Does your city care about having an open government?
It's day four of Sunshine Week. Here's the topic for today:
What has your city done to make you think it doesn't give a hoot about being transparent?
My input: From the limited experience I've had with Montebello, and from conversations I've heard by other reporters who have sturggled in getting documents, it seems that Montebello consistently makes it difficult to access public documents. Oh yeah, and this is the same city that recently suggested destroying all the public records older than seven years.
Comments
Very few cities are as bad as Alhambra when it comes to secrecy and chronyism. When you ask for documents such as political campaign contribution records, the City Clerk acts as though you're asking for gold-leafed copies of their City Charter. It has long been suspected that she is on the dole as she has a very long history going back to the corruption-filled Talmadge Burke era.
Posted by: Alhambran | March 20, 2008 9:55 AM
Foothill Cities Blog gave a list of suggestions in the spirit of Sunshine Week for area elected officials and cities:
"Sierra Madre get their budget information with the state up to date."
"Pasadena have concurrent and online inputting of 460 forms."
"Arnold Alvarez-Glasman self-publish of everyone he’s donated to (it would save us all a lot of trouble)."
"Planet Glendora have an impartial review of the redistricting proposal."
"A FOIA request reveal the internal emails of the City of Claremont during Paystubgate."
http://thefcblog.com/2008/03/20/sunshine-week-5-things-id-like-to-see-in-the-fc/
Posted by: Jennifer McLain | March 20, 2008 1:26 PM