From MyNC.com (3/13/09): As part of its strong and ongoing commitment to openness and transparency, the Town of Cary is joining the nation March 15-21 in celebrating Sunshine Week - a national initiative to promote the importance of open government and freedom of information.
New this year are an array of training tools to help reinforce the major points of NC “Sunshine” laws, including a section on the Town’s internal Web site filled with educational, interactive activities. Employees also tested their knowledge of the laws during a one-hour “Sunshine Jeopardy.” And Professor David Lawrence of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government conducted a seminar with hundreds of Town employees as well as Town Council and board members about open meetings and public records law.
Supervisors are also reminding Town staff of their responsibilities under Sunshine laws, and last night, the Cary Town Council officially recognized Sunshine Week with a proclamation available at http://www.townofcary.org/agenda/sunshineweekproc.htm .
“As reflected in our Statement of Values and demonstrated in our Sunshine activities, the Town of Cary is strongly committed to maintaining a culture of openness and transparency. Here, the sun doesn’t just shine on one day or in one week in March, it shines every day as we focus on serving our citizens,” said Town Clerk Sue Rowland. “Even though we work hard on accessibility and transparency, we want citizens to let us know of any issues they encounter since, despite our best efforts, there will surely be opportunities for us to improve.”
To raise citizen awareness of their rights under Sunshine laws and to encourage feedback on how the Town can improve, the Town hosts a “Sunshine Week” Web page to help make it easier for citizens to make public records requests. Citizens are encouraged to provide feedback and to view the Sunshine week public service announcement that is running regularly on Cary TV 11; also, the Town is running Sunshine Week paid advertisements in the Cary News.
In addition to this year’s Sunshine Week activities, the Town has implemented a number of measures to constantly foster accessibility and transparency, including:
• Public records policy – On February 8, 2007 the Town of Cary became one of the first local governments in North Carolina to adopt a comprehensive public records policy that articulates specifically how the Town will support Sunshine laws. The police is available at http://www.townofcary.org/depts/tcdept/policies/152.htm .
• Annual Media survey – To help access its level of openness, the Town has been asking the media to rate the Town on “accessibility of information” every year since 1999.
• Online access to information – Since 1997, the Town has been posting Council meeting materials on the Web for everyone to access at the same time – Council, media, and citizens; today, the Web site boasts more than 55,000 files of “public records”.
• Statement of Values – Two of the 11 points in the Town’s Statement of Values refer to transparency: 1) Our organization exists to serve our citizens. We will be open, ensure access, encourage involvement and be accountable to our citizens; and 3) We will be honest, ethical and diligent. Our actions will comply with local, state and federal laws. Visit http://www.townofcary.org/depts/missionandvalues.htm#values for the complete list of the Town’s statement of values.
• Internal education efforts – Public records and open meetings information is shared with all new employees and citizen advisory board members during their orientation to the Town of Cary; this information is reinforced with staff during related training opportunities throughout the year.
Town of Cary Press Release