The Ideal Municipal Website
When the Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government project reviewed the websites for Massachusetts municipalities, our goal was to determine if the municipalities posted their key governance records on line. It seems reasonable to expect all cities and towns in Massachusetts to be able to meet this minimum standard. As of September, 2006, however, only 40 did.
This past week we received a question from a town records clerk in Wyoming asking us what we thought the ideal municipal website should contain to promote open government. We responded that ideally cities and towns should post every public record online, including the following:
1. The agendas and minutes of every public meeting in the city or town.
(The website for the town of Amherst, Massachusetts appears to do this.)
2. The materials that the members of the governing bodies receive prior to their meetings. For example, the Town of Franklin Massachusetts posts the “Agenda Packet,” for each town council meeting.
3. An archives of pubic records. For example, the town of Hampden has the Town's Annual Reports posted on line dating back to 1878. Although this example may be extreme, ideally the public records of past year’s decisions and actions should be accessible online, at least for the most recent past.
4. Correspondence, including emails, between public officials and the public.
In addition to posting these records, the ideal municipal website should contain the following features:
1. Downloads of webcasts of public meetings, as the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, currently provides.
2. List servers which email information about public meetings and other information about the local government to anyone who signs up. For example, see the website for the Town of Tolland, where anyone can sign up to receive emails about a number of different board and committee meetings.
3. Email addresses for local officials so anyone can communicate easily with the local officials.
In addition, a municipality should periodically survey the public on what it likes or dislikes about the website and what it would like to see on the website.
The Massachusetts Open Government is trying to persuade all the cities and towns in Massachusetts to meet the minimum standard of posting the key governance records online. We hope, however, municipalities will discover the benefit of doing more than the minimum with their websites and will strive to make their websites even better.
This past week we received a question from a town records clerk in Wyoming asking us what we thought the ideal municipal website should contain to promote open government. We responded that ideally cities and towns should post every public record online, including the following:
1. The agendas and minutes of every public meeting in the city or town.
(The website for the town of Amherst, Massachusetts appears to do this.)
2. The materials that the members of the governing bodies receive prior to their meetings. For example, the Town of Franklin Massachusetts posts the “Agenda Packet,” for each town council meeting.
3. An archives of pubic records. For example, the town of Hampden has the Town's Annual Reports posted on line dating back to 1878. Although this example may be extreme, ideally the public records of past year’s decisions and actions should be accessible online, at least for the most recent past.
4. Correspondence, including emails, between public officials and the public.
In addition to posting these records, the ideal municipal website should contain the following features:
1. Downloads of webcasts of public meetings, as the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, currently provides.
2. List servers which email information about public meetings and other information about the local government to anyone who signs up. For example, see the website for the Town of Tolland, where anyone can sign up to receive emails about a number of different board and committee meetings.
3. Email addresses for local officials so anyone can communicate easily with the local officials.
In addition, a municipality should periodically survey the public on what it likes or dislikes about the website and what it would like to see on the website.
The Massachusetts Open Government is trying to persuade all the cities and towns in Massachusetts to meet the minimum standard of posting the key governance records online. We hope, however, municipalities will discover the benefit of doing more than the minimum with their websites and will strive to make their websites even better.
posted by Karla J. de Steuben at 5:14 PM
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