The Observation Deck

I hope no one will mind my starting a second thread about Sunshine Week. My intent here is, in the spirit of seeing the whole picture, to begin a review of where government transparency stands in Lakewood—good bad and otherwise—and invite others to make additions.

The Good

• The City of Lakewood hosts a lot of documents online. There are exceptions, but there is an impressive volume of material accessible at-will from a desktop (or library terminal, or smartphone, etc.). Two years worth of city council meetings are on video at YouTube.
• The Lakewood Observer staff and other people who care do inspiring, volunteer work to check and supplement what the city publishes. What government is (or isn’t) doing is an important part of Sunshine Week, but it’s worth remembering that the concept is the work of journalism and media organizations. No matter how commendable government transparency may become, I think the end goal of an informed citizenry requires good journalism as well. Lakewood is fortunate to have a dedicated, locally owned and operated project facilitating discussion of civic affairs.
• You can find Lakewood’s elected officials. In particular, if you want to demand “what about this” of Lakewood’s mayor, directly and in person, opportunities are plentiful. Maybe this is setting the bar low. But Lakewood citizens can take part in real, open ended “town hall” meetings, rather than an absentee version using a life-size cardboard cutout. In these times, I think that’s worth mentioning. Next is Tuesday at 5:30. http://www.onelakewood.com/event/listen ... kewood-19/

The Case for Improvement

• Closed meetings. Lakewood’s elected officials and other public employees have held a lot of discussions behind closed doors. It does seem like the city’s law director has now concurred with independent assessments, in declaring that meetings at city hall have violated open meeting laws. Whether or not it’s legally possible to remedy that, after the fact, this just feels like grounds for improvement. http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... =7&t=23814
• “Mixed success” of public-record requests. More than one informed opinion has concluded that the city of Lakewood’s cooperation with legitimate public-record requests is much less than complete. I’m a little unclear on just what the recent appeals court decision means, but it didn't read much like satisfaction that everything is fine.
• Short record preservation period. The city has widely varying timelines for discarding different types of records, but the timeline is very short in some cases, including electronic records that can safeguard the public record at insignificant cost to the public.
• Public-private partnerships can create hazards for transparent government, here or anywhere. http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... 60#p173508

The Prospects for Improvement

• Last month, Councilman Dan O’Malley proposed legislation calling for prompt, online publication of minutes for all meetings by public bodies of Lakewood (or a description of the subject, in the case of executive-session discussions). I'm not certain where this stands since last week's Rules Committee meeting, but perhaps someone can add an update to this thread.
• The Sunlight Foundation has an app for designing open data policies. I haven't tried it yet, but it seemed worth sharing here. https://sunlightfoundation.com/2017/01/ ... wn-policy/
• We have local elections this November. If you want more transparency, let people running for office hear that it's important to you.

Sunshine Week http://sunshineweek.rcfp.org/

mjkuhns wrote:Last month, Councilman Dan O’Malley proposed legislation calling for prompt, online publication of minutes for all meetings by public bodies of Lakewood (or a description of the subject, in the case of executive-session discussions). I'm not certain where this stands since last week's Rules Committee meeting, but perhaps someone can add an update to this thread.

Matt -

The ordinance requiring the online posting of public meeting minutes was passed by council on third reading last week. It applies to all public bodies listed in section 109.01 of our code. In the committee meeting I also raised the point of documents being machine-readable, or at least searchable, to maximize the accessibility of information within these and other public documents. Something we should continue to work toward. The ordinance itself passed 7-0.

Dan OMalley wrote:The ordinance requiring the online posting of public meeting minutes was passed by council on third reading last week.

Awesome, thank you for getting this up-to-date.

Good comments and work Mark and Councilman O'Malley. Here's an observation that risks thread drift and other Deck violations--- but here goes. Shouldn't any and all paperwork on the part of the CCF in regards to its relationship to Lakewood Hospital and its strategy to its (CCF) position in the medical industry in the United States be considered public documents and therefore subject to the same disclosure laws that apply to any public transaction in the United States?
Stan Austin

Dan OMalley wrote:

mjkuhns wrote:Last month, Councilman Dan O’Malley proposed legislation calling for prompt, online publication of minutes for all meetings by public bodies of Lakewood (or a description of the subject, in the case of executive-session discussions). I'm not certain where this stands since last week's Rules Committee meeting, but perhaps someone can add an update to this thread.

Matt -

The ordinance requiring the online posting of public meeting minutes was passed by council on third reading last week. It applies to all public bodies listed in section 109.01 of our code. In the committee meeting I also raised the point of documents being machine-readable, or at least searchable, to maximize the accessibility of information within these and other public documents. Something we should continue to work toward. The ordinance itself passed 7-0.

Mr. O'Malley,

In the spirit of Sunshine week, I applaud your first legislative step towards in the journey to bringing our local government into true Sunshine for all of the people of Lakewood to enjoy.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." Lao Tzu

If the average person takes 2,000 steps to walk a mile, then one step is .0000005% of the way to the end of the journey. (1 divided by 2,000,000)

I made my first records request a little or 22 months ago. I have made about 400 requests since then, so I am only .0002% of the way to the end of the journey. (400 divided by 2,000,000)

You take the high road, and I'll take the low road.

With the luck of the Irish, you'll be there way ahead of me.

.

I have a suspicion that they've learned a lesson. But unfortunately the lesson is not to put anything in email or on the public record unless cleared by counsel. No more executive sessions; instead, group bathroom breaks.

But taking a cue from Jim, I think recent abuses mostly had to do with the hospital issue.

We could mull over this time and time again, but there is only one simple fact:

According to the law, almost everything in a public office is public record, with very few exceptions. The law director taking months and months to review them, before possibly heavily redacting or shredding them does not meet the "reasonable period of time" clause.

Bottom line: the law was broken and a judge recently ordered Butler to turn over records and explain why he has not.