Great to see all of the progress the organization has made over the years! I still remember the first meeting in downtown Buffalo. You must certainly be pleased with the progress but I’m sure a little frustrated with the pushback from many entities.
The reason I wanted to talk to you is that I have been involved with the Town of Newfane local board meetings for years. Recently, we had two new board members added, and I wanted to discuss issues with them. I went to a board meeting recently and asked for the phone numbers of the board members. I was told that I would have to leave a message for the clerk, who would forward the request, and they would get back to me. Well, I’m still waiting for a response from one of the two people.
I did some research and found that many towns and villages post the board members’ email addresses and phone numbers on their websites, but this is not the case in Newfane. My question is: have we ever done a study looking at how governments, village boards, etc., post information to allow the public to contact them?
I understand your frustration. The contact information for elected officials should be available to the public.
Back in 2017 and 2018 as part of a report we did, we looked at whether contact information for elected officials and department heads were posted online.
We did not do your town of Newfane.