Sunshine Week and Corruption
This week is Sunshine Week, Mar 15-21, 2015. I've had a
number of conversations with people who have bandied about the word corrupt as
in the system is corrupt. It normally means that an official is or
is thought to be taking money or making money under the table deals, but it
seems to have blossomed into a word that means that officials, the agency and
more broadly the system doesn't serve the people or citizens. They
serve themselves. They hide in a bureaucracy of rules
The antidote is sunshine; another word is transparency,
ensuring that the public has information available simply because officials are
conducting public business. This week, Sunshine Week (Mar 15-21)
promotes this idea. Our town and city officials are very much aware
of the their responsibilities under the Maine Freedom of Access Act through
training provided at various MMA and Town, City, and County sponsored meetings
and workshops. If you have ever received an email from any town
official, it states that the email is likely to be a public
record. Maine law makes almost all meetings public and all records
public, even drafts of minutes of a meeting. As one might expect
there are some exceptions; an employee evaluation and disciplinary actions
except the final written decision.
The legislation, although comprehensive, needs to be
reviewed periodically as we move from one new technology to the
next. Just as we receive Emergency Management push notifications of
missing children, schools have begun to use push notifications to let parents
know about school closings. These parent phone numbers are probably confidential
but emails may or may not be confidential.
Many organizations are putting more and more information on
the web giving us greater access but right now our Freedom of Access Act is
passive. It limits the destruction of records but still puts the
burden on the citizen to request rather than making it public policy for
communities and schools to easily make available information. The actions
of the Governor of New York shutting down a commission to investigate
corruption when it got too close to his allies and his office, explains why we
need to be more active use of the newest technologies to communicate with
citizens. More eyes creates participation. A commission is after the fact
when the perception or corruption has already occurred. Gone are the days
when involvement in government is reading the newspaper. governments need
to maximize their connections to citizens. Then we can hope that the
meaning of corruption will not expand.
