Stupidity in Grafton Township

After reading an article on McHenry County Blog this morning about some stupid new rules against recording and photographing of "open" meetings held by Grafton Township, I visited what I thought was the website of the Township. It's easily found. Just go to http://www.graftontownship.us/

One of the first things I noticed is the line-up of button for elected officials. There are buttons for links to the Assessor, Trustess, Clerk and Road District.

Hello? Does Grafton Township still have a Supervisor? Why isn't there a button or any information about the Township Supervisor? This is the Township website, isn't it? Isn't this where residents would go first for information about their township?

As I looked more closely at http://www.graftontownship.us/, I spotted many other problems.

The next Monthly Township Meeting will be June 9, 2011. What? No May meeting?

Why is there no contact information for the Supervisor? No name. No phone number. No email address. It's almost like Grafton Township does not have a Supervisor.

How would a resident know whom to contact for General Assistance?

Pictures of two trustees (Betty Zirk and Barbara Murphy) are missing. No trustee bios are published. No contact addresses or phone numbers for any of the four trustees are published. How do residents contact them? You know, just in case someone did want to contact one of them?

Township Clerk Harriet Ford does not have her photo published.

The Grafton Township Assessor does not publish his photograph or the names of any assistant or deputy assessors.

Is this the "official" website of Grafton Township? Maybe not.

There is a second website for Grafton Township about which many electors might not know. To find the website that is maintained by the Supervisor, who is the Chief Executive Officer of a township, according to state law, go to http://www.graftontownshipsupervisor.us/

Why are there two Township websites? Why is the Supervisor's information excluded from what most residents would believe to be "the" township website?

Petty, petty, petty...

Grafton Township residents are reminded to send General Assistance applications and supporting information, such as financial documents, only to the Supervisor, and not to any other official of the township.