HOUSE RESOLUTION 12

(By Delegate Rowe)

[Introduced March 7, 2017]

Calling on all agencies of the State of West Virginia to adhere to essential standards of accessibility to the public.

Whereas, Public offices and agencies of the state are created to serve the people and to be answerable to them; and

Whereas, The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to petition the government for the redress of grievances; and

Whereas, Some public offices and agencies may, at times, neglect the courtesy of providing information to assist the public in calling, writing or otherwise seeking answers or petitioning to be heard; and

Whereas, The people of this state now regularly use a variety of means – personal, written and electronic – to communicate in their daily lives and the agencies of government must accommodate all of these means; therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Delegates:

That the House of Delegates calls upon every agency of the state to include, if available,  a United States mailing address, electronic mail address, telephone number and fax number on every paper or electronic publication presented or offered to the public; and, be it

Further Resolved, That every agency of the state should include the foregoing information in a readily apparent position on the main page of any website that is administered or maintained by the agency; and, be it

Further Resolved, That, where possible, the agency’s main webpage should be formatted in such a manner that the primary telephone number may be dialed from the webpage when accessed with a mobile telephone device; and, be it

Further Resolved, That every agency should endeavor to prevent excessive delays and waiting times for telephone calls to be answered, with no delays exceeding three minutes.