Thousand Oaks OKs Plans for Electronic Bulletin Board : Information: Residents will be able to communicate with City Hall through their personal computers.

Thousand Oaks residents will soon be able to search for book titles, scan playbills and lodge complaints through their personal computers, as the City Council on Tuesday approved plans for an electronic bulletin board.

For about $5,000, the council will purchase a computer, two modems and software designed to let residents communicate with City Hall over the telephone lines. Maintaining two lines will cost an additional $28 a month.

“We have a very well-educated population and people want to be involved in public decision-making,” Mayor Elois Zeanah said. “Now, they can make a phone call and get all the information we can possibly put on our bulletin board.”

The council unanimously approved Zeanah’s proposal to set up a round-the-clock information service that any resident will be able to plug into with a personal modem.

Got an urge to read Planning Commission agendas at 2 a.m.? Just call up the meeting file. Want to see if the Thousand Oaks Library has the latest hot mystery? Scroll through the card catalogue. Curious about what the neighbors think of the park district? Read the most recent Citizen Attitude Survey.

All that information--plus programs for Civic Arts Plaza events, city statistics, and answers to the most frequently asked questions--will be available within the next few months.

“I can’t tell you how great this kind of system can be and how much time it can save the city,” Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce President Steve Rubenstein told the council. The chamber set up a similar system eight months ago and now routinely communicates with local businesses through computer modems, he said.

Eventually, Zeanah hopes to expand the software to allow residents to apply for business and marriage licenses, make appointments for building inspections, reserve library books and buy tickets for Civic Arts Plaza shows.

Even in its first phase, however, Thousand Oaks’ electronic bulletin board will be more expansive than the programs now on line in Moorpark and Simi Valley.

Moorpark’s CityLink software allows only one resident to plug into the bulletin board at a time, and offers only agendas, annotated minutes of City Council meetings and some miscellaneous facts about the city. Despite those limitations, the computer has logged 1,500 connections since June, 1992, Moorpark City Clerk Lillian Hare said.

One popular feature of Moorpark CityLink is the complaint file, where citizens have lodged gripes about everything from inadequate garbage collection to speeding cars on Tierra Rejada Road.

On the positive side, “We do get a few ‘Gosh, you guys are doing a great job, and this is a good service,’ ” Hare said.

Although limited, Moorpark’s software--purchased for less than $5,000--outpaces the Simi Valley program, which does not allow residents to leave messages for city staff.

Nonetheless, since it was installed nine months ago, nearly 250 people have used the Simi system, which contains a city directory, council and Planning Commission agendas and minutes of past meetings, said John McMillan, Simi Valley’s director of general services. The computer tallies about 60 connections a month, he said.

Thousand Oaks’ council members expressed high hopes for their new bulletin board, which Zeanah listed as one of her goals in her inaugural speech last September.

The council asked city staff to report back on how many people use the system each month and what information they retrieve.