New Haven Independent

As of last October, municipalities are required to post the minutes of public meetings on their websites within seven days. They are also required to post a schedule of regular meetings for one year by January of this year and must post notice of special meetings at least 24 hours in advance.

Fced with this incredible mandate to actually inform citizens of what they are doing what did a few cities and towns do? Of course — they shut down their websites, arguing to follow the law would cost too much.

Then they ran to their legislators whining, “save us from this horrible mandate of disclosure. We don’t know how to maintain websites and post minutes in an inexpensive and timely manner. “

Not content to just whine but manage to get it done, they have set upon the co-chairs of the legislature’s Government Administration and Elections Committee begging and pleading for help. Co-Chairs Gayle Slossberg from Milford and James Spallone from Essex have since expressed their support for the “phasing in” of this onerous responsibility. It would give municipalities a one-year “grace period” to figure out this new-fangled thing called the Internet.

A municipality could seek a waiver for another year (and possibly more) simply by sending a letter to the state’s Freedom of Information Commission explaining that “the implementation causes a hardship ((which may include cost, technical problems, manpower issues, logistics, etc.). The letter would serve as a waiver for another year.”

Rubbish.

Who knew that the Internet, that marvel of technology, would be such a difficult method of communication for elected officials and their employees to master? Here is a clue: Just about every kid over 12 has a web presence on Facebook, MySpace or “someplace.” How is it that virtually every entity in the world can manage to update its page(s) by the minute and some government officials are incapable of getting it done once a week?

Which just goes to show you how moronic the “we can’t figure out how to make that Internet thing work for us” argument really is. This is 2009. There are a half dozen different companies that for nothing or a modest fee will design anyone a functional website. Updating one takes minutes. Just ask a Boy or Girl Scout.

Want one better? Nova Scotia went so far as to develop a template that all municipalities could use, according to Barry Barnet, the Minister of Service and Municipal relations. At the time it was announced in April of 2004, Barnet said, “The template is a packaged, flexible approach to help municipalities build a functional, user-friendly website without investing a lot of time, money and resources.” The full press release is here.

If any bill slowing down the public’s “right to know” ever makes it to the governor’s desk, she should toss it out with the rest of the morning garbage.

In the interim, drop Mr. Spallone and Ms. Slossberg a note and let them know you think.

Yes, they have websites. Find them here and here.