It’s Always Sunny … On Upper Dublin’s Website

Upper Dublin does a good job of disseminating information to its residents via its website, according to a nonprofit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency.

This week, the municipality received a “Sunny Award” from the Sunshine Review organization, which honors the most transparent government websites in the nation.

Upper Dublin Technology Administrator Deb Ritter, who maintains the website upperdublin.net said the township has had an online presence since the late ’90s.

“I’m the webmaster, but, of course, a lot of what I do comes from the direction of staff and department heads,” Ritter said. “We all work together and get up what the residents need to know. The website is much more deep, with many more pages — there are about 500 documents on the site and accessible, fillable pdf forms.”

Ritter said Sunshine Review has reviewed over 7,000 municipal and school district websites, and the top one percent receives awards. The organization reviewed Upper Dublin’s site about a year-and-a-half ago, and it received a B-plus. After a site is initially reviewed, it is then reviewed every year to see what changes have been made. Ritter added some information about township grants … and that knocked it up to an A-minus.

She said there was also an instance in which a resident was confused about the township’s recycling program after visiting the website. Ritter contacted the public works department and made clarifications to the website while the resident was on the phone.

“He hit the ‘refresh’ button, and the information came up,” Ritter said. “He was shocked.

“We try to do whatever we can to be responsive,” Ritter continued. “I love getting feedback — either positive or negative — because it always makes the site better.”

Improvements to be made? Well, the Sunshine Review said Upper Dublin’s website could do a better job at posting bid results. Ritter said the information is on the site, but it’s a bit buried, so she’s going to make it easier to find and ask the site to be re-ranked.

“Maybe we can get rid of the ‘minus,’” she said jokingly.

The editors at Sunshine Review analyzed more than 1,000 qualifying government websites and graded each on a 10-point transparency checklist, according to a press release. They sought information on budgets, meetings, lobbying, financial audits, contracts, academic performance, public records and taxes. 

The award comes during “Sunshine Week,” which runs March 10-16.