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Website ConnectWI Gold Award
City of Stevens Point Recognized for Website Transparency
March 18, 2016 - The Wisconsin Women's Council, in partnership with the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and the Wisconsin Broadcaster's Association, has awarded the City of Stevens Point with ConnectWI Gold recognition for its website transparency practices.
"This award is a fantastic validation of what our goals have been for some time, now. As a City, we have been striving to get the most information out to the public through as many sources as soon as possible, to help encourage the most input and involvement from our community," said Mayor Mike Wiza. "We are honored to receive the Gold level designation and will continue to explore every option to keep the public involved."
Sunshine Week 2016 (March 13-19, 2016) is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and the perfect time to highlight a best practice here in Wisconsin in providing easy access to online information on local public officials and open meetings. ConnectWI commended the City of Stevens Point for placing a high priority on being well connected to their community and providing easy access to information regarding public officials, programs and services.
"Local governments recognized by ConnectWI demonstrate how, when done well, website transparency is a tremendous resource for the public and opens doors for constituents to better know and engage with their public officials," said Christine Lidbury, executive director of the Women's Council. "We hope municipalities recognized by ConnectWI will serve as resource to local governments at all levels to identify best practices, new ideas and even simple changes that add up to greater transparency."
Connect WI was established in 2015 to shine a spotlight on website transparency in local government and promote best practices. ConnectWI recognizes county, city, village, town and school district websites that fulfill a 10-point checklist aimed at promoting transparency. Websites that excel beyond the basic criteria are awarded a "Gold" designation.
Municipalities recognized to-date include the cities of Appleton, Eau Claire, Lodi, Reedsburg, River Falls and Waupaca and the villages of Deforest, Kronenwetter and Weston.
ConnectWI applications are accepted continuously. Units of local government are encouraged to apply. The next announcements will be made in June 2016.