The following are the criteria used in determining whether a municipality has posted the key governance records online:
A municipality receives a “yes” for having the governing body’s agenda if the website has an agenda posted for a meeting scheduled within the two weeks previous to or two weeks after the date the website is reviewed.
Ideally, the website should have an agenda posted for the next scheduled meeting, but often the agenda is not available until a few days before the meeting. Depending upon when that website is reviewed, the agenda for the next meeting might not be posted yet. Therefore, some municipalities may receive a yes for posting the governing body’s agenda even though the most recent agenda posted is for a meeting that has already been held.
A municipality does not receive credit for posting an agenda if it only posts the date, time, and location of a meeting; the agenda must list the matters that will be discussed at the meeting.
A municipality receives a “yes” for having the governing body’s minutes if the most recently posted minutes are for meetings occurring anytime during the two months prior to the date of the review.
A municipality receives a “yes” for having budget information on its website if it posts the budget for the current fiscal year. The information posted has to be at least a detailed operating budget; a summary of the budget is not sufficient. A municipality will receive credit if the budget is in a separate record or if it is included in a finance committee report to the town meeting, a mayor’s report to the city council, the town meeting warrant, or the town meeting results.
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A municipality receives a yes under this category if it posts a complete set of its bylaws, code, or ordinances on its website. A municipality receives no credit if it only posts its zoning bylaws or one particular section of its general bylaws.
A town receives credit for posting a town meeting warrant if it has any warrant posted from the previous 12 months or a town warrant for the next scheduled town meeting, whether it is for a special town meeting or for the annual town meeting. If the warrant articles are included in the town meeting results as a single document, then the town also receives credit.
Ideally, at the very least, all the town warrants for the past year and the town warrant for the next scheduled town meeting should be posted online, but for now MCOG has decided to give credit to towns that fall short of this ideal. A citizen can gain some important information about their local government by looking at previous town meeting warrants and every effort should be made to make such information easily available. Hopefully, as towns become more adapt at posting public records online, they will understand the benefit of keeping previous town warrants posted online.
The town meeting results is the record of what took place at the town meeting. A town receives a yes under this category if it has posted the results of a town meeting which took place within the past year. The results can be in any format as long as the particular record indicates what the town meeting decided on each article. Formats which have received credit include a copy of the warrant with notations under each article as to whether the article passed, with or without a vote tally; a spreadsheet with a row for each article, a short description of the article, and a vote tally; and actual minutes with a description of who spoke and who made motions.