Town of Pinedale enhances local government services with Zoho Sites

The Town

Pinedale is the county seat of Sublette County, Wyoming. The local government (Pinedale Chapter) is a political subdivision of the Navajo Nation, and its website is used to provide public document review, assistance updates, transparency reports (such as budgets and meeting notes), and information on the services provided by the administration. The website also has a member portal that enables public participation in local government processes.

 

"Our website is more user-friendly and readily available. All the amenities that are provided to us by Zoho Sites helped make our services more accessible online, without the need to use paper forms or calls to our office. We have never faced any downtime either."

- Titus J. Nez, Community Services Coordinator, Pinedale Chapter Government

 

The Challenge

The administration had an issue reaching out to its constituents in the early days of the internet and was eager to utilize modern technology to improve public services. "When our tribal government finally built a communication tower, we were able to upgrade to high-speed internet and improve our communication with the public," said Titus J. Nez, community services coordinator for the Pinedale Chapter Government. "This included building a detailed website to provide information during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were unable to meet in person.

The Solution

It became essential to have a fully functional website to provide people with important information, such as details about upcoming meetings and public documents. "When we were able to get high-speed internet, we knew that we could tap into these new resources to provide live updates and information to the people," said Nez.

One challenge the team faced while setting up its website was in creating unique pages for each user based on what they had signed up for. "Also, when users signed up for an account, we were unable to change the form that includes which services they want," said Nez. "We did a lot of trials on what worked and what did not. For example, one of the most recent ones we tried was embedding Google Drive folders on our website."

Benefits and ROI

These efforts paid off, garnering appreciation for the website. "We've received a lot of good compliments, especially from our Division," said Nez. Out of a total of 110 chapters, Pinedale is the only one that has upgraded to a new website builder in recent years. All 109 other chapters' websites have the same structure.

Looking Ahead

Apart from Zoho Sites, the Pinedale Chapter also uses Forms and Creator. The local government plans to incorporate more tools from the Zoho platform and expand the use of its website to provide services for the public. "Our hope is to use Zoho Projects. That will help us assist our community and people," said Nez. "The need for automation to provide real-time service is huge today in local governance, and I think it is just the beginning."

To learn more about Pinedale Chapter, visit their website https://www.pinedalegov.org/