Open Government Matters

As we enter the campaign season, it is critical we start to talk about various issues that need to be debated in the upcoming weeks.

In the past year or two, we have had many situations where the public expressed grave concerns about the transparency of the decision making process and the availability of critical information to the public on how various decisions were made. The public can express their concerns by speaking out at local government meetings, writing letters to the editor, or by taking their grievances to court.  It is hard to imagine a greater trust between a local official and the public, than the promise of open and honest government.  This trust is a bond that enables the public to maintain faith in it's public institutions. 

I understand it is hard to practice open government.  The process is time consuming and may lead to public disagreements. But this is the nature of the beast.

I believe in each of these situations the affected local governments could have avoided these situations by practicing open government. By being open with the public, by providing relevant information about the facts surrounding the decision, and taking the time to actually listen and understand the public input.  If the decision involved a specific person, then the privacy of that person needs to be honored, but the process used to make the decision needs to be shared with the public.

We need to remember that being a public official is not about meeting our needs, but meeting needs of the community. These are the people who have a placed a scared trust in us to make the best decisions possible. 

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