If Only More Communities Were Like Belmar, NJ.

Blemar, N.J., is a community on the New Jersey shore. According to the borourgh's website, it has a year round population of about 6000 residents which swells to 40,000 during the summer. Also according to the borough's website, its elected officials get the importance of providing the citizens of Belmar with easy access to public information. Belmar has its own Project Open Government that is "designed to achieve three goals:

Ensure Citizen Access
Encourage Citizen Participation
Earn Citizen Confidence."

As part of the project, the Mayor and the Council are providing their email addresses and encouraging citizens to contact them. They also are digitizing their public records and putting them online so that, as the website states, "our residents and taxpayers will be able to view these records from the privacy of their own homes, without having to take time off from work or to feel uncomfortable asking to look at documents at Borough Hall."

There is no reason why more communities here in Massachusetts cannot follow Blemar's example. Shouldn't every public official want to ensure citizen access to information, encourage citizen participation and earn citizen confidence? More importantly, shouldn't we as citizens demand it?