TOWNSHEND — I have no right to speak on behalf of the town of Townshend. I do, however, have a right to speak to the recent, rambling comments by Senator Jeanette White regarding Townshend's decision to take its website down.
While some believe I controlled the website and the content, I did not. I built it, I maintained it, and I am the only person in town who has been involved with it from the beginning to its current archived state. Any and all decisions about content were up to the Selectboard.
I wish to insert some facts into the discussion and this is a perfect time to do it since I can, through this medium, speak not only to Senator White but to all Windham County candidates vying for any position in Montpelier this 2014 campaign season.
In the fall of 2005, I was sitting at a Selectboard meeting and Kit Martin - then chairman, if my recollection is correct - asked, “We really should have a website, can you do one for us?”
I responded in the affirmative and proceeded to get a quote together. The quote, in my normal style, was based on how we could do the most with the least amount of money. I am a taxpayer here as well, and “the most for the least” is the way most small towns in Vermont exist.
I concentrated on building pages for the most important boards in town - the Selectboard and the Planning Commission - and created pages that would include a place to post and store their respective minutes.
Did I expect anyone to ever care so much about what all the various boards and committees were up to that I had to build and maintain pages for them?
No. As much as I respect the wonderful people on the Cemetery Commission and thank them for the time they volunteer to do their job, even they will tell you no one ever comes marching into the Town Hall demanding an agenda and the minutes for their meetings.
In the early days of the new age of computers, Walter Meyer, the late Richard Haas, and I comprised a town-sanctioned committee formed to take Townshend from the world of 8088s into the world of 486es.
Did we do work for the town, yes? Did anyone care or even understand what we discussed? No. Agendas? Minutes? Not on your life. We just sat around and talked geek. Our suggestions to the Selectboard, which is all anyone cared about, were a matter of record.
The Townshend website was developed for Townshend residents, out-of-state property owners, and potential visitors. Many discussions happened regarding what should and should not be on the website, all based on these three stakeholder groups. Montpelier and the press were not considered stakeholders.
In addition, we established a Listserv, which we would use to send information via email regularly to anyone who decided to sign up.
When the website was taken down, approximately 80 entities were active, ranging from Townshend voters to Vermont Public Radio. No one was ever rejected, and participants could sign up automatically. (I have no idea who about half of the recipients were, as all I have is an email address.)
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The Listserv seems to be the source of confusion for Senator White, and apparently many others as well.
No one eliminated email capabilities, and selected townshendvt.net email addresses are still functioning. However, the Listserv was actually just an extension of the website, delivering the same information via email to subscribers that was provided on the website.
This being the case, I recommended that it, as well, be discontinued. We were already having some issues with non- stakeholders making requests that additional information be distributed so, erring on the side of caution, once the final message went out, the recipient list was archived and the address deleted. The Listserv could, as well, be easily viewed as having to meet the same “public disclosure” requirements at some point in the future.
Townshend is not “wrong,” as the good Senator would suggest. Townshend simply does not like legal bills.
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In all the years that have passed since the site was launched in early 2006, we have had very few complaints from the stakeholders. The only real complaints? We did not post the Grand List, we used graphics for email addresses, and the site was not mobile phone friendly. Those three complaints came from one individual.
On the other side, we have had inquiries from town clerks wanting to know if some company's “what you see is what you get” software was used to create the website. This was a source of pride for all involved. “No, we built it from scratch, no templates.”
The total cost of the website to Townshend taxpayers over its entire lifespan equals $2,134, a significant portion of which was purchasing the software and the initial development time. The town pays, on an annual basis, the hosting cost ($60), the domain name ($11), and an annual maintenance fee to me ($36.50).
Aside from the $36.50, all of the time everyone spends on the site is donated. That would include myself and the Town Clerk. It is impossible to calculate the hundreds of hours that everyone has donated over the years. (“The most for the least.”)
Oddly, this seems good enough for the real stakeholders, the “public” that Senator White refers to, but it is not good enough for Montpelier and her committee. If Townshend wanted more, we would surely hear about it, and people would be presented with a cost so they could make an informed decision.
Since our municipal property tax rate went up by approximately 20 cents this year, I do not expect anyone at Town Meeting to be screaming for adding money to the budget come March 2015.
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What are the foundations for objections from my viewpoint as the IT guy?
The first, this is discriminatory. The state now says, “It is okay not to have a website but, if you have one, you must do it our way.” You are placing extra burdens on towns that have chosen to at least attempt to distribute information via a website, and I know many towns face more of a struggle in their efforts than Townshend does.
In addition, what is next? What additional items will eventually be mandated for a town website? My warning to all towns: It all starts now.
Second, at least for small towns, this is an unfunded mandate. As has been said in many a news article, this is just fine for the larger metropolitan areas with lots of staff, but it does hit the small towns that rely on volunteers very hard.
I learned a long time ago that when doing computer work as a volunteer, I have to set parameters. If I do it on my own time, when I can get to it, it is free. If it is demanded, I charge. The new law makes a demand. My response to the new law and to the Selectboard: “I am not going to do this for free.”
To quote Senator White when referring to minutes: “They could just be handwritten minutes, scanned in.” Well, someone has to do that. If it is not a volunteer, it is paid personnel who likely already have a lot of other, more important, jobs to do in a town the size of Townshend.
Faced with this mandate, I contacted the IT people for Vermont and asked questions about the cost for taxpayers to operate all the websites and get information up onto the Internet. (This did not include Vermont Health Connect, a $72 million story unto itself.)
It seemed a reasonable question. I received a very nice reply after a month which basically said, “We don't know.”
The third big issue is logistics, and that relates to cost as well.
I actually have no idea how many boards and committees are active in Townshend. For each entity, for each meeting, the law requires three postings: the meeting agenda, the draft minutes, and the approved minutes. It is a “constant stream of everything.”
These boards all meet on different days, not necessarily on a set schedule. There is no way to group all of these postings, so someone must sit down at the computer and do things one little bit at a time. As stated previously, someone has to either volunteer to do this or be paid.
We deal with a lot of elected boards. We are constantly confronted with lack of cooperation between one elected board and another. The Selectboard has absolutely no authority to compel another board to post anything.
But, if someone were to complain, whom would the complaint go to? The Selectboard. Look it up, Senator.
Also look up the fact that while boards are supposed to take minutes, there is no wording in the law that requires that elected officials actually, as a function of their job, post anything to the Internet. “I am not going to do it” equals paying someone else to do it.
For those out there that think all this posting is the responsibility of the Town Clerk, think again. That assumption is made, but it is not the case. I count all the time expended by the two Town Clerks in Townshend over the years as volunteer time. It is not in the legal description of the Town Clerk's duties to constantly update a website.
So, who, besides the court, can compel cooperation? Certainly not a paid or volunteer webmaster.
This is reality, Senator: Any town could be taken to court and have to pay legal fees based on the actions or inaction of the only person who was available or willing to be elected to a particular position at Town Meeting.
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The comments made by Senator White regarding emails had me scratching my head. Yes, there are proper ways to use email communication. I, myself, have sat at Selectboard meetings and lectured them regarding how email was being used and misused.
If such a discussion did occur, no one would have said, definitively, that personal emails needed to be posted. It would merely be a query, a point of discussion.
Your comments about minutes also had me questioning how much you are actually paying attention. Draft minutes of a meeting have to be up within five days; at the next meeting, those minutes would be corrected and officially approved.
No one in their right mind would post unapproved minutes. Draft minutes can have serious errors that completely alter the entire discussion and, at times, the motion approved.
Leaving draft minutes up for public access would be foolish, as the search feature of the website might pull those up first, resulting in a great deal of confusion and possible legal action by a reader who failed to dig deeper.
As a side note, we asked the Secretary of State's office if posting the complete video of the Selectboard meetings within the five-day timeframe would serve to satisfy the minutes posting. The answer was, “No.”
So, the law now says that any minutes will do, but the Secretary of State clarifies that a full video recording of the same meeting does not comply.
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We had an interesting little personal discussion at home when discussing what to do when faced with taking down Townshend's website. Would we put up a note like the town of Montgomery or remove every last trace, as Jamaica ended up doing?
Since Montgomery has links for municipal bill payment on an index page explaining why the site had been deactivated, it could still easily be considered a website in a court of law.
When we looked to the definitions section of the law, we found no definition for the term. When legislators regulate something, they usually define what they are regulating. With no definition, Townshend decided to remove both the entire site and deactivate the Listserv as a precaution.
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I am a big believer in public information and the public's right to know, but the new posting requirements are not reality. I live in the real world. What is desirable is not necessarily achievable.
I know the ins and outs of Townshend. When the Vermont League of Cities and Towns sent the information on the new law, I immediately said, “Take the website down.” That was my recommendation to the Select Board after I gave them the estimated cost of compliance.
Few could possibly know the pain I felt when I archived and deleted the Townshend website. Almost 10 years of public service on the behalf of myself and many others disappeared from the Internet.
Still, I think it was the best thing to do until people in Montpelier start thinking about small towns a bit more.
In all the years I have lived here and in all the years Senator White has served, her presence in town, unless campaigning, has been very rare.
Senator: Do you want to know why Townshend made its decision? Come talk to the Selectboard before you spread any more misinformation. We are not Brattleboro, we are not Putney, we are not Leland and Gray. Our website was as unique as we are.
What we gave the public starting at the end of 2005, you have essentially legislated away. Contact the Selectboard well in advance and get a spot on the agenda as if you don't you won't be allowed to speak. Their direct email address is on the website.
Oh, wait.