Sunday, January 04, 2009

January 4, 2009 Open Government in Hamblen County: It's Time

The Florida Attorney General is encouraging government offices to put public information on government websites. Click here for info on the Taxing Tennessee website.

In Attorney General Bill McCollum's words: "As we head into 2009, I'm asking our leaders to recognize that with advances in technology, government in the sunshine can be as easy as uploading information to public websites. Merely responding to requests is no longer sufficient in light of the technological advances which make it infinitely easier, cheaper and more efficient to do so."

Hamblen County could use some of that sunshine, too!

Hamblen County established a website after a few of the newly-elected "2002" commissioners started pushing to set one up. Supposedly a website had been discussed previously but never got off the ground.

Commissioner Nancy Phillips and I really wanted to make a Hamblen County Government website a reality. Committee meetings were held. After taking bids from companies who set up websites, a Hamblen County Government website was established.

The website started with contact information for officials and departments. Gradually, bid information and the county employee handbook were posted, and the county clerk started posting minutes of county commission meetings several months ago.

But, like the Florida AG and many others have noted, there is a whole lot of public information that can and should be posted on a government website.

Even though I chose not to run for re-election to commission in 2006, I was and still am interested in opening up government information to the public. During the last budget deliberations in which I participated (06-07 budget), I asked Trustee Bill Brittain--who handles a lot of the techie stuff for the county--about putting the proposed 06-07 county budget online.

The response was that it would just be too difficult and time-consuming.

It's really not that hard. Large numbers of documents--much larger than the Hamblen County budget--can be fed into a scanner and posted on a website with relative ease. An employee could take care of this, or a high school student with an interest in government and technology could handle the project while gaining valuable experience.

All the commission needs is the political will to say "git 'r done."

About a year ago, I again asked the commission to put the budget online. No response. I talked to Chairman Stancil Ford who told me that the commission was "moving" toward that. Well, now's the time to "git 'r done."

Two years ago, I asked for agendas and minutes of committee meetings to be posted on the county website. Shortly afterward, the agenda and minutes of one meeting (January 2007) were posted. After that, agendas only were posted through June 2008. Then after June 2008, not even agendas were posted! See Finance Committee link here. [Hopefully, someone will go back and post the missing agendas and minutes, but as of 1/3/09, the Finance and other Committees show their January 2007 agenda and minutes and then agendas only are available through June 2008.]

After several years now, it's time to put the upcoming (09-10) county budget, agenda and minutes of all committee meetings, the videotapes of previous and current county commission meetings, and much more on the Hamblen County website!

Finance Committee, Public Service Committee, and other meetings are extremely important because that's where the discussion, if there is any, occurs. Unfortunately, commission insists on holding committee meetings at 11:30 am (on the 2nd Monday of each month) pretty much shutting out attendance by the working man or woman.

I along with several others have asked for committee meetings to be held at a time when the working taxpayer can attend. These requests have fallen on deaf ears. If the commissioners continue to insist on holding committee meetings and having important discussions about public business at times (11:30 am) when working citizens and taxpayers can't attend, then they should tape and televise those meetings on the government-ed channels, archiving the tapes and also making them available for viewing at any time on the Hamblen County website.

NOTE: Currently, the monthly commission meetings are taped and shown on the gov/ed channels on Tuesday and Saturday evenings at 9:00 pm. The new tapes and old archived tapes of the full commission meetings should also be posted and made available for viewing at any time on the Hamblen County website.

The Florida AG summed up his proposal with this statement: "Open government is not only good government; it is the right of the tax-paying public."

Let's git 'r done!

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