Consider it freedom of information at the click of a mouse. The municipal Web site is considered by many as the new wave of the future when keeping in touch with local town happenings and most importantly, action by the governing bodies. For parents, a trip to their children’s school district’s site could also prove helpful in finding out school happenings, checking on student policies and even perusing what the board of education has been up to.

In honor of Sunshine Week, the nationally recognized time of year to raise awareness for transparency in government, the South Bergenite decided to peruse local municipal and school district Web sites to see just how much information could easily be accessed on the World Wide Web. While many towns are continuously striving to improve and build upon the offerings on their sites, some are noticeably lagging behind.

Town Hall at home

"We don’t need to hide anything as elected officials, so why not put everything out there where it’s easily accessible from your home or office," said Lyndhurst Mayor Richard DiLascio.

The township, until two years ago when local officials signed a contract with Web hosting company AlphaDog Solutions out of Belleville, never had a comprehensive Web site. Within the two years since, the township has created a user-friendly site that includes ordinances, vital statistics forms, board agendas, township news and calendars, to name just a few amenities. The cost is approximately $31,000 per year for the maintaining and hosting the site, but DiLascio said it’s well worth the money. He said the town’s currently scanning about 200,000 public hard copy documents ranging from contracts to building applications and approvals into the system and that too will soon be available.

"I think it will be a whole new world of transparency, if you want to go in and want to know the contract we signed with Gary Cucciara [the township’s attorney], you will be able to pull it right up," said DiLascio. "A lot of people fill out requests with the clerk, don’t get what they exactly wanted, but now, they can go on and if it wasn’t what the document they pull up isn’t what they want, they go find the right one."

Lyndhurst still however lacks board minutes, but the town is looking into costs associated with video taping every meeting and posting it on the Web. A lengthy joint meeting with the Lyndhurst Taxpayers Association late last year was taped by volunteers and can be viewed through the Civic Stream link on the town’s site.

Rutherford has also remained on the forefront; listing updated meeting minutes, agendas and borough alerts. It links users to a full list of borough codes. North Arlington has over the past year built upon its site to include a laundry list of public notices, updated regularly. It contains a link to the Government Records Council Web site to walk citizens through the Open Public Records Act and how best to file for open public records.

A look at others, however, show there is still room to improve. Carlstadt’s municipal Web site as well as East Rutherford’s are informative to the extent of departmental phone numbers, community news and events as well as limited forms to download. However, they are by far the least informative of all in the South Bergenite coverage area sites when it comes to governmental functions and the freedom to obtain vital information. When it comes to meeting agendas and minutes, the two do not post either. Want to know if you’re breaking town law somehow? Then call borough hall for a particular ordinance, because they too are non-existent on the Web.

However, state legislators think the time for more Web access is now. One bill moving through the legislature now would require municipalities to post legal notices on the Web and not in newspapers. Another legislator is pushing to have everything from payroll records to health inspections posted online.

Virtually in the schools

In Carlstadt, the district’s Web site evolved with its facilities. New school, new site thus was the case as technology supervisor Kathleen Evans took the lead in investigating a new company to create a template for the district Web site. Currently, meeting agendas and minutes can be accessed. Then there’s the school’s newsletter, the lunch menu, testing information and of most importantly the eBoard, a page each staff member can access to post the most relevant news to their particular classes.

"Sometimes things go home with the kids in the backpacks, but never make it to the parents," said Evans.

Evans said before contracting with IT Solutions, it was a difficult road to keep up with the site as most was done by HTML, a tedious process by even the most experienced Web aficionados.

In other districts, it’s apparent the sites are trying to keep stride with getting as much on the Web as possible.

"We really try to put on as much as we think people would want and if someone makes a suggestion, we will post it," said Rutherford Superintendent Leslie O’Keefe. "This year, for the first year, we put up a district events calendar, which is updated every week so people can go on and see ahead of time if there are any scheduling conflicts. Because people have requested it, we have put up the 2008 budget and will keep updating it and continue to do that with all the budgets. Homework heroes is popular with parents who want to check what their children’s homework is for the night, but not all teachers use it.

All other districts make the grade in linking their main site to each individual school where precise information can be found for every building, but the vitals are lacking. Board minutes in Lyndhurst are posted, but they are repetitively months behind. East Rutherford forgoes minutes and sums up board action in a link called Board Briefs. Becton posts agendas and neglects minutes while North Arlington forgoes both on its Web site.