Without transparency the government can get away with anything it wants. For anyone who has been paying attention to me over the years you will find that one of my core beliefs is that we MUST have a transparent government. It is crucial for we - the people, the governed - to hold our elected and unelected officials accountable. Yes, there are times when national security or individual privacy concerns demand some degree of secrecy, but most actions carried out by the governm

I recently came across some information which greatly unnerved me. It pertains to the controversy surrounding the removal of the Gazebo. To be honest, I have been trying to figure out the best way to share what I’ve learned with the public. There are a small number of people who I’ve told, but I am not taking this lightly. Sorry to be cryptic about this, but it is a serious matter. More to come soon. In the meantime… Here are this week’s documents: This Week’s Available Minut

Due to schedule conflicts, I have been absent from the first two meetings of this year. Something interesting unfolded at the Rules Committee meeting from last Monday, though. In that meeting, two significant proposals were discussed with respect to how City Council functions. For starters, after a recent shuffle of partisan leadership led to at least one surprise outcome, Councilman Blake brought to the table a suggestion that the decision for Minority and Majority leaders b

An interesting development took place at the first council meeting of the year while I was gone due to a conflict in schedule: Councilman Mark Fraizer proposed a “legislative tracker” to enable a more transparent approach to local governance. In his idea, this would allow citizens to more easily research the actions of City Council with the aid of a simple tool as opposed to having to read through all the minutes and watch all the videos. This is a version of a similar idea I

Here are this week’s documents: This Week’s Available Agenda Full Council - Tonight This Week’s Available Minutes Full Council – December 18th Stay Tuned…