NCCo County Council President writes a Letter to the Editor today, objecting to the characterizations of the NCCo Council government as being against Open Government:
Council’s vote was solely based upon concerns that the county lacks the equipment to secure audio postings.
Because of those who manipulate the facts for self-interest or humor, and then widely disseminate the same, the county has found it increasingly more difficult to inform the public of factual information.
Allowing unsecured audio to be used by those who wish to advance their own agenda, as they currently do with quotes taken out of context and doctored photos, is irresponsible to those who would like to stay informed.
There’s more, but what is clear is that Mr. Clark hasn’t a single clue as to what counts as Open Government. In short, if the government is producing data — audio, visual, electronic, paper — it gets shared with the people paying the freight for that government. You can be made to look foolish by, you know, acting foolishly. Claiming to hold on to this data because someone might manipulate it is just insulting — and Mr. Clark himself is guilty of this manipulation. Criticism of the votes to lock down participation in your government by claiming that misuse of council meeting data just makes it hard for us to know what is real or not real assumes that we have no idea how to react to this information without the mediation of being there in person or the Council’s own representation of events.
Get a grip, Mr. Clark. Your paternalistic stance towards the people that pay for the government that you are quick to put at the disposal of developers is better deployed on those developers, you know? You are in no position to ask the people you are asking for WAY MORE TAXES from to get their Open Government by showing up at the City/County Building when you meet. These people are paying for more than one excessive use of County Funds (have you found real duties for the transferred legislative assistant yet?), meaning that the incremental costs for making the audio or video available on the website is certainly possible.
Stop whining about what you might look like and get to work actually representing the interests of the people you are asking for WAY MORE TAXES from. Open Government is the new standard Mr. Clark. Get with the program or get out of the way.