You’ll be on-line if you do the crime
By the end of 2001 Miami-Dade and Broward counties intend to put their court systems entirely on line. Court officials are now preparing to conduct a variety of court proceedings electronically and make the records accessible to citizens over the Internet. By the end of the first quarter 2001, the public will be able to look at case data, make court filings and pay traffic tickets on the Internet.

By the second quarter, complete case files for Miami–Dade’s traffic court, along with digital images of documents, will be available on the Web. Users will be able to file motions, pleas, and requests for court, requests for traffic school – all electronically.

In addition to traffic court, Broward County will put civil and criminal court proceedings on line, providing daily lists of people booked for crimes the day before and offering case information from landlord-tenant disputes to criminal and civil actions.

Embarrassed offenders can’t complain about violations of privacy – all the information is a matter of public record, just never quite so public before. Start at the Miami-Dade County home page at http://www.co.miami-dade.fl.us. For Broward County, www.broward.org.

Paper or plastic?
The best way to find information in the waste management field is to use the Web site of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) – so said Environmental Protection Magazine in its July issue. The site – www.swana.org – includes the latest waste regulations, updates on cutting-edge technology advances for waste management and tracks pending legislation and proposed policies that affect the waste management industry.

Save those trees?
Cut those trees?
Trees disappearing overnight as development chews up every wooded lot … trees toppling power lines … folks wanting to save trees … folks wanting to cut them down … it’s enough to send someone up a tree. Getting yourself back to earth is probably a good enough reason to visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/tree-ord/ordintro.htm.

The site, “Guidelines for Developing and Evaluating Tree Ordinances,” provides a variety of tools and resources for local governments interested in developing, revising, or evaluating local tree ordinances. The U.S. Forest Service, National Urban and Community Forestry Council and the International Society of Arboriculture sponsor the site.

Check out your telecommunications capacity
Peg Shear, NACo’s Extension Fellow, passed along this item to Web Watch. The Laboratory for Community and Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a “Telecommunications Infrastructure Readiness Index” to evaluate individual and community telecommunications readiness. Shear says the community assessment tool is a must for counties that are concerned about their capacity for telecommunication technology.

The survey highlights gaps in a county’s infrastructure and areas where local community groups could collaborate to more effectively use their resources. There are two parts to the community survey: a survey of how well the community incorporates telecommunications and Internet technology into community life and a worksheet to create an inventory of telecommunications services. Shear says the worksheet is a useful tool for negotiating with telecommunication providers: “It highlighted my ignorance regarding the services that are necessary for communities to compete in the IT world.” The address to access the inventory is http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~lcedtcii.

(Web Watch was compiled by Bev Schlotterbeck, County News editor, and Valerie Ziobro, special correspondent.)