Friday, March 12, 2010
Sunshine Week
Next week is Sunshine Week. The Patriot Ledger will be running a series of articles on the Sunshine Laws, freedom of information, and public records access. Yours truly will have a small opinion printed on the subject as well. Sunshine Week brings to light, no pun intended, the subject of openness in government. The intent of open meeting laws and freedom of information is to allow the average citizen easy access to public records, information and especially to restrict government agencies from having secretive, closed door meetings and hidden files. In this day of internet access, all forms of government, agencies, cities and towns should be able to keep their records publicly available on line.
Last week, the Town Of Weymouth was recognized as being one of the more “open” or “transparent” communities in Massachusetts because of their town web site. Anyone can access all sorts of town information, including committee meeting minutes simply by going to the official town web site.
Ironically, the Ledger also posted an opinion defending Weymouth’s mayoral form of government as being better than the old town meeting form of over ten years ago. It seems there has been criticism recently, as Weymouth reviews its Charter, that the “new” government places too much control at the top position, mayor, and stifles public involvement. The defense is that a mayoral government is more productive. I have no doubt that Weymouth’s present government is more productive than in the more open town meeting days, but for sure it is less "transparent". I have gone to several committee meetings this past year and there is virtually no public interest in what’s going on. I think the mayor and town council does a great job, but it would be nice to see some changes in the town charter that would make public debate more inviting. Not likely, but an interesting thought.
POSTED BY STAN on March 12, 2010
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