Editorial: Opening up

Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:00

It's good to see town officials finally take a page from the school board playbook and make the pages they leaf through during a meeting available online for the public to also view.

For years, the school board has been posting detailed agendas of its upcoming meetings online that include pending actions, monetary figures, proposed policies and file attachments. This has made it much easier for the public to anticipate what will be discussed at these meetings, helping residents determine if they should attend because there's something they want to hear more about or address in public session. In the past, when these materials were in hard copy only, they were available but residents would have to go to district offices or wait until they were presented immediately preceding a meeting. That was a lot to do simply to see what, if anything, would be discussed that might be of interest — or to keep an eye on their elected representatives.

Thanks to a new state law that goes into effect soon, the Town Board must do the same. It got a head start on the new legislation by scanning the packet the board was to view at its Monday night meeting and posting it on the town's website beforehand.

In addition to providing residents a more comprehensive meeting preview, this new law grants the press earlier and easier access to the materials so that it may report about committee appointments, town financial decisions and other governmental news more thoroughly, quickly and accurately to the public.

It's impressive that the school board, which in the middle of the last decade received many claims that it was concealing information, took the lead on this nearly four years ago, while under no requirement to do so. Since its first foray into using the online program Board Docs in the spring of 2008, it has expanded what it includes in its online agendas, now attaching detailed and often times large, information-filled files that may easily be downloaded.

And for its part, the Town Board has been posting its meeting agendas online for years. Yet agendas in general are rather limited in the information they include — the supporting documents provide much more insight into what will be addressed at a meeting. For example, if printed out, this week's agenda would be all of two pages with more white space than print. But the agenda packet was the opposite — full of information and 22 pages long.

Yes, there is a new state law prompting this but the Town Board appears to be fully embracing the legislation rather than fighting it. This overall move to increase government transparency was further evidenced on Monday when Town Board member Dan Welsh suggested the town also post the board's "to do" list regarding "open issues" online.

Despite these favorable moves, both boards still need to be watched closely to make sure they comply with state laws regarding public information and open meetings as they, like most governmental bodies, are still prone to downplay information that reflects negatively on them. However, thanks to these positive developments, now the public and the press can work as watchdogs more effectively, as increased accessibility means increased government accountability.