St. Charles Parish, Louisiana

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Contents

Saint Charles Parish, Louisiana is one of sixty-four parishes in Louisiana. A parish, in Louisiana, is the equivalent of a county in other states. The parish seat is Hahnville. In 2000, its population was 48,072.

[edit] Website evaluation

Main article: Evaluation of Louisiana parish websites

[edit] The good

  • Information is provided about how parish residents can request access to public documents of the parish under Louisiana's sunshine laws.[1]
  • Information on the local sales tax is provided.[2] There is also a breakdown of other applied taxes.[3]
  • The website posts its budget and financial statements.[4] The Auditors statement is included in the financial report, though only the one from 2007.[5]
  • An inspection of the website finds that it includes a complete list of council members and administrative officials, with their contact information.[6]
  • A list of meeting dates and times are available,[7]along with agendas dating back to early 2007.[8]
  • Information on building permits and zoning is available online.[9]
  • List of the contract bids.[10]

[edit] The bad

[edit] 2009 website upgrade

In January 21, St. Charles Parish officials unveiled a substantial upgrade of the parish website. Renee Allemand Simpson, public information officer for the parish, said, "We've reorganized the site based on what people want to do." Residents are now able to file complaints, download the form needed to speak at a council meeting and get customized e-mail alerts from various departments.

According to the Times-Picayune, more information was also added to the website "partly in response to a review of the parish's old Web site by the Sunshine Review, a Chicago nonprofit that lobbies for more transparency in government." The parish's budget was added, as was audit and other financial information to the site in response to an August 2008 review of the Web sites of Louisiana parishes by Sunshine Review.[11]

The new site was built for $47,000 by Vision Internet, a Santa Monica, Calif., company that specializes in government Web sites.[11]

[edit] Parish Budget

2008 Parish Budget: $99,173,795

Parish Treasurer: Lorie Toups (985) 783-5000

[edit] References

  1. ↑ How to file a public records request
  2. ↑ Sales Tax
  3. ↑ Cost and incentives
  4. ↑ 2009 Budget
  5. ↑ 2007 County Financial Report
  6. ↑ Council Members
  7. ↑ Council Meeting Schedule
  8. ↑ Council Agendas
  9. ↑ Planning and Zoning
  10. ↑ St. Charles Contract bids
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 New Orleans Times-Picayune, "St. Charles re-designs website", January 22, 2009

[edit] External links

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