Welcome to miamidade.gov, the world wide web information portal for Miami-Dade County. Our portal is designed to be your 'window' into County government, making it easier for you to locate the information and service you need, ranging from public safety to cultural events and recreational activities.
The newest version of our web portal -- miamidade.gov - is an enhanced version of our award-winning public access website. New features include special sections defined by tabs across the top of the page, enhanced portlets (information boxes) and a new color scheme.
On Our Main Home Page
On the left side you will find the Top Searches listed in order by popularity. These are the most popular interactive features that our users search for, from looking up property information to paying your water bill online. The next content area (portlet) contains a series of links to government Information For specific audiences that we serve.
In the middle of our Home page you'll find four Site Highlights. Each featured story is accompanied by a photograph and a link to the full story. Click on a small image to see the story summary and get the link.
The next section shows the latest Government News. The current news from Miami-Dade County is displayed here. Click on the headline to get the full story.
The last area in the center columns shows Events highlights. These are selected event s from the County Calendar. Click on the event title for more details, or in All county events to see the complete County Calendar.
In the right Column you'll see a message from Mayor Carlos Alvarez. followed by the latest Commission News stories from each Commission District. Click on a headline to see the News Release. Use the pause button to stop scrolling through the headlines or the arrow tools to skip through.
For more information from other County Officials, the next portlet provides direct links to each website.
At the bottom of the home page and each County web page are a series of quick links to our Privacy Statement, standard Disclaimer, this Using Our Site page, information About Us (Miami-Dade County) and our Phone Directory.
Use Tabs to Find Featured Content Areas
Service Center
The main content area features Services by Topic. Under each of the 22 topic headings you'll find a list of County services. Click on the more link under each topic heading to see the complete list of services and related Resources for that topic.
The Service Center also provides you with a list of Things You Can Do Online and Things You Can Pay Online. For more services, check out the Research Tools & Maps section where you'll find links to applications that will help you find County Services Near You, Child Care services, County Jobs or many other online tools.
County Agencies
Here you'll find an alphabetical listing of all County Departments and Agencies. You will see a picture of each department director and a link to their biography. For your convenience we've provided the main mailing address for each agency, phone number and link to their website. We've also provided you with the mission statement for each agency.
County Hall
This is where you will find information about your County government. The main section provides links to the offices of each County Commissioner and their contact information. Under the Commission is a section devoted to Government News, and the Government Datebook showing the official government meetings of the day. Click on the Event Title for meeting details.
The left column features quick reference links to Legislation & Policy, including Commission meeting Agendas and Minutes and the County Charter. Local Governments provides quick access to the websites of all of the other municipalities in Miami-Dade County. In the Citizen Participation section are tools to help you find your Commissioner or Community Council. There's also a link to a section detailing how you can be heard on an issue.
On the right side of the page is listing of other County Officials, from the Mayor and County Manager to court judges. Under that you'll find more information About Miami-Dade County.
Calendar
The County Calendar shows a monthly view of all of the meetings and events scheduled by Miami-Dade County. Click on an event title for more details about that event. Click on one of the numbered date buttons to see the complete list of all events for that particular date. You can navigate to a future month by clicking on the next month's name at the top of the page, or by using the Go to selector to jump further ahead.
Search
The Search box allows you to type a keyword or phrase (in quotes) and click on the Search link to retrieve a list of results that most closely match your query.
Contact Us
If you experience technical difficulties, let us know by e-mailing your comments to our Webmaster using the Contact Us link at the top of each page.
Navigation
As you move from the portal to different County websites you will find many standard navigation elements to make your journey easy. At the top of each page is the County header area. The first thing you'll see is the County logo. Under the Miami-Dade logo is the name of the County Agency or Service area. On the right side is a new tool you can use to resize the text on the page. Throughout our site, you will find that selecting the miamidade.gov logo on the right side of the page will always return you to the main portal Home page.
At the top of the page you will find selections for Resident, Visitor, Business, Employee and Government. Clicking on any one of these navigation buttons will take you to the home page for that group. These selections are designed to take you to information specific to your needs as a resident of Miami-Dade County, a business that operates in the County or wishes to do business with the County, a visitor to any of our attractions, someone who is or wishes to be an employee with Miami-Dade County, or anyone with an interest in the operations of our government.
Directly under the header is the Navigation Bar. Each site's navigation starts with a link to that site's home page and ends with a link to Contact Us information. In between those links are a series of pages that group specific content area information.
In the middle of each page you'll see a series of icons and links to some cool tools. The Print link opens a new window with a printable version of the page you are on. The Email link helps you quickly send a link to the page your are on to someone you know. The Helpful? link lets you send us a note about how helpful the information was on the page you are viewing - or let us know what's missing.
Use the text links in the menus area on the left side of the page to move through our site. Links to external websites will always open in a new window, as will links to pages not on our portal. So, if you follow a link form our portal to a department site, just close the window to return to our portal, right where you left off.
Browser Compatibility
Most of the visitors to miamidade.gov use Microsoft's Internet Explorer to visit our web pages. Other users may prefer Mozilla Firefox or Safari (Mac) or another browser. Our pages are designed to be best viewed with Internet Explorer version 6.0 or Netscape 7.0.
File Formats
PDF Files (Acrobat):
Some documents on the Miami-Dade County and other government websites are in Portable Document Format (PDF). These types of documents ensure that users will be able to obtain publications in their original format regardless of what type of computer, browser, or operating system they use.
In order to view, navigate, and print PDF documents, users must first download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Detailed instructions for downloading and installing the Acrobat Reader are available at the Adobe website. If you are not able to complete the indicated procedure, a Troubleshooting guide is available. For best results, make sure you have installed version 4.0 or later of the Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Reader version 6.0 is now available as a free download.
Media Files
A few of our sites offer video files to enhance the visitor's experience. These files use the .wma format which can be viewed with the Microsoft Windows media player.
Accessibility
Each of our new pages has been designed to be "text-only" friendly and considerate of users accessing the site with special devices, such as screen readers, whenever possible. We use descriptive (ALT tags) words to supplement graphics. Pages of the site can be navigated even if you turn off image loading in your browser.
This site has been validated through "Bobby" - a website accessibility evaluation tool. For details on how PDF files can be translated to text for screen readers, visit access.adobe.com.The pages are designed to download as quickly as possible using 56K modem connections to the Internet. Our pages are best viewed at 1024x786 or higher resolution Graphics have been optimized to maintain quality at the smallest possible file size.
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