TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Sanford Taylor, Information Technology Director
Leilani Emnace, Information Systems Manager
SUBJECT:Title
Approve the Selection of the New City Website Domain Name: manhattanbeach.gov (Information Technology Director Taylor).
APPROVE
Line
_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the selection of the new City website domain name, manhattanbeach.gov, replacing the current citymb.info domain.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Sufficient funds are included in the Information Technology current fiscal year budget to accommodate the DotGov domain name registration fee and will be budgeted in the future. There are potentially other expenses related to the City branding that are not established at this time.
BACKGROUND:
At the March 9, 2018, City Council Work Plan meeting, staff was tasked to investigate the option of changing the current citymb.info domain name to DotGov (i.e. .gov). Under the City Council direction, staff started the registration process of the City site’s DotGov domain name delegation with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The eligibility is limited to qualified government organizations and programs identifying DotGov site as an official government site used for government operation only. The local-government domain naming requirements are part of the Federal policy (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations [eCFR]). Significant changes were introduced in 2012 requiring DotGov city naming format to be CityName-StatePostalCode.gov (e.g. ManhattanBeach-CA.gov) or CityNameStatePostalCode.gov (e.g. ManhattanBeachCA.gov). Given the City has used the domain name citymb.info since 2001, the City applied for citymb.gov. GSA denied the application due to the missing state designation in the domain name, i.e. manhattanbeachca.gov.
At the January 2, 2019, City Council Meeting, staff provided an update on the Information Systems Master Plan and on DotGov delegation including domain naming guidelines and suggestions which would be approved by General Services Administration. City Council directed staff to investigate if GSA will approve an exception for the following domain names: mb.gov, mbca.gov, and manhattanbeach.gov.
DISCUSSION:
City Council directed staff to request an exception to the rules for local-government DotGov domain naming convention requirements set in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR). Per GSA, to qualify for an exception, the City must meet at least one of the three following criteria:
1. Unique: City name is not duplicated by any other city, town, borough, village, or equivalent, elsewhere in the country at the time of domain name issuance so that it can be registered without needing a reference to the state name.
2. Well-known: Certain cities are so well-known that they may not require a state reference to clearly communicate location.
3. Most populous: DotGov allows the largest 30 cities’ names to be registered without a state suffix based on the population data provided by the U.S. Census.
The U.S. General Services Administration arbitrates all exceptions to the naming convention. Staff submitted the three DotGov name exception requests as directed (mb.gov, mbca.gov, and manhattanbeach.gov). The mb.gov and mbca.gov domains were denied because the names are not easily identifiable on the Internet. The latter is also an acronym for the Midsize Bank Coalition of America (MBCA), part of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). However, manhattanbeach.gov was approved based on the following justification:
“Manhattan Beach, California is well known for its beach volleyball tournaments and has international recognition. The annual summer Association Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Manhattan Beach Open Volleyball tournament began in 1960 starting as an amateur event and is now part of the professional volleyball players tour. Today the event is one of the largest on the AVP tour drawing an estimated 60,000 people annually. It is the longest-running and most prestigious beach volleyball tournament in the United States. This is one of several beach volleyball tournaments hosted in the City. Manhattan Beach volleyball has been televised and streamed on ESPN, NBC Sports and most recently on Amazon Prime Video. Further, referencing the National Places Gazetteer Files, there is another city named Manhattan Beach. It is located in Minnesota and has a population of 57. The city’s domain name is www.manhattanbeachmn.org. It is doubtful the two locations or Cities would be mistaken for the other.”
Thereafter, an authorization letter for manhattanbeach.gov was signed by Mayor Napolitano and submitted to GSA to complete the DotGov delegation process (Attachment). The fee for the domain name is approximately $400 paid annually to the federal agency. The proposed domain name will be utilized for the City website, City branding, and City email address domain.
If City Council decides to move forward with the manhattanbeach.gov domain, the current citymb.info domain and the proposed manhattanbeach.gov domain will coexist ensuring citymb.info web traffic is redirected to the new DotGov website. The website redirect will be transparent to website visitors. The transition will be controlled and proactively tested to maximize website search results and minimize negative user experience. City email addresses will also transition to manhattanbeach.gov. and will forward from citymb.info to the new address. The email redirect will secure delivery of electronic mail from senders outside the City’s network limiting non-delivery message errors.
Changes to the City branding may occur and will affect promotional materials, City vehicles with City website references, and other citymb.info branded content. Given the City branding’s broad area of utilization, it is challenging to estimate the financial impact at this time.
POLICY ALTERNATIVE:
The City Council keeps the current citymb.info domain name.
PROS:
No website and email traffic redirecting and changes to the City branding; website
domain and email address names remain status quo.
CONS:
The citymb.info email address is sometimes not accepted as a valid email address
by some organizations. In these instances, the ci.manhattan-beach,ca.us address is
used.
In conclusion, staff recommends that the City Council approve the selection of the new City domain name, manhattanbeach.gov, replacing the current citymb.info.
PUBLIC OUTREACH/INTEREST:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant effect on the environment; therefore, pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary.
Attachment:
1. Authorization Letter