If the city of Española website is to be believed, disgraced former Community Services Director Len Cata still works for the city, Library Director Sherry Aragon is working in tandem with former Library Director Teddie Riehl and former City Councilor Cecilia Lujan still sits on the Finance and Public Works committees.
This is just some of the outdated information featured on the city’s website.
None of the meeting minutes listed on the various governing bodies’ pages are up-to-date, with some featuring links to minutes from 2010. Access to basic information like the current members and the function of the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Lodgers Tax Advisory Board is nonexistent, instead linking users to a list of outdated meeting minutes.
For some parts of the website, having a list of outdated minutes is, in itself, an achievement. The link to the Library Board and the Public Works Department aren’t even functional.
Meeting agendas are posted on the website within 72 hours of the meeting, but links to the documents disappear when a new meeting is posted.
City Clerk Tessa Jo Mascareñas, who is responsible for keeping the information updated on the website, admitted that much of it is not up-to-date. She said one of her priorities for 2014 would be to update the site with new information.
“We have every intention of updating the website in the new year,” Mascareñas said.
Changes to the website could be coming sooner than that, according to Richard Rieckenberg, who contracts with the city to maintain their website.
Rieckenberg said he received an email requesting Cata’s profile be taken down Dec. 6, a day after Mascareñas was interviewed by a Rio Grande SUN reporter. He was also sent “40 to 50” documents worth of meeting minutes to be posted on the website sometime this week. As of press time, these updates had not yet been implemented.
Rieckenberg said he was aware of the website’s outdated information, but had not known about the nonfunctional links. He said he provides “piecemeal” updates to the website at the city’s request, but will initiate discussions of website issues if he notices them.
If these changes are implemented, it would reverse course for a website that’s seen the amount of relevant information shrink in recent years.
A previous SUN report stated a 2008 version of the website had digital copies of city policy manuals, general administrative rules and the city’s annual budget available. Since the website was redesigned in 2011, none of these documents have become available again.
Jessica Martinez, an employee at the time, told the SUN that updates would be available soon. But a cached version of the website showed very little changes besides a city newsletter archive being changed, Española Valley fiesta information and city employee applications being removed.
Españolans looking for more digital information did get a glimmer of hope last month — the City Council voted to put an updated code of ordinances online at a Nov. 19 meeting.