by Andrea Minihan
5/19/2017

The Town of Holliston and Holliston Public Schools announced that they have partnered with ClearGov, a leading municipal transparency and benchmarking platform, to launch an infographic-based fiscal transparency center. The new online tool provides taxpayers with an easy-to-understand, visual breakdown of Holliston’s town and school finances, as well as insights into the town’s demographics and student-age population. The site also shows visitors how each budget item compares to neighboring communities and school districts.

Holliston is at the forefront of a growing movement nationwide in providing financial transparency to its citizens. The Holliston Board of Selectmen, Finance and School Committees have been collaborating with ClearGov for more than a year to develop a user-friendly solution for the public to gain easier access to important financial information and key performance indicators. With the click of a button from the town and school websites, taxpayers can now easily view revenue and expenditure breakdowns, trend data and key statistics in brilliant graphics. The town and school departments have also added commentary to many of the metrics and graphs on the site to help lend context in everyday user terms.

“This is an exciting development for the town of Holliston,” said Kevin Conley, Chairman of the Holliston Board of Selectmen. “For the first time in our history we are able to provide a complete picture of town finances to each and every citizen on a near real-time basis. ClearGov has built a brilliant solution and we look forward to working further with the company on future releases.” “Our goal is to make it easy for the public to understand how the schools are spending their money,” said Anne Louise Hanstad, chair of the Holliston School Committee. “School finances can be complex and often people have very specific questions. We’re delighted to provide them with a state-of-the art tool that has been customized for Holliston. ClearGov has been outstanding in working with Dr. Jackson and our business manager, Keith Buday, to build powerful, enhanced features to meet our needs.”

“The Town and School District Administration’s feedback has been tremendously helpful in shaping the ClearGov platform,” said Chris Bullock, CEO of  ClearGov. “Holliston has a great financial story to tell and we are delighted to support their commitment to transparency.” According to Ken Szajda, Chairman of the Finance Committee, “the Holliston Finance Committee has always supported financial transparency, especially since many aspects of municipal finance can be complex and confusing. However, a significant effort is required to publish and maintain all the data, especially for an elected volunteer board like ours.

Having a tool like ClearGov gives residents instant access to financial information presented in a way that is easy to understand, and allows the Finance Committee to focus its efforts on important budget matters rather than web site maintenance.” Visit the Town of Holliston’s ClearGov Financial Transparency Center: http://www.cleargov.com/massachusetts/middlesex/town/holliston/2015

Visit Holliston Public School’s Financial Transparency Center: http://www.cleargov.com/massachusetts/school/holliston/2016

About Holliston

Holliston, Massachusetts, is a beautiful bedroom community located in Middlesex County about 27 miles southwest of Boston, Massachusetts. The town benefits from easy access to the nearby cities and towns with which it shares the Boston metropolitan area. Holliston is a thriving community of more than 14,000 citizens and growing. Founded in 1659, the town boasts a charming historic downtown district, four public parks, a community golf-course, a lake with public beaches, and high-performing schools. Holliston Public Schools is unique among its peers offering Montessori and French Immersion programs, as well as an outstanding traditional educational offerings. In addition, Holliston is home to a vibrant senior citizen community that enjoys many town resources, including a recently renovated senior center.

ClearGov helps local governments communicate and operate more effectively and efficiently through a unique fiscal clarity and insights platform. Local governments leverage ClearGov to more clearly communicate their financial performance in an effort to build citizen trust and participation through transparency. ClearGov also provides valuable municipal benchmarking intelligence to help government leaders quickly compare their finances against similar communities in an effort to make more informed and data-driven policy and budgetary decisions.

Press Contacts:
Kevin Conley
Holliston Board of Selectmen, Chair
E: Conleyk@holliston.k12.ma.us

Anne Louise Hanstad
Holliston School Committee, Chair
E: Hanstada@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Ken Szajda
Holliston Finance Committee, Chair
E: ken.szajda@hollistonfincom.com

Chris Bullock
ClearGov
E: cbullock@cleargov.com