Transparency continued

Sometimes you don’t ask the right question.  I think that happened on my earlier post about transparency. 

My earlier poll may have presumed that all local governments were transparent and it’s possible that a large number of potential poll takers might have skipped the poll because of that presumption.

This new poll comes on the heels of statements made at yesterday’s (2/27/2009) Condition of the City address.  The Mayor said the City of Cedar Rapids is more transparent than ever.  While that statement may be true, the real standard for transparency likely resides in each individual’s experience with how much time and expense it takes for a specific part of government to deliver on requests for information.  Did I get what I wanted when I wanted it?  And how much (how many trips) did it cost to get it?

Open meetings and open records laws seem to be getting some attention in the Legislature.  If you have an opinion on them, you may want to contact your legislators.  In the meantime, please take a moment and vote in my poll.

Board decides to lead

One of the biggest criticisms leveled against the City of Cedar Rapids and Linn County is a lack of leadership.  Buttry, Dorman, and the Gazette’s editorial writers have recently been taking aim with increasing frequency at CR and County leadership.  And I agree with Buttry et al:  The County and CR need to do a better job of leading.

 

Yesterday (2/20), the Board of Supervisors (BOS) demonstrated they can lead.  While the BOS voted 3-2 not to join the co-location study, the fact that each of the five shared their reasons for voting in the manner they were going to vote AND then actually voted to do something was refreshing. 

 

The Board decided to lead.  And I view their decision as a landmark event because it was a decision to control their (and my/our) destiny when it seemed our destiny was at the mercy of CR.

 

While CR Councilor Pozimek didn’t like the Board’s decision, he never addressed – at least at the BOS meeting – the timeline challenges the County, CR, and CR Schools are facing. 

 

The timeline for completing repairs on our buildings is 36 months from the start of the Presidential Disaster Declaration.  The public tends to forget that the Declaration began with the tornado that hit Parkersburg, which means we’ve already chewed up nine plus months of a 36 month timeline.  And while we have restored the Elections Depot and we’re back in the Courthouse and we’re working on the Correctional Center, we’ve made little progress on the AOB, Witwer, Youth Shelter, and Options buildings.

 

The second item no one has addressed is how would the County, CR, or CR Schools pay for co-location?  I do NOT believe anyone intends to use the local option sales tax (if approved) for new government buildings.  That leaves the County, CR, and CR Schools with one source of revenue – property taxes – to supplement their reimbursements from FEMA.  Do we really want to saddle the taxpayers with an increase in property taxes at this point in time?  Or over the next few years?  For government buildings? 

 

A majority of the BOS already recognized that the County is short of time and short of funds to participate in co-location with CR and the CR Schools.  If you already know on February 20, 2009, that you are short on both of those key ingredients, why would you proceed with the study? 

 

The Board made the correct decision for Linn County yesterday.  And to top it off, the Board decided to lead.

Abe Lincoln stopped by the other day

President Lincoln and the team

President Lincoln presenting me with a cake for Valentine’s Day

Abe Lincoln stopped by the office on Friday, February 13th.  He was commissioned by my wife to deliver a speech (he recited it – I’ll post it later), a Valentine’s Day cake, and a card from my wife (which he read).

Mr Lincoln made quite an impression on me and the staff.  I think I’ll remember his birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Presidents Day for quite some time.

If you need to reach Mr Lincoln, he can be reached at 319-651-3019 or mailto:misterlincoln2003@yahoo.com or http://geocities.com/misterlincoln2003.

Transparency: Walking the Talk

One of the words frequently batted around in discussions about government is the word “transparency”.  Wikipedia defines transparency as implying openness, communication, and accountability. 

 

One of my on-going goals has been to walk the talk when it comes to transparency in my office.  For example, since taking office on February 20, 2007, we have added or updated 388 of the 532 documents posted on the Auditor’s portion of Linn County’s web site.  We have posted Election Results, GIS Data,  Accounts Payable information, Flood Related Contracts, Minutes of Board of Supervisors meetings, and many other documents.  (Note:  We provide GazetteOnline with the salaries paid to County employees.)

 

 

I’m open to publishing any and all public records in the custody of my office that are not confidential public records (overall, we possess very few confidential records).  The gating factor to publishing more records is time and resources. 

 

 

I don’t want to publish everything because some of the data is likely of little interest to the public.  On the other hand, if you notice something missing that would be of interest to you and maybe others, please contact me so I can consider publishing it.  As a matter of law, all of our public records are available in our office for your in-person inspection at anytime during normal office hours and outside of office hours by appointment.

 

While transparency in government is important at all times, it’s going to become especially important if/when federal and state dollars start to flow into our county.  You/we need to know where the dollars are coming from and to whom they are going to.  Transparency means you can clearly see what happened.  It does not mean you agree with what happened.

 

I’m doing my part to make Linn County government as transparent as possible.  I could use an extra set of eyes once in a while to look things over and ask questions.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

 

Why Twitter? Why blog?

In November 2007, the Linn County Board of Supervisors (BOS) commissioned their fourth Study of Citizen Satisfaction with County Services.  Nearly half of those surveyed describe themselves as “not at all familiar” with the BOS [p12].  In fact, those surveyed were less familiar with the BOS in 2007 than in 2000 [p13].  I have to assume the same downward trend applies to the other County Officers.

 

While 82% [p14] of those surveyed get their news about the BOS from newspapers, 20% [p38] of those surveyed have visited http://www.linncounty.org and 30% [p19] of them would prefer to learn more about the County via a web site.  Keep in mind that the BOS paid for this survey and some of the questions are specific to the BOS; whereas, others apply to general County operations.

 

My purpose in Twittering and blogging is to keep the online public and media informed of the day-to-day activities being performed by me, by my deputies, and by my staff.   

 

Over the last two years, I’ve discovered that the public does not fully understand County government nor do they fully understand the individual offices and departments that comprise County government.  When you read the online comments on local news stories, you will notice that a number of writers confuse and misuse the words “city” and “county” on a frequent basis. 

 

The public seems to understand the roles of mayors, governors, and presidents.  Many don’t understand the roles of county auditor, recorder, and treasurer.  And I doubt they know the difference between the county attorney and the city attorney or between the county sheriff and police chief.  But those positions are different and they will remain different unless the laws of the State are changed.

 

I could rant and rave about the lack of civics classes in schools and colleges as the reason for a lack of understanding by the public, but as my wife frequently reminds me:  “it is what it is”.

 

I don’t like “what it is” and my goal is to try to inform/educate/cajole the public into understanding more about my office, county government, and government in general.  I’m going to continue to work on this goal … even if I have to do it one tweet at a time.

I said freeze my salary

Almost missed amongst the public comments during Tuesday’s Compensation Board meeting was the fact that I asked the Compensation Board to freeze my salary for the upcoming year.

Adam Belz recorded my recommendation on his live blog of the meeting.  And my recommendation should be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, which I have not seen.

At 0720 on February 3rd, I also made the same recommendation on the air of WMT Mornings with Andy Peterson (AM600).

And finally, on KGAN CBS2 and Fox28 on February 4th (recorded on Feb 3rd), I said, “freeze my salary”.

I’m guessing the Linn County Board of Supervisors will accept my recommendation and apply it to my office, the county recorder, treasurer, sheriff, and county attorney at their meeting on Friday, February 6th.

To the 117 people who participated in my poll:  You are my boss. What would you do to my salary for the next fiscal year?  THANK YOU for participating in the poll!  I heard you!

Iowa does not hold recall elections

Within minutes of adjournment of the Linn County Compensation Board, I had an attendee of the meeting question me about holding a recall election. Last week, someone wanted to know how to recall a member of a city council. Normally, I get this question about once a month.

One of the purposes of this blog is to provide answers to frequently asked questions. I’m posting this answer with that purpose in mind.

Recall elections are NOT an option in Iowa.  Recall elections ARE an option in Nebraska and other states.  A quick internet search using the words – recall election Nebraska - will unearth many articles on Nebraska’s recall elections.

Iowa does have Chapter 66 – Removal from Office. Please consult an attorney if you have questions about Chapter 66.   I am unfamiliar with Chapter 66.  I do not know if/when it’s been used anywhere in the State of Iowa in recent times.  I am not an attorney.