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Regular 8.
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| LAFCO |
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| Information |
| SUBJECT |
| Receive and file the 2019 Website Transparency Scorecard and direct staff to make any adjustments to the scorecard, if desired |
| RECOMMENDED ACTION |
| Receive and file the 2019 Website Transparency Scorecard. Discuss and direct staff to make any adjustments to the scorecard, if desired. |
| FISCAL IMPACT |
| None. This scorecard was created "in-house" by staff and was included in the LAFCo work plan and budget for this fiscal year. |
| REASONS FOR RECOMMENDED ACTION |
| In the fall of 2017, the cities and County requested LAFCo to begin preparing web transparency scorecards on an annual basis promoting a vision for open government and transparency for government agencies countywide (cities, County, special districts, and joint powers authorities), thereby fostering public trust and accountability. |
| BACKGROUND |
Agencies should keep in mind that this scorecard is not intended to be a “best website” score. The checklist criteria are intended to establish a generally accepted minimum standard for transparency. We acknowledge some of our larger agencies go far above and beyond these criteria for higher levels of public service and communication. The goal for smaller agencies is not necessarily to have a high score at the outset, but to set a baseline that will hopefully see improvement from year to year.
Staff Observations/Recommendations
The content for city and county websites improved overall this year from 84% in 2018 to 90% in 2019. One criteria that appeared to be a common gap is posting the agency financial reserve policy (2b).
Special districts can be divided generally into two different categories: dependent and independent. Dependent districts are formed and may have a local advisory body, but ultimately answer to a city or county. Examples include the county service areas and some fire protection districts, which can be formed either way. Independent districts have locally elected or appointed boards and make independent decisions (i.e. not subject to a city or county). Examples include community services districts, cemetery districts, reclamation districts, and water districts, among others.
One reason why this is an important distinction is that legislation was passed in 2018 (SB 929 McGuire) which requires independent special districts to have a website by January 1, 2020 or adopt a hardship resolution annually. There are eleven (11) independent districts which are currently not in compliance with this new law. Although with the Lower Elkhorn reclamation districts consolidation going into effect July 1, these eleven (11) districts will become nine (9). Therefore, LAFCo needs to work with these independent special districts to create and maintain websites. In addition, although not legally required, three (3) dependent fire protection districts also do not have websites (Capay, Knights Landing and No Man’s Land) and an economical option would be to create a page on the Yolo County website.
Three community services districts (CSDs), three fire protection districts (FPDs) and two reclamation districts (RDs) for a total of eight (8) districts created new websites last year. Although there’s been improvement since this process began a year ago, only 55% of Yolo’s independent special districts currently have a website. Special district scholarship funds continue to be available to help districts comply with new website requirements. In general, as illustrated by the previous table, overall special district website content improved from the 2018 scorecard to 2019.
JPAs can take many varied forms. For the purposes of the Website Transparency Scorecard, LAFCo focused on the JPAs that operate locally as opposed to multi-county or statewide JPAs. Some of these local JPAs have an office with dedicated staff and others operate more as a “paper” JPA. As one might expect, the JPAs with dedicated staff and resources generally tend to have a website with more content while “paper” JPAs do not. Similar to the dependent districts, LAFCo should work with “paper” JPAs to have a page on the agency website, such as the financing authorities. There were no new JPA websites/webpages created this year, however, the overall content score for all JPAs increased from 25% in 2018 to 37% in 2019. |
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