LATHROP – Can’t make it to the Lathrop City Council meeting?

Don’t worry.

Within a week the information will more than likely end up in the wrap that Interim City Manager Steve Salvatore posts on the city’s recently redesigned website, and a webcast of the actual meeting – not every resident has Comcast which offers the live broadcast of the meetings – won’t be far behind.

Consider it the city’s commitment to transparent government.

According to City Clerk Mitzi Ortiz, former City Manager Cary Keaten first came up with the idea of a weekly wrap-up that residents could view to see how things were going at City Hall.

With more than $8 million cut from the budget over the last three years and more than a third of the workforce slashed during that time to keep the city solvent, Keaten took the steps to strip away some of the layers that made it difficult to understand what went on before and after the City Council publicly met for three hours twice monthly.

That meant taking advantage of new technology.

The City of Lathrop currently maintains its own Twitter account that includes posts about upcoming meetings and events within the community. It lets the public know when they can view agendas and other information.

In the eyes of the public, Ortiz says, the overhaul of the website and the intention of making things more transparent has been met with fanfare by those who have noticed it.

“We’ve had really positive feedback on our website which was completely overhauled in 2011 – something that was done in-house,” she said. “Luckily we have a wonderful IT Manager that was able to clean up the information and make it much easier to find. People don’t have as much of a problem finding what they need.”

Technology has also played a role in how Ortiz approaches aspects of her job.

When she first started all of the notes from the council meetings were taken by hand – individual motions were all cataloged and comments were all recorded.

But with the aid of a netbook and the ability to go back and listen to some of the comments that were made the previous night, Ortiz is able to easily output the minutes and get them posted to the city’s website.

Convenience, however, isn’t the only benefit that the website brings to the table.

“It also provides a benefit to the staff because people are able to be a little bit more self-sufficient in finding what they need,” she said. “Because we have fewer staff members, getting fewer requests to respond to is a big help. It’s beneficial in both ways.”