The Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell, recently announced the redesign of the Atlanta City Council’s website at citycouncil.atlantaga.gov. “This new website is user friendly and offers many features that weren’t available previously, including the ability to view presentations made before council committees, a district and polling place locator, the ability to sign up for e-notifications from your council representative on a variety of important topics and much more,” said Mitchell.
The new website was developed in coordination with the Council’s Office of Policy and Research, the Council Information Technology Manager and the Council’s Office of Communications.
A new feature called as MapATL can be accessed through the homepage by clicking on the District Maps icon.
“This is an easy to use tool which provides constituents with a plethora of information such as public safety data, and locations of local parks, libraries and schools,” the Council Staff Director Tangela M. Williams said.
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As a part of the new design, City Councilmembers will also be able to place the monthly financial expenditures online for public inspection.
The City Council is currently considering legislation which would allow the members to “opt in” posting their monthly financial reports on their individual pages of the website, on a monthly basis. Until now, to obtain the access to Council’s financial information, residents and also news organizations had been required to submit an Open Records Request and also pay associated fees with the request, which is not always the most efficient and also timely way to obtain the requested information.
Municipalities such as: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, TX and Denver have all made serious efforts towards the complete transparency with regard to city accounts payables and receivables.
As per the United States Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, a 501(c) organization which works to promote consumer and promote good government, cities who provide the financial transparency on their websites, reduce opportunities for abuse or waste because the government officials and contractors know that the public quickly and easily tracks the government spending.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
