S.L. mayor unveils 'transparency' initiative
Plan aims to open inner workings of government
Becker, along with a pair of City Council members, a state senator and various academics and city administrators, presented an outline billed the "Greater Transparency for a Collaborative Government Initiative" that hopes to engage constituents in partnership with municipal government.
Becker recognized the buzz-word status of transparency but offered this take on how it works as part of his new plan.
"If you think of us, in government, as having windows and doors, what we're trying to do with transparency is to provide clearer windows and more open doors for our actions," Becker said. "So, people can see more clearly into our actions ... and for people to be able to walk through the doors of Salt Lake City government."
"Democracy works best when there's greater participation," Love said. "The greater the participation, the better the decisions ... when we take the public out of the loop, it's never our best decision."
Utah state Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, spoke in support of the city's plan and introduced the state's new financial transparency Web site, due to go online May 15. Niederhauser noted that in the midst of rough economic times spending money on new initiatives can raise opposition from those who think services will suffer, but said a bigger obstacle is engagement.
"It isn't the cost that's the barrier, it's commitment," Niederhauser said. "I applaud Salt Lake City for their commitment to this program."
The program not only looks to increase citizen involvement, but also create an overarching policy to expand electronic access to information, transmit information in a more usable and understandable format, make more extensive use of broadcast time on Ch. 17 and establish clear paths of accountability across city government.
E-mail: araymond@desnews.com
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It's about time | Jan. 7, 2009 at 6:08 a.m.
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