Transparency Changes with the Sioux Falls City Council
l3wis At the informational next Tuesday the council will be discussing;
City Committee and Boards Update by Councilors Miranda Basye and Rich Merkouris
Of course there are NO links to the agenda item, so we have no clue what this is about before the meeting (I’ve told the council for years when the informational meeting posts on Friday all attached documents for agenda items should be there, it’s a good transparency thing. The docs usually don’t post until an hour before the meeting or right when the meeting starts).
I’m assuming they are going to announce that ALL public meetings will be posted to the main agenda page, which I notice they have been doing now for about 2 weeks. This is just another thing I told them about a few years ago that they dragged their feet on. The council shouldn’t even be involved with this, this is something staff should have been doing for years, AND, it is how it used to be, but after the city spent a million dollars transforming the city website into a maze of information that all changed. So if this is what this meeting is about, good for you, but it’s way past due. Like I said, Transparency 101.
While I should be happy the council is finally doing something, I am uncomfortable with the 3 (hopefully 4) outgoing councilors making policy decisions on transparency and open government without a new set of eyes weighing in. I think this would be a great initiative for the next mayor and council to work on together. This is just a last ditch attempt as they are walking out the door to make it look like they did something the last 4 years. Too little, too late. It’s like open government in Sioux Falls is an afterthought to them and it shows.
I have tons of open government ideas, but they are going to have to wait until July, because I don’t have much confidence in our current ‘shadow’ council who are doing this to get brownie points. Why is everyone in government these days act like 3rd Graders? Because they are.
