Laserfiche WebLink
STAFF REPORT <br />DATE: 4/2/2024 <br /> REGULAR <br /> <br /> <br />TO: Lake Elmo City Council <br />FROM: Clark Schroeder <br />AGENDA ITEM: Changing to a .gov domain <br />REVIEWED BY: Clark Schroeder interim city administrator. <br />BACKGROUND: <br />The city of Lake Elmo has had a web address of lakeelmo.org for many years. The cybersecurity and <br />infrastructure security agency (CISA) Home Page | CISA oversees the top-level domain for the nation, <br />which is the .GOV domain. Using a .gov domain increases the trust in government communication and <br />are authenticated to improve collective cybersecurity concerns. When people see the .gov domain, people <br />understand they are dealing with an official U.S. based government organization. Having a .gov domain <br />also provides security benefits, two factor authentication on the .gov registrar. A .gov helps the public <br />identify official, trusted information. The .Gov is only available to US based government organizations. <br />They are available to all levels of government including cities, towns, townships, counties, election <br />offices, tribal governments, courts and others. I registered the domain lakeelmo.gov this winter and was <br />notified that we can use that domain recently. <br /> <br />ISSUE BEFORE COUNCIL: Council is being asked to make a long-term move to the .gov domain. <br /> <br />PROPOSAL DETAILS/ANALYSIS: <br />Once the council decides to move to the .gov domain, Metro-Inet, will get the DNS setup and coordinate a <br />time to flip the email and website over. They would coordinate with our web hosting provider. We would <br />keep the old URL and old emails. There would be no disruption to any existing access. Lakeelmo.org and <br />lakeelmo .Gov would each point to the same website and flow to the same email inboxes. Out going email <br />would come from the .gov address. Down the road when everything is updated you could look at officially <br />sunsetting the org addresses. This could take a year or two. Metro-Inet has done this for North Oaks <br />(northoaksmn.gov) and Oakdale (oakdalemn.gov) and are working with two other cities They say many <br />other cities in their network are looking at it. Others in our area that have switched are Stillwatermn.gov, <br />hudsonwi.gov, St. Croix County is sccwi.gov, lakevillemn.gov, Woodburymn.gov, maplewoodmn.gov, <br />stpaul.gov, cottagegrovemn.gov, shakopeemn.gov, Inver Grove Heights is Ighmn.gov, ashlandcountywi.gov. In <br />researching whether to go with lakeelmo.gov versus lakeelmomn.gov I only found one other Lake Elmo in <br />America and it is a park in Montana. Unique cities/counties can just go with their name.gov, more common <br />names need to add the state to the url, or citymn.gov. The Federal government approved us to go with <br />lakeelmo.gov due to our unique name. I suspect most government units will be .gov within the next few <br />years. <br /> <br />FISCAL IMPACT: Nothing for the URL/Domain. In the short term, as people run out of business cards <br />we will reprint with the .gov address. Maybe letter head if we have some pre-printed. <br /> <br />OPTIONS: <br />City council can decide to move to a .gov or not. <br /> <br />RECOMMENDATION: <br />Motion to add the city domain of lakeellmo.gov.