San Fran to launch Web portal

The city and county of San Francisco will launch a site in July that will

offer an array of electronic government services.

Treasurer Susan Leal said the Web portal provides the best opportunity to

streamline business and reduce administrative costs while assisting the

citizens.

"It's effective for us in that it removes a number of steps to transact

business," she said, "and for our customers, it allows them to conduct business

quickly."

The services that will be available when the portal is launched July 1 have

yet to be determined. However, the priorities, in order of importance are:

* Sale of birth and death certificates.

* Electrical and plumbing permits.

* Business registration renewals.

* Business tax statements.

* Payment of property taxes.

As the portal is further developed, new features will be added, including

integration with California's Web site.

San Francisco has partnered with National Information Consortium, which

manages a number of state portals. As with other NIC portals, the contract

is funded on "convenience" fees for a variety of transactions. Officials

have not determined which services will have fees.