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East Longmeadow lauded for transparency in government

Date: 4/19/2010

April 19, 2010

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW - For the second year in a row, the town of East Longmeadow has been recognized for its commitment to open government. Last month, Common Cause Massachusetts honored the town with award presented in Boston.

The goal of the Common Cause Massachusetts campaign for open government is to "make access to information about local government actions and decisions as easy as possible for every citizen, by raising public awareness about the Massachusetts open meeting law and the Massachusetts public record law," according to the organization's Web site.

This year, approximately 25 percent of the Commonwealth's cities and towns -- 90 of 351 received Common Cause's e-Government Award, which requires that they post their governing body's minutes and agendas, their budgets, their bylaws and, if applicable, their Town Meeting warrants and results. East Longmeadow was among 90 municipalities to receive the e-Government Award with distinction, given to towns that additionally post a year's archive of minutes and agendas, their calendars, their zoning bylaws, their school committee's minutes and agendas, and the minutes and agendas for another board or committee.

East Longmeadow posts the agendas, minutes and contact information for all of its elected boards. Also, in accordance with a new town bylaw proposed and co-sponsored by Selectman Jack Villamaino, the meetings of all elected boards are televised on East Longmeadow Community Access Television (ELCAT) and are also viewable on the town's Web site.

"Over the past two years, we've really made progress in making the business of our local government as accessible as possible," Villamaino said.

He continued that one of the things he wanted to do when he first became a selectman was to turn the town's Web site into a virtual town hall. "People often have a lot of questions about their local government and making all this information available to the residents of town isn't just good policy, it's practical and helpful as well," he stated.

Ryan Quimby, the town's IT director, said, "Our current Web site works well for us because of the people we have maintaining the information. We currently have interfaces for departments to add minutes and agendas on their own.

"Looking to the future, our plan is to make additional information available online," Quimby continued. "Such items are minutes and agendas of all boards and committees, forms and community calendars. We plan on doing this by making it easier for departments to update their sites. Also, we would like to have the ability to pay more bills through the Web site."

Villamaino noted he would like the Web site to feature the minutes and agendas of Regional Boards of Selectmen meetings as well.

"We're also working on a way for people to request minutes from executive session portions of meetings where the reason for them being executive no longer applies," he said. "I think it's important that all information that can be released be made available to anyone who wants it."

Common Cause is a non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy, reinventing an open, honest and accountable government that serves the public interest, and empowering ordinary people to make their voices heard in the political process.

For more information, visit www.commoncause.org/egov10.