Empire Center’s first annual See Through N.Y. Website Report Card showed more than 70 percent of New York state’s counties failed when it comes to their county website. Broome County and many others in the Southern Tier got a failing grade. As Carmella Mataloni reports, it’s causing concerns with county officials.
A new survey shows that most county websites in the Southern Tier still have a lot of room for improvement.
According to the Empire Center’s first annual See Through N.Y. Website Report Card, more than 70 percent of counties got a failing grade, including Broome County.
Broome County legislator Jason Garner saw the report and called on county officials to do something about it.
County Executive Debbie Preston heard the plea and said complete redesign is already in the works, and has been since she addressed the issue last February.
“Every speech I make whether it’s my budget or my State of the County I tell them, please come visit me, come ask questions, please don’t try to do this through the media, because to me that is not doing the people’s business and it’s not right to the people. I have asked him to come in, he’s never come and asked any questions regarding the website, he’s never talked to our people or the process, to me this is playing politics in the media and it’s something I don’t approve of. It’s a waste of everyone’s time,” said Broome County Executive Debbie Preston.
The websites were ranked in 10 categories, assigning points based on the availability of information and the ease of navigation.
Garner said the website does not make a good first impression and has heard some concerns from community members.
“A month or so ago, several residents contacted me and said, ‘does the county have a prescription discount card?’ and we do, it’s online. So we need to do a better job at promoting the services we have for our residents,” said Garnar.
Preston said two Request for Proposals have been sent out regarding the website. A contract is expected to be awarded next month, and she plans to have the newly updated domain ready for public use by June.
“The new website was mentioned in my State of the County speech in February of this year. As County Executive, I know and have known that we needed to do something with our website. This is not anything new,” said Preston.
While there is disagreement about how this information came to light within the county, what officials do agree on is the fact that a fully functioning website is something the county needs. Come June, it’s something they are going to get.
To learn more about the See Through N.Y. Website Report Card, or to see your counties [sic] score, head to www.empirecenter.org.
© 2014 Time Warner Cable News
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