More and more, localities are embracing new technologies to help busy citizens access government records and watch government meetings — without FOIA fights, fee arguments, talk of “extra work” for public employees or the obvious inconvenience of weekday trips to the courthouse.
Just as the federal Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to place online their frequently requested public records, Virginia’s FOI law requires state agencies to post meeting notices, agendas and minutes on the Internet.
Although no such requirement exists for local government, many localities — rural as well as urban — are beginning to take the digital plunge voluntarily.
Some examples (certainly not a complete list):
• Albemarle County provides online recordings of public meetings — from Albemarle Planning Commission work sessions to Rivanna Solid Waste Authority board discussions. The Web site also features podcasts of supervisors’ meetings and allows residents to track the status of development applications, inspections and various permits online. Thanks to an extensive geographic information system (GIS) program, residents also will be able to interactively map the county and compare variables across geographical areas.
• Bland County launched wireless Internet access free to all of its citizens — the first such countywide “hot spot” in Southwest Virginia and, it was said, one of only three in the entire state.
• Campbell County launched a GIS program that allows the public, including non-county residents, to access an aerial map containing road, property and other county information. (No more FOIA arguments there about Virginia’s residency rules!)
• Remember when Chincoteague officials went on a secret spending binge in Florida (when they were supposed to be at a training conference)? Now, Town Council broadcasts meetings live over the Net.
• Charlottesville unveiled a redesigned Web site that offers streaming video of City Council meetings and searchable archives of meeting agendas and minutes. Users can perform a variety of new tasks online, including paying property and real estate taxes, parking tickets and utility bills. Users also can make service requests for everything from burned out streetlights to potholes. Job seekers can apply for city openings, while others can apply for boards or commissions. It’s all part of a $6.6 million computer system overhaul that drew criticism because of its cost. At 1,100 pages, the site is one of the largest municipal Web sites in the country.
• Fredericksburg City Council set up an archiving system to deal with elected officials’ e-mail (see separate story).
• Lynchburg placed its annual audit reports at the city’s Web site. For a time, the audit committee got cold feet and the Web pages were taken down; after a few weeks, the committee reversed the decision and put the records back online.
• Roanoke City and Spotsylvania County post online the same agenda materials that are in the hands of governing bodies. Spotsylvania residents can now see the material “before we vote on any of the items. That will help (citizens) to better understand our decision-making process and help them to better participate in it,” Board Chairman Bob Hagan said.
• The Stafford Planning Commission voted 4-3 to take its meetings off the air. Commissioners said that some county staffers and community members didn’t like speaking when they knew they would be on television. Weeks later, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution requiring that the cameras be turned back on. They said they saw no reason to drop the curtain on decision-makers because a few people were camera-shy.
• Others broadcasting their public meetings on the Internet via streaming video include the Town of Blacksburg and Loudoun County. Both plan to provide a video archive of past meetings as well. Blacksburg contracted with a California firm for a $10,000 yearly Web service that links meetings, documents, agendas and minutes. (Former Montgomery County Supervisor Lindsay West urged Blacksburg Council to record and air its work sessions too.)
State agencies also are using technology to reform government services.
• VDOT began a free e-mail alert system: www.511Virginia.org (if you’re at home and still packing for a cross-state trip, it’s a great way to know where tunnels are blocked, ramps are closed and Interstates are stalled). VDOT may still be the only state agency using a computerized system to ensure compliance with FOIA requests.
Now if Virginia’s House of Delegates could get past its camera-shyness . . .
But there can be a downside to technological advancements. Just ask state employee Will Vehrs, who got suspended for two weeks after using his blog — on taxpayer time — to poke fun at the Martinsville region. Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, even called for Vehrs’ resignation.
Vehrs works in the Department of Business Assistance, which added to the wrath of the economically depressed region. Things got patched up after lots of apologies and Vehrs’ class-act trip to the region to make amends.
“I always imagined if my blogging was discovered that I would go down because I had written some opinion piece, because I’d blogged about someone in power. I never dreamed that it would be because I told some bad jokes,” Vehrs said.