A handful of area cities and one school district failed to post on their Web sites notices of regularly scheduled meetings in February, despite a two-year-old state law requiring that they do so, according to a recent audit conducted by the Denton Record-Chronicle.

Moreover, only two cities — Denton and Corinth — posted conflict-of-interest declarations on their Web sites, although another state law requires that cities post declarations both from elected officials and those doing business with the city.

The Record-Chronicle conducted the audit of city and school Web sites as part of Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide initiative to bring open government issues to light.

All through February, reporters checked school and city Web sites before regularly scheduled meetings to see whether notice of the time, date, place and subject were posted in compliance with Title 5 of the Texas Government Code. Of the 41 agenda postings monitored, six meetings had no online notice posted, and at least five least five had problems posting in a clear and timely manner.

Larger cities, counties and school districts are also required to post agendas.

Many area school districts treat the notice and the agenda as essentially the same thing.

No state law requires cities to have a Web site, so small towns, such as Dish, can remain compliant with the state’s open government laws as long as they post agendas and other public notices as they have in the past. But once a city launches a Web site, the Texas Legislature has required increasing amounts of content be posted on it, according to Lance Vanzant, attorney for both Krum and Hickory Creek.

In addition to notices and conflict-of-interest declarations, cities with Web sites must now also post annexation notices.

Because of the new requirements, small cities such as Krum and Aubrey delayed launching Web sites until they were certain they could comply. Many cities and school districts have a specific page on their Web sites dedicated to the cumulative posting of agendas and minutes, even though, during the audit period, they didn’t always get the postings there 72 hours in advance.

 

Conflicts online

Corinth and Denton posted conflict-of-interest declarations on pages in the city secretary’s area of the Web sites. Both Krum and Hickory Creek began posting conflict-of-interest declarations this week, according to Vanzant.

Some cities waited for clarification on that requirement, since it was first passed without naming a minimum amount, Vanzant said.

“The way it was first written, when strictly read, if you owned stock in GM and received an annual dividend, you couldn’t vote on buying a new police car,” Vanzant said. “Then, no one would be voting on anything.”

The Legislature revised the law last year, requiring declarations for income of more than $2,500.

 

Meeting notices and agendas online

The town of Cross Roads has kept a small Web site online, although Town Secretary Katherine Ritchie acknowledged that no agendas or meeting notices are ever posted on it.

“I just don’t have time to do everything that’s required by state law,” Ritchie said.

Krugerville has a standing link for meeting agendas on its home page, but during the audit period, the link went to a September agenda for two weeks, and then to the January agenda toward the end of February. No notice or agenda was found for the regularly scheduled meeting in February.

Secretary Susan Bradley did not return a call for comment.

Of eight area school districts, Pilot Point and Krum did not have agendas for their regularly scheduled meetings online when audited.

It seemed to be a technical issue in the case of the Krum school district, which regularly posts its agendas 72 hours in advance of the meetings.

“Computers and technology are great … [but] we do have issues with it,” said Krum’s Superintendent Troy Hamm.

On the other hand, Pilot Point school district did not have any agendas for this year posted online, and Marilyn Pelzel, administrative assistant to Pilot Point’s superintendent, confirmed Thursday that administrators have been working on that issue.

Later that day, Pelzel said their webmaster was working on setting up the link and showing her how to keep it updated.

That district now has an online agenda posted for its March meeting.

 

A historical link

State law has required for years that governmental entities post non-emergency meeting agendas in a public place at least 72 hours before any meeting. But those bulletin boards aren’t always readily accessible to the public. In Lantana, officials with the freshwater supply district came under fire in 2006 for posting agendas on a tree. Although the need to post agendas on that tree predated the subdivision’s construction, officials soon began posting agendas on several affiliated Web sites in order to better reach residents.

Bob Bland, a professor of public administration at the University of North Texas, said agendas are a vital link between a legislative body and the people their policies affect.

“In the spirit of democracy, there’s nothing more fundamental that letting citizens know what’s being discussed, so that they can be present, and participate in the discussion where appropriate,” Bland said.

 

More transparency

Although not required by law, many secretaries also provide some of the same backup information to agenda items online as is provided to city council and school board members.

“We were already televising the [council] meetings, and we were starting to get calls about putting the backup online,” Denton’s Assistant City Secretary Jane Richardson said. “We had to do a little research to see how to do it, but that’s what we came up with. There’s a lot of people that look at it online now, so I think it’s a valuable thing for citizens that are interested in local government.”

Denton city employees work over a period of about a week to gather all the information, format it electronically, check for errors and omissions, and post it on the city’s Web site, Richardson said.

The same agenda information still can be viewed in print at City Hall, she said.

In addition to Denton, secretaries in Corinth, Lake Dallas and Oak Point regularly post backup information along with their agendas, as do Denton’s and Krum’s school board secretaries.

Rhonda Harrison, administrative assistant to Hamm, said she posts additional backup material to give residents access to information that may interest them.

The Denton school district provides online backup material “to make sure that we have that transparency,” said Kim Steven­son, administrative assistant to the superintendent.