Open Meeting Law

I love this video clip done by our former Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Cane in 2022 about Open Meeting Law. Brian Kane states that the Idaho Open Meeting Law guarantees your right as a citizen to observe your government in action.

The term "transparency" might have a different meaning to different people. Some might say that the City of Hayden is transparent as it is now because if you fill out a form and do an information request some of this information may be sent to you. When I started out 5 years ago, I didn't know how to do that and it was a giant learning curve for me. I've also heard people say that if you want to know what's going on you can call city hall or a Council Member and ask them for information. That might be all right if you know the topics of importance and feel comfortable calling and asking questions.

Personally, I appreciate having the information available online where I can search for myself at my leisure. When I think of transparency and good governance, I mean that the things that your decision makers are doing are clear, open, and easily searched. This can take many different forms such as the availability of live streamed meetings, video recordings, audio recordings, minutes, agendas, City Ordinances, resolutions, and other documents on the city website. Deliberations and decisions are easily observed.

Currently, fewer than 50% of the meetings that occur in Hayden are available on video. That's a great start. But why are we stopping with just the City Council & Planning and Zoning commission meetings when we have such a great setup and recording system in our meeting room? Why not just live stream and record everything so people who are curious and engaged can see what's going on in the city? For example, the Public Safety Commission meets quarterly during working hours and these meetings are not being video taped, and yet the future of our sheriff department is being discussed and recommendations being made. I believe that there's no reason to not record these. In addition to that, we have the Arts commission, Veterans, Parks, and History commission meetings as well as other workshops.

I have requested $30,000 to be designated in the budget for the purpose of transparency, but that's the crazy high number that also includes meetings we are already recording. I'm sure that if this was a priority to all of us, then the money would easily be designated and even more economical ways of doing things would be found. In recent meetings one of our council members has asked for $15,000 to be spent on another survey of the citizens regarding law enforcement. Rather than spending money for people to say they want to feel safe, have less crime, and safer streets, wouldn't that money be better spent on making sure the citizens can observe what's going on and what decisions are being made for their future live and available 24/7?

Transparency has to be a priority and a desire to make it happen. If the desire to allow the people to have a "ticket to the show of government" is the true desire then a way to make every effort to make things available will be evident and become a priority.

Here's a link for the full video: https://youtu.be/XZA6-LZyM2Y?feature=shared

Open Meeting Law manual: https://www.ag.idaho.gov/content/uploads/2018/04/OpenMeeting.pdf