigan — for overall online access to government.

The center, a national research and advisory organization on information technology for local and state government, invited 600 cities to participate in the survey, and more than 180 responded, said Janet Grenslitt, the center's national surveys and awards manager.

The survey looked at the online services and technologies offered by city governments and evaluated how cities use the information they receive online or through intranets, Grenslitt said. Last year, Seattle was ranked fifth in the 250,000-or-greater population category but didn't make the list this year.

Grenslitt said Seattle "did well," but she wouldn't elaborate.

Redmond stood out for extras such as a partnership with the Lake Washington School District to provide high-speed network connections, Grenslitt said.

"It's one of the things that makes them unique," Grenslitt said.
 
The city also has added many services for online customers in the past two years, said Linda Hermanson, Redmond's acting information-services manager.

For instance, the city recently started broadcasting all City Council meetings over the Internet and has hired several people who applied for their jobs online, Hermanson said.

"The city recognized that people were asking for more online services," she said.

"The city did some surveys that found that a majority of people who responded had high-speed Internet access at home, and they did a lot of their business via the Internet. So the fact the city is pretty well wired played a role."

Bellevue also plans to add new features, such as broadcasting City Council meetings on its Web site starting next year, said Barbara Ramey, city of Bellevue spokeswoman.

Rachael Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com