A group of Hoboken residents who are accustomed to on-line research say they are tired of having to take time off from work to stand in line, fill out duplicate forms, and be bounced between governmental departments to obtain public municipal records.
The new group, called People for Open Government, believes there has been a remarkable advance in the use of information technology in the private sector and are petitioning the government bureaucracies to be equally user-friendly.
The citizen-organized and -funded group has developed an Electronic Access Ordinance, which has been presented to the Hoboken City Council. The council is now in the process of reviewing and revising the legislation, according to city officials.
The proposed legislation would require the municipality to maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date web site and communicate with citizens via e-mail.
“Our citizens are Internet savvy,” said John Glasel, spokesperson for the PFOG. “A web site that has such things as meeting dates, agendas, minutes of meetings, and information request forms will help our government meet the needs of the community.”
The city’s web site (www.ci.hoboken.nj.us), which has been in various states of disarray the past several months, has seen major recent improvements and now lists upcoming city events, news, and according to city officials, will soon have meeting agendas.
Mayor David Roberts said Wednesday that the city is steadfast in its goal to improve its use of information technology.
“This administration is committed to providing access to all public information, as is evidenced with the city web site, which attracts over 500,000 hits each month,” said Roberts. “We intend to utilize the site as an educational tool and are exploring ways to provide as much information as possible while maintaining our costs at a reasonable level.”
Glasel said that while improvements to the web site are welcome, there should be legislation that requires the city to be held to high standards in the future. He added that in the in the sprit of having a transparent government, it is important to disseminate information conveniently for the residents.
“Interacting with Hoboken’s City Hall often requires residents to take time off from work,” said Glasel. “It’s much easier for people in towns that put their data on web sites and respond to e-mail requests. Hoboken should do no less for its residents.”
States are doing it
Glasel added courts and government agencies at local, state and federal levels are increasingly making public records available on web sites. Some cities are just beginning, while others have done so since the mid-1990s. “Making public records accessible to citizens via the Internet is a powerful way to arm people with the tools to keep government accountable,” said Glasel.
Most, if not all, of the City Council supports the concept behind the “Electronic Access Ordinance” and will likely approve some variation of the proposed ordinance in the near future, according to an informal poll of the city legislators.
According to City Business Administrator Robert Drasheff, the cost will play a role in how far-reaching the final resolution will go.
“Documents [to be digitized] limited to items like agendas, resolutions and ordinances of the City Council and major bodies like the Planning and Zoning offices can be done relatively easily,” said Drasheff, “but when you talk about scanning larger documents like architectural drawings and construction plans, then cost does become a legitimate issue.”
For example, he said, it would cost between $68,000 and $72,000 to digitize the city’s construction diagrams that are on file. “The council will have to come to a conclusion about exactly what quantity of these materials it wants to digitize,” said Drasheff.
There appears to be bipartisan support for the ordinance; both the administration and its opposition have said they support offering greater electronic access to public records. Councilwoman Carol Marsh said that she is in full support of the Electronic Access Ordinance.
“This is a wonderful piece of legislation,” said Marsh. “[Using e-mail and the Internet] is how people in this day and age communicate.”
She added that while cost should be considered, there are “plenty” of documents and information the city could begin putting online “immediately for little or no cost.”