This month, many have started the New Year with goals to exercise more, eat better, lose weight, etc. January is also when newly elected public servants or incumbents starting another term take office across New York State.
Old habits are hard to change in people and especially hard to change in government. The biggest issue in government today is the lack of trust the public has in their elected leaders. The best way to build trust as an elected official is through transparency.
Elected officials should begin 2023 by conducting the public’s business in an open and transparent way. To show their commitment to open government, elected officials serving on a village board, town board, city council or a county legislature should introduce and pass a New Year resolution stating they will:
- Post timely notice of all meetings at least one week prior to all meetings.
- Meeting agendas and all meeting documents will be posted online, at least 24 hours before a meeting occurs.
- Post draft meeting minutes online, no more than two weeks after a meeting occurs.
- Allow members of the public to speak at the beginning of a meeting regarding agenda items and non-agenda items whether attending in person or remotely.
- Live stream their meetings by video and post the video recording online afterwards.
- Only conduct private executive sessions on rare occasions in accordance with the New York State Open Meetings Law. Just because you can hold an executive sessions does not mean that you have to. A motion to hold an executive session to discuss “litigation”, “personnel” or “collective bargaining” is not sufficient, as the Open Meetings Law requires motions to state more information when holding an executive session.
- Agree to not hold private political party caucus meetings. There is no reason at the local level to hold private political party caucus meetings to discuss political business or public business. Secret meetings build a lack of trust among the public.
- Have information regarding the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), posted in a visible place on your website. Proactively post documents online as much as possible so that the public can access information without having to file a FOIL request. Post an easy fill in the blank form that assists the public in filing a FOIL request by email on your website.
- Commit to ensuring that all FOIL requests are acknowledged within five days as required by law and that information is provided to the public promptly.
Paul Wolf is president of the New York Coalition For Open Government.
