| In case our readers didn't notice, this past week has marked “Sunshine Week,” a national effort to highlight the importance of transparency and freedom of information in our government operations.
Government transparency guarantees access to information that empowers "We, the people" to hold government officials accountable for the conduct of the public’s business and the spending of taxpayers’ money.
Official accountability to the citizen is the cornerstone of self-government and liberty. Without transparency, there can be no accountability — and, without accountability, there is no self-government, and “government of the people” becomes government over the people.
 According to an editorial by Michael Barnhart in the Washington Examiner, "Opportunities for government transparency have never been greater. The Internet allows direct, low-cost access to virtually unlimited quantities of documents and data, while an array of telecommunications devices can instantly transmit information to millions of citizens simultaneously.
"But for all the power of these technologies, the vast majority of state and local governments fail miserably at transparency.
"On March 9, Sunshine Review announced the recipients of the “Sunny Award” to state and local government Web sites scoring a nine or 10 on a 10-point transparency checklist of information about taxes, budgets, contracts, audits, permits and officials’ contact information.
"Since its inception in 2008, Sunshine Review has analyzed the Web sites of all 50 states, more than 3,140 counties, 805 cities and 1,560 school districts.
"While we applaud the recipients, we hasten to point out the truly stunning truth that only 39 out of more than 5,000 Web sites Sunshine Review analyzed met our transparency standards. Less than 1 percent of state and local government Web sites fully share the information that should be available to every citizen, every taxpayer."
According to another report, by Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard News Service, public cynicism that the federal government operates in an atmosphere of secrecy is as strong as ever, despite President Barack Obama's promises to make government information more easily available to the public.
A new survey of 1,001 adult residents of the United States found that 70 percent believe that the federal government is either “very secretive” or “somewhat secretive.” The largest portion of respondents, 44 percent, said it is “very secretive.” That matches the worst rating the federal government received during the final year of George W. Bush's presidency.
The survey also found that people believe state and local governments tend to be much more “open and transparent” in their operations than the federal government. Only 36 percent believe their local governments are very or somewhat secretive.
I would tend to agree with the citizens surveyed by Scripps Howard. The local government entities we cover here in Pagosa for the Daily Post seem to be, for the most part, fairly open and transparent about many issues. But I also agree with Mr. Barnhart: we are only part of the way home.
While transparency has improved in many local cases, there have been occasional "sunshine failures" in recent years. When the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, for example, hired a Denver lawyer to study the legal issues related to the proposed Village at Wolf Creek in Mineral County, the BoCC threatened to keep that report out of the public eye — claiming that it was subject to "attorney client privilege." It was only after the Pagosa Springs Town Council asked for a copy of the report that the BoCC relented and made the document public.
Apparently, the BoCC thought that they were the clients, and had the privilege to keep an attorney's report out of the public eye.
I would argue that any attorney's advice rendered to the BoCC, or to the PAWSD board of directors, or to the Town Council, is actually being provided to "We, the people." Only if the legal advice relates to a pending lawsuit, or to negotiations around a property purchase or sale, should an attorney's report be kept from the public.
And the same applies to subdivision applications, variance requests, and conditional use permits that will affect our neighborhoods, roads and other infrastructure — all this information must be made as available as possible.
I applaud the efforts by our local governmental entities to utilize their websites, to the fullest extent possible, and make information available to all the citizens that these agencies serve. |