Poquoson, James City County, Hampton offer good Web sites
Daily Press editorial
The Internet is a great tool for keeping up with government, and keeping an eye on what it’s up to. Specifically, it can be a great way to find out what your local governing body – city council or board of supervisors – is getting ready to do, what it has done and not done, and what its individual members are contributing, or not, to the progress of your community.
Some of the main tools: agendas spelling out what items are coming up on a certain date (which might nudge you to share your thoughts with your representatives before they make decisions). And minutes that detail the decisions and discussions about local issues.
Hampton offers video of council meetings, in case you want to hear things from the horses’ mouths. A feature, called “searchable archived minutes,” makes quick work of trolling through years of minutes to find out when something was discussed and what was said. That’s handy if you don’t know the dates a topic was addressed or know it kept coming up.
Poquoson, with far fewer resources, also uses this feature to make things easier for involved citizens, a breed easy to find in that small city.
In a check to see how other localities handle minutes, James City County’s Web site proved problematic. A call to the office of the Board of Supervisors helped – the minutes were there (along with video of the meetings); they just were not easy to find. But soon, a call back from that office informed us that the county Web site was being redesigned – that very day – to make it easier to find the minutes as well as other information about the board.
From a suggestion that a Web site was hard to navigate to a thorough fix in one day – now that’s a public friendly way to do business.
In a county where managing growth is critical, it’s helpful that this one goes the extra step and makes video of its Planning Commission meetings available online, as well as agendas and minutes. (You can find Planning Commission videos on Hampton’s site, too.)
Making it easy for wired citizens to use a deep and wide trove of resources documenting what government is up to is becoming the norm for localities, although some are further ahead and others (including Newport News) lag behind. And many school boards are making it easier to get to the information that citizens need to be informed about what’s going on with their schools.
Public access to the workings of government makes government work better. And if you have access to a computer, there’s no excuse not to be informed.
Virginia will “Google”
When public records go online, it doesn’t mean the wired community can easily find them — even when using good search engines.
Google (who else!) wants to fix that problem.
Partnering with Virginia, California and two other states, the Internet search company wants to remove the technical barriers that prevent Yahoo, Google and Microsoft search engines from accessing thousands of public records dealing with education, real estate, health care and the environment.
Google will provide free consulting and some software to look deeply into the state’s computer world, “spider” the content and “optimize” the search engines (geeks actually talk that way!).
Virginia’s partnership with Google excites backers of open government but worries some privacy advocates (they’ve obviously not been online searching for elusive state-agency FOI policy pages — pages mandated by state law).
Follow the money
Americans will be able to better track Washington spending, thanks to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.
The law calls for establishing a Web site to list federal grants and contracts greater than $25,000.
(But beware: Funds classified for national “security” reasons will not be included.)
“The Web site will allow our citizens to go online, type in the name of any company, association, or state or locality and find out exactly what grants and contracts they’ve been awarded,” President Bush said upon signing the bill.
Mark Tapscott, editorial editor of the Washington Examiner, applauded the move. “Using the Internet to foster greater transparency and accountability in government has not only become one of the few points of agreement between liberals and conservatives, it has even become official government policy.”
The law directs the Office of Management and Budget to establish a Google-like searchable database of most federal spending by 2009. You can view the preliminary Web site at www.federalspending.gov/comments/comments.do . You can also get a good idea of the benefits to come by checking OMB Watch’s Fedspending.org .
And in Virginia . . .
It’s now only a click away for Virginians to keep tabs on the performance of its state government. Gov. Tim Kaine launched an interactive Web site, www.VAperforms.virginia.gov , that shows how Virginia measures up region by region and how it compares to other states.
The site allows surfers to review measurable performance targets for state agencies and institutions in seven major areas: education, public safety, economy, the environment, transportation, government and citizens, and health and family.
You can run, but not hide
An hour after announcing his candidacy for Albemarle sheriff, Democrat Roger Craig got a taste of election-year scrutiny in the bloggosphere. Craig began his campaign to replace his outgoing boss with a news conference at 11 a.m. At 12:04 p.m., blogger Waldo Jaquith posted an entry on cvillenews.com, pointing out that the longtime deputy lived just outside Albemarle in Orange County. Craig confirmed the report, but said he planned to move to a home he and his wife own in Albemarle.
Speaking of Waldo . . .
Partnering with the Virginia Interfaith Center, the Charlottesville blogger created a user-friendly Web site that builds on all of the best online resources from the General Assembly and Legislative Services. Bills are automatically uploaded to the site as they drop, change, pass and die. In addition, advanced features allow citizens to search by keyword, add committee lists to each bill, and check how legislators have voted. Ultimately, the Interfaith Center said, RichmondSunlight.com will be the best Web resource the Commonwealth has ever seen for legislative advocates. (And, unlike Lobbyist in a Box, all its features are free.)
City Hall a click away
More and more Virginia localities are improving their Internet sites to keep citizens informed about everything from holiday trash collections to real estate assessments. Harrisonburg took it a step further, overhauling its site to offer data and links for where to get your driver’s license, city decals, parking stickers and information about vehicle inspections. It also tells you how to get your electricity turned on and your water hooked up, even with a tip – the Harrisonburg Electric Commission does not accept Visa credit cards. A citizen praised the site, but complained that city council agendas and minutes were missing. But since Jan. 1, agendas and minutes have been posted (they’re just hard to find: click first on the city manager’s “welcome page,” then click on “come to a city council meeting.”)