July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
New Year's wish for open government (12/31/07)
Editorial
Here's one simple suggestion for local units of government as they ponder their New Year's resolutions for 2008: Commit to transparency.
Last week, letters went out to all those bits and pieces of government, reminding them of their obligations under Indiana's open meetings law. Those obligations include providing the public - and the press as the public's independent representative - with ample notice of any meetings, keeping those meetings open to the public except for the instances allowed by law for executive session, and posting an agenda for the meeting in advance if an agenda is used.
The letters were routine, and sometimes they're routinely ignored. Other times, compliance is a little spotty.
This year, for instance, the letter included a reminder that committees appointed by bodies of local government are covered by the law as well. That includes advisory committees for the local Economic Development Income Tax.
Had the EDIT process been as transparent as it should be, Jay County might have been spared some headaches in the past year or so.
Then there's the little matter of actually holding discussions of public business at those meetings, not in private conversations, telephone calls, or e-mails. It happens far too often, as do discussions in executive session of matters well beyond the legal scope of an executive meeting.
Transparency doesn't stop with open meetings, however. It also involves public records and open access to those records.
Ask to examine a public record in Jay County - as is your right as a citizen - and chances are you'll be asked why you want to see it.
The answer is nobody's business, of course. But it's the nature of bureaucracies and public offices that they begin to assume the records they keep are for their use only.
More than once in the past year, we've found ourselves in the astonishing position of having to remind public employees that they work for the public, not for elected or appointed officials and certainly not for private developers but for the public. For us.
Why does all this matter?
Because transparency builds trust and credibility. And opacity breeds mistrust and undermines what this country is all about.
Most units of local government are pretty good about this, some are better than others. But all of them have room for improvement. - J.R.
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Last week, letters went out to all those bits and pieces of government, reminding them of their obligations under Indiana's open meetings law. Those obligations include providing the public - and the press as the public's independent representative - with ample notice of any meetings, keeping those meetings open to the public except for the instances allowed by law for executive session, and posting an agenda for the meeting in advance if an agenda is used.
The letters were routine, and sometimes they're routinely ignored. Other times, compliance is a little spotty.
This year, for instance, the letter included a reminder that committees appointed by bodies of local government are covered by the law as well. That includes advisory committees for the local Economic Development Income Tax.
Had the EDIT process been as transparent as it should be, Jay County might have been spared some headaches in the past year or so.
Then there's the little matter of actually holding discussions of public business at those meetings, not in private conversations, telephone calls, or e-mails. It happens far too often, as do discussions in executive session of matters well beyond the legal scope of an executive meeting.
Transparency doesn't stop with open meetings, however. It also involves public records and open access to those records.
Ask to examine a public record in Jay County - as is your right as a citizen - and chances are you'll be asked why you want to see it.
The answer is nobody's business, of course. But it's the nature of bureaucracies and public offices that they begin to assume the records they keep are for their use only.
More than once in the past year, we've found ourselves in the astonishing position of having to remind public employees that they work for the public, not for elected or appointed officials and certainly not for private developers but for the public. For us.
Why does all this matter?
Because transparency builds trust and credibility. And opacity breeds mistrust and undermines what this country is all about.
Most units of local government are pretty good about this, some are better than others. But all of them have room for improvement. - J.R.
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