CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Kasold Retaining Wall Under Construction
Please see the attached photos of the foundation work for the retaining wall along the west side of Kasold Drive.
City Transitions to Online Job Applications
The City has begun using an electronic recruitment tool called PCRecruiter to accept, monitor, maintain, and review employment applications. Beginning Monday, January 8, 2007 all applicants need to visit www.LawrenceCityJobs.org to complete and submit their applications electronically. In order to apply for an opening applicants will need to create a profile using their email address and unique password. The City will no longer be accepting hard copy applications, but individuals who do not have access to a computer can apply at the computer stations that are located on the 2nd floor of City Hall (outside of the Personnel Office). They can also visit the Lawrence Workforce Center, or go to the Public Library (they will need a library card to use the Public Library Computers) to apply online via our website. The Job Interest List will also be administered via the website. The City will send the appropriate Job Bulletins electronically to those that sign up for this service.
City’s Involvement with Computer Forensic Lab Featured in Kansas Government Journal
The City’s involvement with the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory was featured on the cover of the December 2006 issue of Kansas Government Journal. The article was written by Communications Manager Lisa Patterson and also highlights the work of Police Chief Ron Olin and Detective Dean Brown.
Enhanced Search Engine Added to City Website
The City of Lawrence has upgraded its website search capability with the addition of Google Mini, a hardware-based search engine application. Since going online Nov. 9, the City’s new search engine has provided results for approximately 8,400 searches of the more than 50,000 documents on the city’s web servers. In January, the top phrases searched included 11 searches for the keyword “jobs” and eight searches for “employment.” There also were eight searches for “warrants” and eight for “accident reports.”
Users can search by date or relevance to their keyword or phrase using the search box on the city website at www.lawrenceks.org. Searches can also be narrowed to City Commission agendas, city code, city services directory and news releases.
A recent example: On Nov. 16, 2006 the Lawrence Journal-World ran a story titled “City’s Web Site now includes variety of detailed maps,” about GIS Coordinator Bryce Hirschman and Information Systems’ recent addition of enhanced maps on the city website. By using the Google Mini application to analyze top keywords and phrases searched with the new search engine on Nov. 16, the results showed the story helped point the public to the website and search for the new maps. Searched phrases for that day included “gis” (four times) and “GIS” (also searched four times), “GIS section” (three times), “plats” (two times) and “City Maps” (searched two times).
Website Visits Increase 57 Percent in 2006
Website visits to all City of Lawrence, KS websites totaled 1,141,711 in 2006, a 57 percent increase from 728,804 total visits in 2005. The following chart, ordered by most visits to least in 2006, shows a breakdown of all website visits by department and/or department website and the total number of visits for both 2006 and 2005.
|
Department/website |
2006 visits |
2005 visits |
% increase |
|
LawrenceKS.org |
562,901 |
348,467 |
62% |
|
Lprd.org |
119,779 |
95,959 |
25% |
|
Lawrencepolice.org |
91,474 |
56,487 |
62% |
|
Lawrencetransit.org |
58,607 |
36,016 |
63% |
|
Lawrencerecycles.org |
39,927 |
23,423 |
70% |
|
Lawrencekidsrecycle.org |
37,490 |
21,516 |
74% |
|
Lawrencefinance.org Lawrenceutilitybilling.org |
35,235 |
23,300 |
51% |
|
Lawrenceneighres.org |
32,427 |
16,013 |
103% |
|
Lawrenceplanning.org |
31,372 |
18,692 |
68% |
|
Lawrencecityjobs.org |
30,612 |
25,482 |
20% |
|
Lawrencefiremed.org |
27,003 |
20,546 |
31% |
|
Lawrenceutilities.org |
25,651 |
12,503 |
105% |
|
Lawrencehumanrelations.org |
18,218 |
11,820 |
54% |
|
Lawrencecourt.org |
16,119 |
9,805 |
64% |
|
Lawrencepublicworks.org |
14,896 |
8,775 |
70% |
|
Total |
1,141,711 |
728,804 |
57% |