MADELINE ISLAND NEWS AND INFORMATION
Editorial
When this website came on line last January, providing news and information to the residents of La Pointe, we caused quite a stir among our local government officials and shortly thereafter, the Town Board agreed that it was time for an "Official Website" for the town. However, there was much talk and little action. Those sitting on the Town Board at the time were not able to accomplish the task and as the April elections came and went, there was still no town website.
The new Town Board, with Beth Fischlowitz and Ric Gillman, entered into an agreement in April with Complete Computer Solutions-- an off-island company-- to design a website for the town for $3,000. (It is interesting to note that this contract was not advertised to the general public, so none of the website designers living on the island had a opportunity to bid on the contract.)
Over the next few months, meetings were held to discuss the new website. The minutes from these meetings are vague, however, the public was invited. We're not sure how many meetings were held over the summer, but then the meetings stopped.
Recent complaints from the public not being able to get timely information put the town's website back on the agenda for the September 9th meeting. When Town Board Chair, Greg Nelson asked board members what was dragging it out, Ric Gilman replied, "It's the Town Board not getting it coordinated in a timely fashion, quite honestly. We haven't met enough to stay on top of it, we let the ball drop and we're getting back on it now. Click here to listen to the discussion.
However, no discussion of the website appears to happened at the last Town Board meeting of September 23rd.
We are asking ourselves, what is so hard about putting together a town website?
It can't be the costs. This cost breakdown for this website is as follows:
Domain Name registration: $35 per year or typically free with a hosting package
Hosting: $12.00 per month or $99 per year.
Our biggest costs, is having to pay for information from Town Hall. Anything NOT in electronic format costs us $0.25 per page. Discs of audio recordings cost us $2.00 per disc. This is an expense that the town would not incur.
Obviously the time to put the site together is a big factor as it takes some time to scan documents that are not in electronic format. The refusal of government officials like Carl Broberg (Chair of the TPC) to provide documents in electronic format does not help.
The Town Board unanimously decided at the September 9th meeting that "Broberg and the Town Plan Commission does not need to provide records in electronic format in response to Open Record Requests, that only date-stamped paper records need be provided." Click here for the approved minutes for that meeting. This includes items like meeting agendas. (We're not sure, but we think that this is a direct violation of Wisconsin Open Records Law. More on this later.)
Not encouraging the use of electronic documents only costs the town more money as paper records need to be scanned before they are put on the website. Also, the time spent handling paper documents costs the town money as it takes time to file, store and retrieve documents. However, much of the work has already been done by this website!!!
It has been over nine months since the Town Board started talking about a website, but apparently there is no hurry. Once again, there has been a lot of talk and little action. This seems to be typical of a lot of things in this town.
It is likely that once the website is up and running, it will probably not be updated in any timely fashion. If it has taken nine months and $3,000 just to get this far (nowhere), then once it is up, will probably not get updated any faster, unless someone is hired specifically for this task. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Besides, with all of the proposed changes in zoning causing so much public outcry, why would the Town Board want to keep its residents informed of happenings in La Pointe government?
Could it be that they are trying to avoid even more lawsuits?
Maybe it would be best if we just wait for the next issue of The Island Gazette to see what's going on in our town's government.
In the meantime, we'll keep you posted.
Edward Itor
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