TITLE
Recommendation that City Council, recognizing the need of full disclosure and transparency, shall refer this matter to the City Manager for a cost estimate of implementing those features not currently on the City website as noted.
DISCUSSION
Facts:
· Sunshine Review
() is a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency . The Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares transparency information and uses a "10-point Transparency Checklist " to evaluate the content of every state and more than 5,000 local government websites. Sunshine Review collaborates with individuals and organizations throughout America in the cause of an informed citizenry and an accountable government.
· The County of Los Angeles and the City of San Diego have been given an A+ for their transparent websites.
· While the City of Long Beach website has many of the recommended items that make the website transparent, we are lacking many others.
· Sunshine Review recommends the following checklist for city websites to be considered transparent:
o City residents and taxpayers need to be able to adequately gauge whether a city government is:
o Effective.
o Competent.
o Frugal with tax revenues
o In compliance with all expectations and relevant laws about public records and open meetings.
In order for this to happen, residents and taxpayers should expect to find key information on any city's website.
1. Budget
The city website should include comprehensive budget information.
· The budget for the current fiscal year should be posted online.
· Budgets for previous years should...
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