SARASOTA COUNTY — The county’s website, www.scgov.net, has been named a “Sunny Award” winner by the editors of Sunshine Review as one of the most transparent government websites in the United States.

The county’s website scored an “A-” transparency grade on Sunshine Review’s transparency checklist. Only 11 of 67 Florida counties received an “A” category grade. The website scored high marks for providing budget information, meeting schedules and agendas, contact information for elected officials and administrators, online bids, financial reports and audits, building permits and zoning information, public records and a procedure for public records requests, as well as local tax information and property tax allocations. Sunshine Review is dedicated to state and local government transparency. The nonprofit organization collects information and uses a 10-point “Transparency Checklist” to evaluate the content of every state and more than 6,000 local government websites. Additional information about the rankings is available from the organization online at http://sunshinereview.org.