Idaho's Anti-Telemarketing Service Recognized

The Idaho Attorney General's Consumer Protection Unit in Boise has received an award, "Best Online Consumer Services," from the Conference of Western Attorneys General.

Idaho was honored in part for its achievement in providing online registration for the attorney general's No Call List.

To offer Idaho consumers relief from unwanted telephone solicitations, Attorney General Al Lance proposed legislation to create a No Call List, which that gave consumers the opportunity to register their residential, mobile and pager telephone numbers.

Telemarketers are prohibited by law from calling numbers on the list and are subject to substantial civil penalties for violations. More than 28,000 Idaho households have registered their telephone numbers, so far.

To increase citizen access to the No Call List, Idaho's Consumer Protection Unit enlisted support from the state's Web site, accessIdaho, at www.accessidaho.org. More than 14,000 Idaho households have been placed on the list since January via a Web site sign up on accessIdaho.

The Idaho Information Consortium, a subsidiary of the Overland, Kan., e-government firm National Information Consortium Inc., manages accessIdaho for the state. NIC manages online transactions for more than 1,000 state and local agencies that serve more than 49 million people in the United States.

"Of all the no-call states, Idaho is the only one which has online registration for its residents," said Linda Brughelli, awards committee chair for the Conference of Western Attorneys General and director of the division of legal support and technology for the California attorney general.

"The Idaho site was the best for presenting consumer information, particularly on telemarketing laws, in a form that is easy to understand and navigate," Brughelli said.

A bipartisan group of chief legal officers from 15 western states and three Pacific territories, the conference recognizes one member state each year for special achievement in Web site design and functionality. Idaho Attorney General Al Lance accepted the award on behalf of the state.

"The credit goes to the staff of the consumer protection unit and the information technology group in the Office of the Attorney General, as well as to the people at accessIdaho who assisted in the development of the Web site," Lance said. "Their thoughtful efforts and careful planning resulted in a site that is both helpful to Idaho consumers and easy to use."

AccessIdaho has been recognized several times for e-government achievement during the past year. The Web site received the Eagle E-Government Leadership Award from the Council of State Governments in December 2000 and earned a Civic 50 award from Civic.com magazine in July.