Southborough getting state assistance with transparency

Above: The Lt. Governor visited Southborough yesterday to sign a Community Compact (photo tweeted by @MassLtGov)

Town officials have been talking for a while about making our government more open and transparent. Now they are getting some assistance in seeing things through.

Yesterday, the Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito signed a “Community Compact” with Southborough. The agreement is labeled as a partnership. The state’s purpose in creating agreements with individual towns is to

work toward mutual accountability, work to reduce red tape, promote best practices

Agreements appear to be customized with each town. Southborough’s focuses on getting technical help with public records:

– Technology – Citizen Engagement:
MassIT’s Office of Municipal and School Technology will provide consulting services to ensure that the Town has a strategy for communicating initiatives to the public and internally with an emphasis on public records requests.

– Other – Document Digitization:
The Commonwealth will provide Southborough with a Community Compact grant to hire a consultant to assist with the development of a strategy regarding digitizing documents across all town departments, including an assessment of current records and prioritization.

For a look at the state’s full press release, click here.