Salt Lake County, Davis School District recognized for Web sites

SALT LAKE CITY — After reviewing more than 5,000 Web sites for counties, cities and school districts across the nation, Kristin McMurray and her colleagues at the Sunshine Review concluded Utah has some of the best.

The Sunshine Review, a nonprofit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency, reviewed each site on a 10-point "transparency checklist," including criteria such as access to budgets, contact information for officials and employees, meeting times and information on obtaining public records.

In Utah, Salt Lake County's Web site received nine out of 10 points, and Davis School District's site earned a perfect score.

"Most (counties and school districts) don't even have Web sites," said McMurray, Sunshine Review's senior editor.

In some states, such as Oklahoma, more than 50 percent of counties don't have Web sites, she said.

Davis School District spokesman Chris Williams said the award was a surprise and a compliment.

"We had no idea that sites were being looked at," Williams said.

The district's Web site, www.davis.k12.ut.us, is being updated, but the quantity and quality of content has been consistent for more than a decade, he said.

"I think this is just kind of the culture that we have," Williams said. "It's the Davis way of doing things. … I was kind of surprised that other organizations didn't do what seemed to just be part of the way we do things."

Andrew Dudley, solutions manager for Salt Lake County, also was pleased to be recognized, especially since the county's Web site, www.slco.org, relaunched earlier this year after more than a year and a half of work.

Dudley said the redesign was done using a survey from site visitors and with the input of numerous "non-tech" people to make sure the site made sense to its most frequent users.

"A lot of us actually turned to spouses, friends and neighbors and asked them, 'Hey, here's the new site. Now find this,' " he said.

Based on feedback from those experiences and hours of work, Dudley said the site is more user-friendly than ever before.

e-mail: ashaha@desnews.com