WEBSITE RESOLUTION

TOWNSHIP OF LONG HILL RESOLUTION # 00-350

A RESOLUTION TO DEFINE THE TOWNSHIP SPONSORSHIP OF AN INTERNET WEBSITE

WHEREAS, the Township Committee wishes to participate in the pervasiveness of the Internet to enhance communications with its residents;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Committee of the Township of Long Hill in the County of Morris, State of New Jersey as follows:

Section 1. Purpose.

An Internet website will be sponsored by the Township of Long Hill. The website should support the following goals:

1. Inform the residents of Long Hill of the services currently available from the Township.
2. Inform the residents of the services available locally from other government entities with taxing authority.
3. Provide information that will encourage potential residents to view Long Hill as a desirable place to live.
4. Facilitate 2-way electronic communication between the residents and Township officials, to further the Townships compliance with ADA.
5. Provide sufficient and timely details about the most commonly used township services, with the goal of reducing the number of repetitive telephone inquiries which are directed to the government offices.
6. Support the volunteer organizations that contribute to the well being of the community, describe their contributions, and encourage participation by the residents of the Township.
7. Establish itself as a useful single point of first inquiry for the residents of the township, to include listings of utility companies, points of interest, and recreational opportunities in nearby locales.

This Township website is established by the Township Committee in order to provide an Internet presence for the Township, and to provide timely and useful information for the benefit and convenience of the residents of the Township.

The Township website is not intended to be a medium of record, although it will provide all notices of general interest.

The website is not intended to be a repository or archive of data. Preservation of and access to the official records of the Township Government and of its Committees and Boards will continue to be handled according to existing statutes and ordinances which define the information to be recorded and the requirements for public access to paper copies of those records.  The website will be archived once a month in an electronic format suitable for reconstruction.

Section 2. Organization and Responsibilities

A.  The Township Administrator shall recommend to the Township Committee a volunteer, contractor or employee who will implement and maintain the Township website. That person will be known as the Township Webmaster.  The Webmaster shall serve at the pleasure of the Township Committee.

B. The Township Webmaster will have the responsibility and authority to establish consistent format and style for the website.  The Webmaster will strive to keep information on the website up-to-date, comprehensive, informative and responsive to the purposes outlined in Section 1.

With regard to informal documents prepared by the township (bulletins, flyers, press releases, etc.), the Webmaster is empowered to summarize or modify the language in order to conform to the style and technological capabilities available on the website. These modifications should take into account the breadth of public interest in the specific matter, and may not change the meaning or intent of the original document.

C.  Township employees and volunteer organizations are encouraged to provide useful and timely information for the website.  The Webmaster will work with the Township Administrator to devise effective strategies for accomplishing this for each of the provider groups.

All township employees who prepare and distribute press releases, bulletins, flyers or other informal Township documents shall include the phrase "Visit our Website at ..." to the maximum extent possible, consistent with the purpose of the document.

D.  The Mayor shall appoint an Internet Advisory Committee that shall consist of 5 members, as follows:

One member of the Township Committee, who shall serve as Chairman
The Township Administrator
One other township management employee
One member selected to represent the service organizations of the Township
One member at large.

The Webmaster will participate as non-voting Secretary of the Advisory Committee.

The Committee will meet once every two months at a regular time, and may meet in extraordinary session upon the call of the chairperson.

The Committee will be responsible to regularly review the contents of the Township Website to insure that it meets the purposes described in Section 1, and to make recommendations to the Webmaster concerning additions and modifications that would make it more useful to the residents.

The Committee will bring to the attention of the Township Attorney any matter it believes should be reviewed for liability exposure.

Section 3. Restrictions

The Township website shall be non-commercial. It will not accept paid advertising, nor will it accept payment of any kind for the referral of users (linking) to any other website. The Webmaster will accept no compensation in connection with his duties, other than that provided in his relationship with the Township.  The text work provided by the Webmaster, as seen on the website, shall be wholly the property of the Township of Long Hill.

Links to other websites are at the discretion of the Webmaster in his pursuit of the Purposes listed in Section 1 above. Other websites may be linked from the Township website under the following circumstances.

Links to websites sponsored by other government bodies or government-chartered enterprises are not restricted.

Links will not be established to websites that have merchandise sales as their predominant theme.

Links to websites of qualified not-for-profit organizations are permitted unless such websites contain links to websites that have merchandise sales as their predominant theme.

Links to websites of companies and other commercial enterprises that provide unique services to residents of the Township are permitted, if those websites are primarily informative and are consistent with the information outreach purpose of this website.

Links to the website of a community organization are permitted, to the extent that the website is primarily informative and does not have excessive commercial content unrelated to its primary purpose, and does not include links to websites that have merchandise sales as their predominant theme. Websites of community organizations may be sponsored by a commercial enterprise as a goodwill gesture, and to the extent that notice of such sponsorship is tasteful, the site will not be disqualified solely on that basis.

Links to websites of local churches and religious organizations are permitted under the purpose of providing community information to residents and prospective residents. However, no descriptive or interpretive information about these organizations will appear on the Township website, and no bias will be shown in the order or style of the listing and linking.

Websites of qualified not-for-profit organizations, community organizations, churches, religious organizations and political parties may contain appeals for donations. This appeal does not class their website as commercial, and does not disqualify those websites from being linked.

Links from the Township website will not compromise the role of the Public Library.

Section 4. Support of Community Organizations.

The Township Committee recognizes that there are qualified not-for-profit and community organizations that have significant value to the Township but do not have the resources and/or expertise to establish an Internet website to display their informational message. The Township of Long Hill will make the resources of its website available to assist these worthy organizations.

The Webmaster is authorized to create web pages for these organizations and install them on the Township website at no charge to the organization. The organization must provide the factual content, and must give its approval of the final webpage. The Webmaster will create the page(s) and insure that the style and editorial standards of the Township website are maintained on these pages.

The Webmaster may create these pages with a visual style different from the official pages of the website.

This support will not be extended to churches, religious organizations or political parties/clubs.