City Hall Ventures Into Cyberspace

City Hall plans to go online.

In the coming fiscal year, officials hope to launch a World Wide Web page featuring information about the city’s demographics, mission statement, history, location, geography, weather, City Council members and department heads.

Updates, about every other week, would give computer users access to information about street closures, community and cultural events, upcoming projects, City Council and commission agendas and relevant phone numbers.

“People could access any information that they need about the city,” said Richard Storey, the city’s finance director.

The public also can comment on municipal business via electronic mail. If all goes well, the city may expand the site to allow payment for services and other uses.

The information systems department estimates it will take about eight hours of labor a week to maintain and update the home page.

“We’re on our way to the 21st century,” Mayor Tom Carroll said.

The page should be accessible by next summer. Cypress joins a number of other Orange County cities in creating official home pages.

A $15,000 allocation for creating and publishing the home page is in the city’s new $21.5-million operating budget, approved Monday .

Included in the new budget are plans to reopen the nature park, update the General Plan and conduct a traffic study for extending Holder Street across the Stanton storm channel.