Right-to-Know: May 2008 Archives
The Meredith News May 29th, 2008
SARAH SCHMIDT
correspondence. “At the May15 selectmen's meeting they (selectmen) refused to read into the minutes a letter to them that was asked to be "read not summarized" in their usual manner,” wrote Heath. “It was then barely summarized, after some rather condescending comments by the chair. It is a sad note when a taxpayer cannot have a note read into the minutes of a selectmen's meeting because it is in disagreement with them.”
The board’s decision last week means that all letters from citizens will be accepted, but not read aloud in either entirety or summary. If a citizen wants the letter to become part of the minutes, the letter must be read at the meeting by the citizen, or by their representative. TownAdministrator Carter Terenzini said that selectmen were concerned about “being taken to task” for how the letters were read or summarized. Terenzini said that letters will still be put in public record, alongside the meeting minutes. “If we keep doing it, we may put the wrong inflection on it, or the wrong summarization,” said Selectman Ed Charest. “It also takes a lot of time to read them all aloud, and Hope (Kokas) has to transcribe the entire letter into the minutes.” Charest said that selectmen were concerned that one summary might be considered to have been read more favorably than another. Punturieri expressed disappointment in the selectmen’s decision, calling it a less transparent method of operating. He said that people might not know what is being asked when selectmen summarize it. “To not read every letter equally seems prejudicial,” said Punturieri. “There can be many missed points when summaries are made. In my opinion, they’re only reading letters they want to read”
The Citizen Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Editorial
Now that the state's Right-to-Know Law has entered the electronic age, it is important that communities, school districts and other governmental entities which fall under the law's purview take steps to ensure that they abide by the requirements involving email access.
The law requires documents created or maintained in electronic form to be accessible....
The Citizen May 19th, 2008
By CUTTER MITCHELL
jmitchell@citizen.com
Selectman Gus Benavides has begun to question how Gilford stores its email and whether those methods follow the requirements of the state's Right to Know law.Benavides' main concern was the preservation of emails, which become public records when they have to do with town business otherwise not excluded by statute.According to RSA 91-A: 4 I, "every citizen during the regular or business hours of all such bodies or agencies, and on the regular business premises of such bodies or agencies, has the right to inspect all public records, including minutes of meetings of the bodies or agencies, and to make memorandums, abstracts, and photographic or photostatic copies of the records or minutes so inspected, except as otherwise prohibited by statute." Benavides pointed out that currently there is no backup to the town's emails. This means should any be lost, so would the public record of such a communication.He explained to his fellow board members that this material, "must be available to the public," in order for the town to be compliant with the state's Right-to-Know law. At this point, only the emails of the department managers are backed up and recorded under the town's current computer system. However Interim Town Administrator Debra Shackett did say with the installation of new computer servers, set to happen this year, all emails remaining at the end of the day will be recorded and backed up. This bit of information did not relieve the bulk of the concern, as Benavides pointed out the logging of emails would only happen to those remaining at the end of the day. This seems to overlook those emails that may be deleted during the business day, which would be lost as if "you crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it away," explained Shackett. She continued by saying the best way to make sure public record emails are not deleted by employees is to properly educate those employees about what they have to save and what is acceptable to "throw away" Shackett advised that the software needed to capture all the town's emails would cost an estimated $10,000, with the cost being the reason such a system is not already in place. There has been an occasion where public records in Gilford were lost. The Citizen recently reported on the destruction of meeting minutes through "an error in procedure" by Shackett. The minutes affected were the minutes, and by extent the public record, for the meeting where former Town Administrator Evans Juris was terminated. Just before bringing up this issue, the board heard from budget committee member and chairman of the Gilford Town Republican Committee Skip Murphy about a more open and transparent government through the Internet. Murphy was requesting that the town post much of its public information on the town website, with the bulk of the request focusing on the financial data from the town.
While the board did not take any immediate action, members did approve Benavides to explore how to make such a thing happen after he volunteered for the assignment. Selectman Chair Connie Grant advised Murphy that there is a lot the board wants to do this year and information sharing of this kind would have to come after other goals were achieved.
Friday, May 9, 2008
The good news is that many communities are taking steps to get official information online. The challenge is to expand the amount of information that is available and to get the information up in a timely fashion.
The term “public record” is one to be taken literally. Whatever is contained in a public record is what the public has an unquestionable right to view and examine.
Until the recent past that meant going to the appropriate government facility — a city or town hall, school district administrative offices, a courthouse — to view the various documents during business hours, usually in view of one or more government employees as well as other members of the public who might come to the office to transact business. Now, the Internet provides the opportunity to view these records from anywhere Internet access is available at any time of the day or night.
Many local communities are including on their websites such information as meeting agendas and minutes, budgetary information, tax maps and even information about property assessments. The variety of information varies depending on the municipality or school district. The same is true on the time it takes to get information up online. For example, the most recent Gilford Selectmen's minutes available on the town's website are for the April 9 meeting, while the last minutes of the Laconia City Council online are for the meeting of Feb. 25.
Officials should do everything feasible to get as much public information online as possible, as quickly as possible. This goal needs to take into account staffing and budgetary realities. But having said that, this is something which officials need to make a priority.
More and more, the Internet is the way in which people are getting their information. Government cannot expect that it is going to be untouched by this trend.
In making records available to the public, government officials must at the same time ensure that they are secure. Considering the legal weight that this information carries, they cannot afford to do otherwise. And it is possible that there might be personal information contained in certain public records that should not be available online, such as people's Social Security numbers.
But due diligence and common sense are not impediments to making access to the workings and business of government more efficient and more convenient
The Gilford Republican Committee has taken one of the founding principles of the Republican Party to heart, seeking to have basic public information more accessible.
The group has sent letters to the Gilford Board of Selectmen and the Gilford School Board, along with
"We decided if we really do embrace a transparent government, we should ask for something to be done," explained Gilford GOP Chair Skip Murphy.
The initiative started with a visit to a website called......
