When Milan resident Bill Jeffway wanted to know what was going on in town government, he once had to go to the front door of the town hall at night with a flashlight to read the postings. ''I thought there must be a better way,'' Jeffway said. ''I was afraid I would be arrested. But honestly, that's how I had to find information out.''
Jeffway joined with other residents to create a Web site that now serves as a clearinghouse for municipal information. There's contact information for town, county, state and federal officials. There's a schedule of town meetings. There's a comprehensive history of the town, with photos of a 3,000-year-old arrowhead and historic structures built by European settlers. And this month, volunteers who run the site began issuing an electronic monthly newsletter.
But none of the volunteer-supplied content is paid for by the town.
What mid-Hudson towns choose to post on their Web sites varies considerably. Some governments, like in New Paltz and East Fishkill, are taking the lead and posting everything from laws to photos of construction projects.
The medium offers up endless possibilities for open democracy and public access. But like the Internet itself, municipal information on the Web is undefined and unpredictable.
Exports predict feature
At a conference on e-government held last month at Marist College, a national expert on the subject said the Web can bring taxpayers massive cost savings through efficiency of public administration. That's in addition to boosting faith in government.
''We want government to deliver as promised,'' said Marc Holzer, chair of the graduate department of public administration at Rutgers University. "You can only do that by getting the information out in public.''
A Web site maintained by the South Korean capital city of Seoul was held up as the one of the highest examples of e-government.
The site offers 397 online forms, reams of reference data and free tutorials on using the Web. The average Seoul citizen spends 13 hours a week at the site, the most usage for a government site in the world, said Chan-Gon Kim, Seoul's third-in-command after the mayor and deputy, and one of the panelists at the Marist conference.
The site's shining jewels are what Seoul's government calls the anti-corruption documents -- continually updated studies of administrative performance. The Seoul mottos are ''stagnant water breeds disease'' and ''sunshine is the best disinfectant."
Kim said he and his staff developed the new Web site over a three-month period -- spending $337,520 on new hardware and software and often working late into the night.
''It's really a giant leap for most governments to offer that kind of level of transparency,'' said Donald Calista, director of the Marist Graduate Center for Public Policy.
Town of Poughkeepsie Supervisor Joseph Davis said the conference was worthwhile, but his municipality can't afford Seoul's wealth of offerings. Calling the Web site a ''Rolls Royce,'' he said he's looking for ''maybe a VW or an Audi.''
Seeking online savings
Poughkeepsie is among the municipalities that is seeking to save tax dollars by improving the electronic distribution of information. In February, the town board approved spending $600,000 to upgrade its computer system.
Last year, town officials approved the creation of a Web site that allows residents to peruse agendas for various town boards such as planning and zoning.
In Milan, lack of funding has put volunteers on the front lines of the e-government effort. Sporting an annual budget of about $1 million, Milan's government remains one of Dutchess County's smallest.
The Milan town board, said town Supervisor Richard Jeffreys, has been discussing how meaningful information can be regularly updated -- once it's posted. But the town hasn't been able to afford the elaborate postings of richer towns, Jeffreys said.
''It isn't that it isn't important,'' the part-time supervisor said. ''It's that we have other issues that are more important that are occupying a great deal of our time.''
A site-specific search engine probably wouldn't be needed for at least another year, Jeffreys said. And there's no plan to post Milan's laws.
Despite a 24 percent Milan growth rate over the past decade, the town supervisor said, there's still ''relatively low demand for the code book.''
Yet in such a dynamic town, argued Jeffway, a comprehensive town Web site is overdue.
''Development is hitting Milan,'' he said. ''So our neighborhood group is born out of the need to really very, very quickly ramp up citizens' awareness of the need for them to constructively participate in their town's future . ... Milan needs to educate itself.''
Quelle: Poughkeepsie Journal
