Too often, local governments avoid the media attention that state and national governments do. And, yet, many of the decisions made by school boards, city councils and county commissions are often the ones which affect our daily lives the most. With reduced scrutiny, some local governments make decisions on behalf of the public without the necessary input to make the right decision for the community, and may even lapse into excluding the public from participating at all.
Crossposted at VoteBrianSayrs.com
As part of Netroots Nation in Second Life, this is a guest blog by Spokane County, Washington, Commissioner candidate Brian Sayrs. This is the first of four diaries produced during the conference. If you have Second Life, you can visit the Netroots Nation Island. If not, you can get Second Life for free.
Open Government
Open government is a basic American value. We own the government, and it acts in our name. We have a right to control its function and direct its goals. However, for some, the urge to hijack public institutions to put them to their own personal use can be overwhelming, and that is aided by shrouding their activities in secret. Over the years, the public has made strides in opening governments up to scrutiny, including sunshine laws and public disclosure for candidates. However, that does not mean that we can be complacent and hope that our officials take their duty to openness seriously.
In an age when communications around the world can be near instantaneous, and regular people can be the media, there is no reason why governments cannot embrace Web 2.0, and engage their citizens with blogs, video, audio, and neighborhood organizing through social/political networking. There should be no reason why meetings of the decision makers aren't streamed online and stored for future. There's no reason why regular folks can't have access to all the information that elected officials have access to.
However, there is still that urge to keep people out of the works.
Protect the Prairie Incident
A couple of years ago, there was an incident where Spokane County, Washington, was holding an open house. It was clearly a public forum where the county could inform the public about a public works project on Bigelow Gulch Road. There had been substantial public opposition to the project, so a resident of the area, Don Hamilton, decided to commit the meeting to video.
One by one, public employees working at the public event refused to be recorded. You can see the video on the Protect the Prairie web site (QuickTime required). There was clearly a coordinated effort to prevent the public from seeing what the county was doing.
(Indeed, it can be argued that the choice of holding an open house rather than a public hearing is another indication that they didn't want to hear the community's concerns, but, instead, merely to hear their own voices. It's easier to deny there's a problem when the discussions are he said/she said, rather than in an open fashion.)
I hold no ill will toward a group of employees who were obviously instructed to do this. In fact, one of the people refusing to be recorded is a friend of mine and is an advocate for progressive principles.
The blame must go to the top. And how do I know it came from the top? Two years later, the county still has no policy about recording devices at public meetings. In fact, they've delayed action so long, now they think they can deflect blame and say that it's election year politics which is causing the controversy (see above link).
Secret Raceway Meeting Incident
In a second and more blatant violation of the public trust, County Commissioners Mark Richard and Todd Mielke violated the Open Public Meetings Act by holding a public meeting without informing the press (and thereby denying the public access). In fact, they went so far as to prevent the third county commissioner from finding out the meeting was happening!
Every newly elected official is taught that whenever a majority of a legislative body meets, it must be held in public so the citizens of the county can observe. It must be noticed to the press ahead of time so that there is a reasonable opportunity for people to attend.
But, in this case, not only was this a failure for the commissioners to inform the public, but it was clearly intentional. After he was caught Mr. Richard showed his intent. This is from the Spokesman-Review, who has produced an entire series of stories to the issue:
Richard said he had no intention of inviting Mager, who has been a vocal opponent of the county's participation in the auction to acquire the land. He said Mager has used the issue to hurt his and Mielke's bids for re-election.
"My interests are to make sure (the raceway) is a success," Richard said. "Hers is to do anything she can to make sure I'm not in office anymore."
Again, Mr. Richard doesn't get it. He thinks this is about politics, not about the proper way to preserve the public trust.
And to add insult to injury, they blew off a scheduled meeting of the County Commission which was being held at the same time at the county courthouse.
My favorite quote, though, is from Mark Richard's campaign manager, Martin Burnette. As quoted from the Spokesman-Review:
"It wasn't a public meeting," Burnette said. "It was a private meeting of private individuals with a private corporation."
Well, if Mark Richard so much wants to be a private individual, I'm willing to accommodate him. Please consider a contribution to the campaign to make Mark Richard a private citizen at the Sayrs for Commissioner web site.