Where there's a Will, there's a way

I haven't had much time to blog lately so I'll have to go back to an old story that I feel strongly about. Mark Mahoney proposed a simple yet important resolution to televise committee meetings of the Springfield city council. It passed with one dissenting vote from Frank Kunz.

I think this is absolutely worth the small cost involved. You can't expect the average person to spend a lot of time and extra effort to follow local politics. People have jobs and busy lives. Even people who care about local government have a hard time finding the time to pay close attention. Making that easier is part of the job description for any elected position. Mahoney deserves credit for pursuing an excellent idea.

Overall, the City Council & City Clerk do a good job making their actions accessible to voters. The online calendar has agendas and minutes for full council meetings and committee meetings. I just checked and I can already get the agenda for the next Public Affairs & Safety meeting over a week away. It would be nice to have online video of the meetings, but they do have audio.

The minutes have good ordinance summaries and provide information on where to get full copies of ordinances. There's even a page showing how council members voted on important issues.

Additionally, the city website provides a way to contact all alderman with or without an email address. I'm not wild about the fact that people have to make requests to speak to the council 24 hours in advance. However, that policy is easily found on the city website and I've seen the Mayor accommodate people on several occasions who hadn't filed the paperwork in advance.

Between all the information on the website and televised meetings, there's not much more the city council can be expected to do. It would be nice to see the full text of proposed ordinances put online, but otherwise they're doing a great job. The local media also covers important issues prominently in advance of the final vote.

There couldn't be a stronger contrast between the city and what can generously be called a token effort by the Sangamon county board. Not even their full monthly meetings are televised, much less their committee meetings. No audio is available.

No information about addressing the county board on issues other than zoning can be found online. Unless someone were familiar with the inside workings of county government they wouldn't know that its more productive to address the closed door Republican caucus meetings where most real debate takes place and no minutes are taken.

Meeting agendas and minutes include short descriptions of ordinances that often provide very little explanation. I've often looked for agendas that were still not online three days before the meeting. To their credit, they added a contact listing within the last year that includes a generic email address that can be used for all board members. But, it still lacks contact information for new board members appointed three weeks ago. The "News & Events" page only includes three items, two of which are several years old.

The county website lacks any information about committee meetings other than a meeting place and time. No minutes, agendas or ordinances are available online for any committee. That's especially disappointing because on several occasions I've heard board members indignantly proclaim that issues were discussed at length in committee and that the public should have taken part in that technically open debate rather than raising issues before the full county board.

Similarly, Sam Cahnman was accused of "grandstanding" every time he brought an issue before the public instead of dealing with it quietly in committee. If the real work happens in committee, as Chairman Van Meter proclaims, then why isn't committee information easily accessible to the public online?

How exactly is the average person supposed to take part in the committee process when no information is available online and there's rarely media coverage about board issues other than a back page article in the State Journal Register the day before it comes to a vote before the full board? Is everyone in the county supposed to take time off work to visit the courthouse during business hours every week just in case there might be an issue coming up that interests them?

The county board provides an excellent example of how a governmental body can stay within the law but still remain in the domain of political insiders. There will always be a small number of people with a close eye on local government no matter how elusive it is to the average person. Particularly people looking for a government contract or patronage appointment. I'm sure those insiders find the county board perfectly accessible.

The county could learn a lesson from the city and do much more to make it easier for the rest of us.