More Sunshine...

Yesterday I addressed Open Meetings in Nazareth over the past year in recognition of Sunshine Week. Today, I'll be discussing public records and information.

In the past, the only way to obtain records was to physically visit an office between normal business hours. Of course these were the same normal business hours you also kept and as a result while possibly legally accessible, information and records were often difficult for individuals to obtain.

Today, with web sites and the internet, public records and information are more available than ever before, but the resources needed to get these materials online have resulted in those with the deepest pockets providing the most information in this way, while those with the least have struggled to do so.

The Federal Government and Commonwealth of PA have spent considerable money to have very robust web sites that can provide all manner of information including tax forms and renewal of vehicle registration. PA's site does require a fairly extensive registration to access certain information, which I'm not a big fan of, but sometimes you either have to give the info or not get what you want.

The County of Northampton's web site, while not as extensive as the state or federal government (nor is this body as large thank goodness) has a lot of information including forms and it has tax assessment information online in a separate site (visit ncpub.org here).

The Nazareth Area School District has regularly posted its Board Meeting Agendas, Budgets, and Minutes on its site in PDF format along with other state reports and information. Daily information is available as well (I'll address communications later this week). The NASD is instituting an online grade system for parents to be able to view their child's records through the web site. During the contract discussions with the NAEA, the NASD did begin to post more information. I was pleased that a post on this site lamenting that a press announcement was not available online led to its being posted and as the negotiations continued health plans, contracts, and other relevant information was posted so community members could make judgments of their own.

One area of improvement for the NASD would be to additionally publish the reports that are referenced on the agenda from committees and administrators. And further, I for one, would like to have the ability to read an HTML agenda that had links to the items in the agenda. For instance, where it says Principal's Reports, there would be a hot link from the specific principal's name to the actual report that was submitted. Similarly, if the budget is referenced, a hot link would take a reader to the budget. PDF is fast being replaced by HTML for this very reason. The sooner the NASD and other governmental bodies pick up on this shift, the better we will all be able to access information.

On the municipal level, the Borough of Nazareth has struggled with its site over the past year or so, but has taken steps to make it more valuable to residents. To that end the site redesign has a more current look and feel and the agenda and minutes section have been updated. The minutes will only be posted after they are approved at the next Council meeting, so there will be a delay in receiving the information online from the Borough.

It will also be interesting to see how the past minutes and agendas will be archived on the site. Right now, when you click on agenda or minutes there is only one month showing and it is in html (a good thing) but not dated or uniquely tagged in the URL, so I'm wondering if this will be removed with the next set or if an archive page will be created so residents can go to past minutes and agendas. Again, it is an improvement, but a work in progress.

Another area that has been questioned in regard to records is the reporting of police incidents in the Borough (as well as the others). Individuals from both the Express-Times and the Morning Call have commented to me that it is difficult to get "police blotter" information from the Nazareth area.

It would be nice if this information were available online, especially if it could be done using a Google maps mash-up. Data could be overlayed with mapping programs to provide residents with a visual of where crimes or traffic incidents in general or of a specific type have taken place over a specified period of time. One of the best known sites nationally of this type is ChicagoCrime.org

IncidentLog is a site that allows a local area to add its data to their site which uses Google maps at no charge. There are also other free mapping services that allow users to create maps and plug any type of data into them. The most important point is that there are current means to provide this data to the public to make them aware of what is happening in their own community without having to wait until a series of incidents has occurred to find out (as was the case at the start of this year). On the plus side, the Colonial Regional Police Department serving Lower Nazareth among others, does include year end incident reports per municipality served.

Nazareth is not alone as it relates to its web site and the information available. In many ways it leads the area municipalities. Lower Nazareth does not provide meeting minutes nor does it provide agendas. There is information on the community, links, and a link to the Colonial Regional Police web site, but that is about it. Similarly, Bushkill Township has news on the home page, but its officials link has names only (no email), and there are no agendas or meetings. The calendar is also from 2006. Finally, Upper Nazareth Township does not have a web site, but they have budgeted to develop one this year.

The web site is not the only way for a government body to distribute information, but it is one of the best ways to share information with residents in today's world. Residents do not need to make a request, they can simply get it. The more informed the people of a community, the better off the community.

Let's hope as we move forward that these municipalities will work toward providing more information for their residents.