August 3, 2007

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Copyright 2007, East Rockhill Township, Pennsylvania.  All rights reserved.

Intelligencer Article Praises East Rockhill Website

By ANDREW MCGILL

The Intelligencer

 

Since its humble beginnings in the early 1990s, the World Wide Web has grown to encompass much of the globe, distributing information to over a billion users. Now, some are wondering when their local municipality will catch up.

 

In a survey conducted by The Intelligencer, most municipal Web sites in Bucks County failed to provide some aspect of critical municipal information online, with many lacking municipal ordinances, a comprehensive budget, meeting agendas and minutes, downloadable town forms or a community calendar.

 

Out of the 54 municipalities in Bucks County and 13 in neighboring Montgomery, only eight provided all of those categories of information to their citizens via the Internet.

 

Pennsylvania set a state precedent last month, posting the commonwealth's laws and ordinances online. Prompted by legislation introduced in June and passed unanimously in the House, the move ended Pennsylvania's reign as the only state in the nation denying online access to state laws. Allegheny County state Rep. Elisabeth Bennington sponsored the bill, saying that from her experience as a divorce lawyer, having the codes online made sense.

 

“Most people use the Internet ... most people want free online access to our state laws,” she said. “From the idea of reform, why aren't they online? Why are our laws a closed record?”

 

Bennington subscribed to a law library while a lawyer, and indeed, the Bucks County Law Library remains a valuable asset for those seeking legal information. However, cooperation from municipalities to keep their laws current at the library can be spotty: Law library assistant librarian Barbara Morris said that around 75 percent of towns in Bucks County comply with her requests to send revised municipal codes. Increased availability of such documents online has “slightly decreased” the public's utilization of the library in the past five years, she said.

 

This week, Democratic candidates for Bucks County commissioner promised, if elected, they would provide electronic access to county documents, such as the budget, via the county's Web site.

 

For smaller municipalities, a Web site can be a valuable supplement to overworked offices in dispensing information. For years, East Rockhill maintained a small community site, updated every now and then by staff members. But the administration decided it needed to get serious about the township's presence on the growing Internet, and it hired Jonathan Platt, owner of Datasoft Inc.

 

Platt, a veteran in Web design, immediately began making requests to the township. He wanted its ordinances. He wanted its documents. Most of all, he wanted the township meeting minutes, as far as records went back.

 

“I wanted to be thorough,” he said. “I think anything that's on public record ought to be out there on the Internet.”

 

And township officials, he said, were forthcoming. Since then, they've worked together to keep the information current and to add new content, including a recent information page on storm water management. Having a good Web site, East Rockhill manager Anne Klepfer says, has smoothed out municipal operations and reduced calls to their offices.

 

“Our goal is really just to make public access to public information easier,” she said.

 

Town size doesn't determine Web site quality. Plumstead, with half the population of East Rockhill, also received a perfect score. Meanwhile, Northampton's Web site only provided government budgets and agendas, putting the 40,000-population municipality on par with such smaller towns as Penndel and Sellersville.

 

But change is not impossible. Sellersville manager Alan Frick acknowledges his town's Web site, heavy on history and photos but light on municipal business, hasn't changed much in nine years. Officials looking to hire a professional and post zoning ordinances online, but, as he puts it, “it goes so slow.”

 

“Right now, for most of that, you need to call the office,” he said. “But our staff is very friendly.”