St. Lucie County’s website earns A+ rating for transparency

FORT PIERCE — The St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners was one of seven county governments in Florida to be recognized with an A+ rating by the editors of Sunshine Review, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency. Through its annual Sunny Awards, the Sunshine Review rates government websites for transparency and public information.

Sunshine Review promotes transparency and affirmative disclosure at the state and local levels using a 10-point transparency checklist to analyze 50 state websites and more than 6,000 local government websites.

St. Lucie County improved last year’s grade from a B to an A+. Originally, this year’s report ranked St. Lucie County’s website with a B rating, citing that it did not provide information about public records requests or lobbyist information. However, that information is available on the county’s website and once it was pointed out to the editors at the Sunshine Review, they corrected St. Lucie County’s grade to an A+.

“After receiving a B grade last year, we took their suggestions to heart and worked to add the information that the Sunshine Review staff felt should be included. We really appreciate the fact that they took a second look at our site and gave us an A+ rating this year,” said St. Lucie County Webmaster David Wood.

Locally, the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners, the Indian River School District and the St. Lucie County School District received A+ ratings from the Sunshine Review for their websites.

For more information about the Sunshine Review and/or Sunny Awards visit:http://sunshinereview.org. To see St. Lucie County’s website visit:http://www.stlucieco.gov.