Town of Cape Elizabeth Online

Operating Guidelines

The Town of Cape Elizabeth, ME provides a municipal Web site at the address www.capeelizabeth.com and a Web site focusing on Portland Head Light at www.portlandheadlight.com.  These guidelines do not apply to any Web site provided by the Cape Elizabeth School Department.

The Town of Cape Elizabeth does not provide official blogging sites.

Purpose of the Municipal Web site. The purpose of the municipal Web site is to provide timely information to citizens and other parties regarding municipal services and municipal and school activities in the Town of Cape Elizabeth and to promote the public health, safety and welfare.  The Town of Cape Elizabeth homepage is not intended to be a forum for expressive activity by members of the public or by government officials; instead it should provide neutral information and data and links which do not espouse specific views. Citizens and officials may be quoted in news articles appearing on the homepage and in the news archive and any such articles with quotations shall endeavor to represent multiple viewpoints. Copies of e-mails sent to the Town of Cape Elizabeth may be posted on the Web site as detailed in the privacy policy.  

Webmaster Responsibility. The webmaster is responsible for the daily operation of the Web site.  The webmaster makes independent editorial judgments on stories appearing on the home page and on other pages, determines the order of links on any page, makes judgments on links that are acceptable pursuant to these guidelines and regularly updates information on the Web site. Anyone wishing to appeal a judgment of the webmaster may make an appeal in writing to the Town Manager who shall respond in writing within five working days.

Web links. For purposes of these guidelines, an “external link” is a link to a Web site maintained by an outside party.  An “internal link” is a link to a portion of the Town Web site that is maintained by the webmaster or by an operating agreement with the Town.

External Links.  Any request for an external link shall be submitted to the webmaster in writing through the “contact us” section of the Town Web site.  To be approved, an external link must go to a Web site that has information specifically related to the Town of Cape Elizabeth.  External links must fit within one of the following categories:

·         Local Organizations/ Local Places of Worship 

·         Area Businesses and Real Estate

·         Local Attractions

·         Local News and Weather

·         Travel, Tourism and Entertainment

·         Government Services

·         Services from Not for Profit Agencies

The Town Web site will not provide links to sites that promote or exhibit bias, discrimination, pornography, libelous or otherwise defamatory content. The Town Web site will not link to Web sites or blogs where anonymous commenting is permitted except to sites of news organizations requiring registration of commenters.  

The Town reserves the right to determine how and where external links will appear on its Web site.

Internal Links.  The webmaster has discretion as to the placement of internal links.

Privacy Statement. The Web site shall contain a privacy statement with the following wording: 

Privacy Policy for the Official Web site of the Town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine

The Town of Cape Elizabeth does not capture personal information about visitors to our Web sites without their permission. We endeavor to collect only the minimum amount of information needed to meet the purposes for which the Web site was created.

Public Disclosure

All information collected on the Town of Cape Elizabeth Web site and Portland Head Light Web site - including online form submissions and e-mails generated to and from e-mail links -- will be treated the same as any written communication and is subject to the confidentiality and public disclosure provisions of 1 MRSA Chapter 13.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

We may collect some or all of the following information about visitors who view or download information from our Web sites:

Date -- Date the visit occurred.

Time -- Time the visit occurred.

Client IP -- Unique Internet Protocol (IP) address of the Web site visitor. The IP address recorded is normally that of the visitor's Internet provider, e.g., aol.com if the visitor connects from an America Online account.

HTTP Status -- Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) error code. i.e., "404 Requested Page Not Found."

HTTP Request URL -- Identifies the Web page or file requested by the Web site visitor.

Bytes Sent -- Amount of data sent from the Web server to Web site visitor during that connection.

Bytes Received -- Amount of data sent from Web site visitor to the Web server.

User Agent -- Type of Web browser or other client software that made request to the Web server.

Referrer -- Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that referred to the requested file.

Protocol Version -- Version of HTTP used by the visitor's Web browser software.

In addition, we may collect the Date, Time, Client IP and/or Referrer on clicks that take visitors to external links.

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our Web services and help us understand how people are using our services. We analyze our Web site logs to continually improve the value of the materials available on our site. The information in our Web site logs is not personally identifiable, and we make no attempt to link it with the individuals who browse our Web site.

Some of this statistical information, such as a running count of the number of visitors, may be displayed on the Web site or shared with anyone who requests it.

Search Engine Statistics

The Town of Cape Elizabeth also gathers statistics about visitors who use our search engine. As with the viewer statistics described above, the town uses this information to better serve its customers.

The statistics we gather about users of the search engine are:

Date and Time of Use

Keywords or Terms searched for

Client IP (see definition in section above)

Directories searched on our site

Number of documents found

Number of documents searched.

As with the visitor statistics, the search engine statistics are not personally identifiable and no attempt is made to link them with the individuals that browse our Web site.

RSS Feeds

The web sites may make available RSS feeds. The service providing the Town the capability of RSS feeds may track subscriptions and IP addresses utilizing the service and may provide the information to the Town.

Personally Identifiable Information

"Personally identifiable information" is information about a person that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. It includes, for example, an individual's name, street address, e-mail address, or phone number.

Personally identifiable information will not be collected unless you voluntarily send an e-mail message, fill out and send an online form. Your choice not to participate in these activities will not impair your ability to access certain information or obtain a service online.

Unless specifically protected under state law, any information provided may be inspected by the public or disclosed in a legal proceeding. This includes personally identifiable information submitted by town staff for staff purposes.

E-mail Senders

E-mail messages, sent to any Town of Cape Elizabeth government address, will be treated the same as any other written communication.

They are subject to public inspection or legal disclosure and are saved in accordance with Maine statutes.

E-mail or other information requests sent to the Town Web site are maintained in order to respond to the request, forward that request to the appropriate agency, or to provide the Web designer with valuable customer feedback to assist in improving the site.

E-mail sent using the “Contact Us” feature of the municipal Web site are public records. E-mails sent to the Town’s elected officials as a group and to other standing boards and commissions may be posted on the Town web site for viewing by any party. Responses of individual elected officials or appointed officials are not posted on the web site unless the official specifically directs them to the online area for e-mails.  All e-mails are available by request to the Cape Elizabeth Town Clerk. 

Electronic Form Filers Any other information provided by a visitor at the request of a department of the Town of Cape Elizabeth, such as the completion and electronic filing of a form, will be considered to be voluntarily provided by the visitor and will be treated in the same manner as information provided in written form or in person during a visit to the agency. Information provided may be subject to public inspection and legal disclosure and may be saved for a period of time before it is destroyed. It may be shared with anyone who requests it.

InforME Subscribers The Town of Cape Elizabeth links to the "Rapid Renewal" online vehicle re-registration process offered by the State of Maine through InforME. (Information Resource of Maine ) The files we download from the State update our vehicle history file, which includes all the information on a vehicle registration including fees.

We, the Town, are not allowed to give information regarding vehicle registrations. We refer anyone who requests such information to the State of Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Cookies

The Town of Cape Elizabeth Web site does not use cookies on the publically accessed pages of its web sites.

Disclaimer

Neither the Town of Cape Elizabeth, nor any agency, officer, or employee of the Town of Cape Elizabeth warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published on the Town of Cape Elizabeth Web site, nor endorses any products or services linked from the system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information.

Portions of the information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.

Various Web sites may be linked through the Town of Cape Elizabeth Web site. Visitors to those sites are advised to check the privacy statements of those sites and be cautious about providing personally identifiable information without a clear understanding of how the information will be used. This Privacy Statement does not apply to linked sites that are not affiliated with the Town of Cape Elizabeth.

Contact Information  To offer comments about the Town of Cape Elizabeth Web site or about information presented in this Privacy Statement, contact webmaster@capeelizabeth.org