Transparent government needs public interest

Encouraging people to get involved in local government is proving to be a harder task than Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and his staff originally thought.

A Web site hosted by the city has been prompting citizens to comment on a new initiative for transparency in government for nearly a month now, yet few have left a response. Statistics reveal that about 5,000 people have visited the transparencyslcgov.com, which is encouraging for personnel, but "if the city is going to adopt a transparency initiative, there has to be transparency in doing it," said City Attorney Edward Rutan.

He said public comment is necessary to arrive at a prudent policy.

Rutan was one of four — including Becker, Brigham Young University journalism professor Joel Campbell, and Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy — to address the topic of transparency in government at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on Friday.

The four seemed to agree on the fact that for the issue to be useful, people need to get involved.

Last year, Niederhauser sponsored legislation that created a Web site increasing public access to the state's financial information. This year, he is hoping to expand it with SB18 to include help for cities and towns throughout Utah, getting the ball rolling as far as freedom of information goes, he said.

"Over time, financial transparency is not going to be enough," Niederhauser said. "We want to know when a bill that is passed does what it says it will do." Other features might include clicking on any specific property to find out which entities tax there.

It's a process that aims to be convenient, but also encourage citizens to want to be in the know.

Although Utah is a very patriotic state, Becker said, it also reports very low voter participation each year.

"People in Utah do not feel part of government and government decisions," he said, adding that increased importance lies with presenting clear and understandable information to the public about laws and other governmental proceedings.

The group agreed that news media is helping to further efforts of transparency, keeping an eye on officials and reporting daily happenings.

Campbell, also a former reporter, said government is getting better at proactive disclosure, but they could do more. He suggested eDemocracy pages, similar to eGoverment pages, "where people of all walks of life can get involved, even from the comfort of their own homes."

SLC-TV, the city's Web site, as well as communicative council members are helpful to citizens, as individual surveys revealed, but Rutan said that for each paragraph written in the Greater Transparency for Collaborative Government Initiative, there is room for improvement.

"With so many ways to get involved, this is a time for us to really blow the doors off City Hall and open the windows for everyone to see what goes on in there," Becker said.

E-MAIL: wleonard@desnews.com