The city has publicized the service, which was launched in early June, as a convenience for its customers, said Finance Director Horacio Montes de Oca.
Customers seeking to pay their water bills online can log on to www.utilities.coopercityfl.org using their five-digit utilities account number, which is posted on their water bill, and their city-issued personal identification number. Once they are logged in, customers are encouraged to replace their PIN with a new one and to keep it private, Montes de Oca said.
He said the city has taken steps to prevent identity theft. Any personal information customers enter is placed in a temporary file, and not on the system itself.
"No one gets into our system. The information you input does not go into the active system," Montes de Oca said. "When someone logs on, they can only access a temporary file. Then when we update our system, we take the information off the temp file -- the credit card number and payment amount. And every time we update our system, the information we retrieved from the temp file is gone."
The system is operated entirely in-house, he said. The city's Information Technology Department handles the technical aspects of running the site, and finance provides customer service. The system the city purchased to support online billing cost about $12,000 and replaced an outdated system purchased in 1998 that did not have such capabilities, he said.
Assistant City Manager Susan Bernard said online payment of water bills is the second "e-government" service offered by the city. Earlier this year, the city launched a service by which residents and business owners can check the status of their building permit applications, she said. The city may offer other online services after receiving feedback from the community.
"We're waiting to see how this service works out before offering any new services online," she said.
For more information, call the city's Finance Department at 954-434-4300, ext. 239.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Randy Abraham
Quelle/Source: Sun-Sentinel, 09.07.2006
