After a Slow Start, Cities Discover Web

Huntington Beach officials had just started thinking about creating the community’s first Web site, when they discovered that the city already had a home page on the Internet.

A local businessman had started a Web site using the Huntington Beach City logo, featuring a weekly “Beach Girl” clad in a scanty bikini, and selling advertising that last week included a personal ad from a man in Japan looking for a sex slave willing to travel.

“We contacted them and asked them to make it clear that this [Web site] was not associated with the city of Huntington Beach,” said city spokesman Jim Hanggi. “It could easily be confused by a citizen as being a product of Huntington Beach, and that’s one of the reasons we desired our own presence on the Internet.”

One by one, Orange County cities have bravely stepped into the rough-and-tumble, largely unregulated world of the Internet, only to make a dismaying discovery: Someone has beaten them to the punch.

Internet entrepreneurs have already scooped up a number of popular Internet addresses and created home pages bearing the names of cities throughout the county.

“Cities have been late coming to the Web,” said Mission Viejo Councilwoman Sherri M. Butterfield, who prompted her city to establish its own home page last month. “A certain number of those sites are now gone.

“It’s like the Oklahoma land rush, some people got the Internet addresses and others didn’t,” said Butterfield.

In some cases, Internet entrepreneurs who had staked out a claim to a city’s name would then approach City Hall offering to maintain or expand the home pages for pay.

“I’d say cities are inundated with that type of proposal,” said Terry Bills, principal planner for the Southern California Assn. of Governments. “Some of these firms actually register a city’s name and hold it hostage.”

Web site names are registered by a private company called Network Solutions in Reston, Virginia. Names are handed out on a first-come, first serve basis for about $50 per year.

Fountain Valley will make its Internet debut next month, but an unofficial community Web site is already there, complete with advertising that includes a collectibles shop selling adult animation videos.

After staking a claim to Fountain Valley’s address on the Internet, one firm came to city official Don Heinbuch.

“He said, ‘Well, Don, we have your home page,’ and made an offer that is twice as high as what we’re now paying,” said Heinbuch. “We went with someone else, so I guess it backfired on him.”

If a Web site name is already taken, the next user must refer to their home page in a different way. For example, instead of using https://www.fountainvalley.com, city officials might have to register one that is less obvious to net surfers, something like https://www.cityoffountainvalley.com.

Repercussions of such name grabs have already been experienced by major companies who are often approached by people who have registered the company name as a Web site. Something similar occurred when 800 telephone numbers were first introduced, and an earlier generation of entrepreneurs would dream up seven-letter slogans that they could order and then try to sell to interested companies.

Almost every city in Orange County has an unofficial Web site on the Internet. Many are inactive, containing little more than basic population and real estate information about the city. Other unofficial home pages list places to eat and shop, and display advertisements from local merchants.

Some city officials indicate that they’ve experienced no problems creating their own home page. But other officials say some Internet entrepreneurs cross the line by giving the impression that they are connected or sanctioned by the city.

In Newport Beach, an unofficial home page that sold local advertising proudly displayed the official city seal--without permission.

“It tended to look like it was our Newport Beach home page,” said Paul Malkemus, the city’s information manager. “We sent them an e-mail message asking them to stop using the city seal and they did stop.”

Confused Mission Viejo residents occasionally message questions to an Internet company that registered the city’s name.

Entrepreneurs like Dan Jones--whose firm publishes an unofficial Huntington Beach home page but did not grab a city Web location--say they are taking advantage of a business opportunity being presented by the Internet.

“I don’t feel what I am doing is detrimental to the city,” said Jones, who started the Huntington Beach Web site about 18 months ago and depends on electronic “yellow pages” to guide people to his home page. “I thought this site would be a good spot for people in the world who want information about Huntington Beach.”

Jones removed the Beach Girl feature from the Web site and says that the sex slave advertisement was placed by a user without his knowledge--”I only check the site out periodically, not every day.”

He says advertising revenues have been disappointing.

“It has been more trouble than it’s worth,” said Jones. “Most merchants don’t see [the Internet] as a viable form of advertising. They prefer more traditional places to put their money, like radio, television and newspapers.”

Art Davis, who Heinbuch said approached Fountain Valley with an offer to maintain a city Web site, could not be reached for comment.

Although Orange County cities have been tentative about getting onto the Internet, worldwide participation has exploded. There are now more than 800,000 home pages with thousands more added every month. And in the unregulated world of the Internet, it’s first-come, first-served for Web site addresses.

When the Internet was a sedate system where academicians and scientists exchanged information, nobody worried about establishing a Web site location.

But the Internet is now also a commercial industry whose companies are traded on Wall Street and where millions of dollars in product sales take place.

“The Internet grew up in an environment where community ethics were collegiality and making sure work gets done,” said Don Mitchell, an Internet specialist with the National Science Foundation. “All of a sudden, the nature of the Internet has changed and so have the ethics.”

Despite the occasional brush with a Web site entrepreneur, city officials are generally excited about using the Internet as a new way to connect with their citizens.

Most envision their nascent Web pages as a 24 hour City Hall, where residents can get information.

Huntington Beach spokesman Jim Hanggi said a recent survey showed that many residents found it difficult to reach City Hall during business hours.

Services available in some cities include e-mail addresses for various city officials that allow residents to ask questions without having to use the telephone or appear in-person.

The short-term goal for many is to provide interactive services such as filing applications for building permits or business licenses.

But in the more distant future, the potential of the Internet as a civic tool is more exciting, said Hanggi.

He sees Huntington Beach residents someday able to access a videotape library of past council meetings from home, or even register their opinion about an issue to the City Council during a meeting from their living room.

“We’re still learning how it all works,” he said. “But we’ll get there.”

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City Sites

Official websites of selected Orange County cities:

ANAHEIM: https://www.commpro.com/anaheim

BREA: https://www.gvn.com/brea

BUENA PARK: https://www.buenapark.com

COSTA MESA: https://www.cityofcostamesa.com

GARDEN GROVE: https://www.ci.garden--grove.ca.us

IRVINE (Police home page only): https://www.ni.net/irvinepd

MISSION VIEJO: https://ci.mission--viejo.com.ca.us

ORANGE (Police home page only): https://www.orangepd.org