Common Cause to Honor 117 Municipalities on Thursday [that's today] at the State House as Part of Sunshine Week Celebration

This just in from Common Cause Massachusetts:

BOSTON – Tomorrow [TODAY-March 19, 2009] at 1:00pm in the Nurses’ Hall at the State House Common Cause will honor 117 municipalities that have posted at least six important local governance documents on their websites. Representatives from each community will be presented with the 2009 e-Government Award. The event occurs during Sunshine Week, a national initiative by the American Society of Newspaper Editors created to raise awareness about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

The event is part of Common Cause’s on-going Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government, which periodically reviews the Internet presence of all 351 cities and towns in the state. The current audit of all municipal websites in the Commonwealth will be released at the event. The first assessment in early 2006 found that only 24 municipalities – or about 7 percent – have all six key records posted online. The six documents included in the review are the municipality's governing body’s agenda, the governing body’s minutes, budget information, the municipality’s bylaws, code or ordinances, and if applicable, the town meeting warrant and results.

The list of towns to be honored include: Amesbury, Amherst, Andover, Arlington, Ashburnham, Ashland, Barnstable, Becket, Bedford, Bellingham, Belmont, Bolton, Boston, Boxborough, Brookline, Burlington, Cambridge, Carver, Charlton, Chatham, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Chilmark, Concord, Dalton, Dedham, Dennis, Dudley, Dunstable, Duxbury, East Longmeadow, Eastham, Easton, Egremont, Everett, Falmouth, Fitchburg, Freetown, Gardner, Gill, Gloucester, Haverhill, Holden, Holland, Holliston, Holyoke, Hopkinton, Hudson, Ipswich, Kingston, Lakeville, Leominster, Littleton, Longmeadow, Lowell, Malden, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marlborough, Mashpee, Maynard, Melrose, Methuen, Millbury, Milton, Monterey, Nantucket, Needham, Newburyport, Newton, Norfolk, North Andover, North Reading, Northampton, Northborough, Northbridge, Orange, Orleans, Otis*, Paxton, Pembroke, Pepperell, Provincetown, Reading, Rockland, Rockport, Salem, Salisbury, Sandwich, Saugus, Scituate, Sharon, Sheffield, Somerville, South Hadley, Southwick, Springfield, Sterling, Sturbridge, Sudbury, Sutton, Tewksbury, Topsfield, Upton, West Boylston, West Springfield, Westford, Westminster, Weston, Westwood, Weymouth, Wilbraham, Williamstown, Winchester, Winthrop, Woburn, Worcester, and Wrentham.

“It’s time to bring local government into the 21st century,” said Common Cause Massachusetts’ Executive Director Pam Wilmot. “The Internet makes it easy and cost effective to facilitate public access and citizen engagement by, at a minimum, posting these six key records. More and more people rely on the Internet for critical information each day. Communities that provide this information are providing an important service to their citizens.”

What: 2009 e-Government Award Ceremony
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009
Time: 1:00pm
Place: Nurses’ Hall, State House, Boston


ABOUT COMMON CAUSE:

Common Cause Massachusetts is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, government watchdog, dedicated to citizen participation in an open, honest, and accountable government. An independent, member-supported organization, Common Cause has more than 200,000 members nationwide and 10,000 in Massachusetts.

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