California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations Office of aduateGr Studies 9-2017 E-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY Marcos A. Ybarra Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd Part of the Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Ybarra, Marcos A., "E-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY" (2017). Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations. 579. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/579 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Office of aduateGr Studies at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. E-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY A Project Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Public Administration by Marcos Anthony Ybarra September 2017 E-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY A Project Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Marcos Anthony Ybarra September 2017 Approved by: Dr. Kimberly Collins, Committee Chair, Public Administration Dr. Jonathan Anderson, Committee Member © 2017 Marcos Anthony Ybarra ABSTRACT Due to technological advances, local city governments are relying heavily on websites and the Internet to connect with citizens. This project will discuss the relationship between e-government and civic engagement in San Diego county and its effectiveness. E-government is defined as the delivery of a city government’s information and services to its citizens through its website. Civic engagement involves active participation from the citizens and is defined as the interaction between the city government and its citizens. This project will analyze the 18 city websites of San Diego county to determine the effectiveness of each city’s website in providing e-government and civic engagement services. Each website will be rated and ranked, and a detailed recommendation on how the 5 lowest ranking cities can revise their websites to increase civic engagement will be provided. It will be shown that novel approaches such as online civic engagement, financial transparency, and personalized mobile apps not only enhance civic engagement in several city government websites but also receive positive user feedback and high resident satisfaction ratings. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to give thanks to God for giving me the strength I needed to persevere. I would like to thank Dr. Anderson and Dr. Collins for seeing this through. To my wife and my three daughters, I love you dearly and could not have done this without your love and support. I would also like to thank my mom, and sister for their love and support. This is dedicated to Cynthia, Diana, Sophia, Cindita, Sara, and Ma. A special dedication to my dad, Armando Ybarra. I love you, Pops. Rest in peace. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................................ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Overview .................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction ................................................................................................ 5 E-Government Perceptions: The Early Years ................................. 5 E-Government and Fiscal Transparency ......................................... 8 E-Government, Social Capital, and Civic Engagement ................. 11 Critiques of e-Government ............................................................ 14 Conclusion .................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION Introduction .............................................................................................. 19 Research Perspective ................................................................... 19 Research Design ........................................................................... 21 Research Questions ...................................................................... 22 Subjects and Units of Analysis ...................................................... 22 Research Variables ....................................................................... 23 Data Collection Procedures .......................................................... 23 Setting and Environment ............................................................... 23 v Description of City Websites ......................................................... 24 Top Thirteen San Diego County Websites .................................... 24 Important Highlights of Thirteen Highest-Ranking Websites ......... 28 Five Lowest-Scoring Websites ...................................................... 29 Validity, Trustworthiness, and Bias ............................................... 30 Summary ....................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND RESULTS Introduction .............................................................................................. 32 Research Objectives ..................................................................... 32 General Website Design Considerations ...................................... 33 Sample Space and Participating Cities ......................................... 34 Discussion of Findings .................................................................. 37 Summary ....................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER FIVE: E-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT Introduction .............................................................................................. 50 Key Website Features ................................................................... 51 The City of San Diego Website: Why It Works .............................. 51 The City of Santee Website: Shortcomings and Suggestions for Improvement ................................................................................. 52 The City of Solana Beach Website: Shortcomings and Suggestions for Improvement ....................................................... 53 The City of Vista Website: Shortcomings and Suggestions for Improvement ................................................................................. 55 The City of Lemon Grove Website: Shortcomings and Suggestions for Improvement ....................................................... 56 vi The City of Coronado Website: Shortcomings and Suggestions for Improvement ............................................................................ 57 Summary and Conclusion ............................................................. 58 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 61 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Ranking First 9 San Diego Cities. ......................................................... 34 Table 2. Ranking Final 9 San Diego Cities. ........................................................ 35 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Frequency Distribution of Composite Scores ...................................... 37 Figure 2. PlaceSpeak Homepage ....................................................................... 40 Figure 3. Column Chart. ..................................................................................... 42 Figure 4. Pie Chart ............................................................................................. 43 Figure 5. Line Graph ........................................................................................... 43 Figure 6. Interactive Spreadsheet ....................................................................... 43 Figure 7. Oceanside Mobile App ........................................................................ 46 Figure 8. City of San Diego Mobile App .............................................................. 47 Figure 9. Carlsbad Personalized Links Website ................................................. 48 ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION “In some respects, the e-government revolution has fallen short of its potential to transform service delivery and public trust in government. It does, however, have the possibility of enhancing democratic responsiveness and boosting beliefs that government is effective.” -Dr. Darrell M. West Overview E-government has transformed civic engagement by improving the way citizens get information and their participation in local governance. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of analysis that explores the effectiveness of e-government in San Diego county. This research will look at specific determining factors that challenge the implementation of civic engagement. These factors will be studied as the basis of ranking the individual websites. The makeup of the factors will range on a variety of different perspectives. The data will display the discrepancies