TITLE
Recommendation to request City Clerk to develop, with public input, recommendations for creating and implementing an open government policy initiative, including but not limited to:
· An official open government policy and open government steering committee
· Placing completed contracts on-line
· On-line public comment
The report and recommendations should return to Council within 90 days and include projected costs of implementation.
DISCUSSION
Openness and transparency in government are important values in a: democracy. They provide a means for the public to evaluate the performance of elected and appointed officials, and ensure citizens have access to information they need to make intelligent decision about public policy. The City of Long Beach should foster openness and transparency whenever possible.
Open government initiatives, designed to implement broad and varied reforms to foster transparency and openness, are increasingly common. The cities of Pittsburgh, PA, and Salt Lake City, Utah, for example, as well as the Federal Executive branch, have introduced open government reforms.
To ensure more open government, Long Beach should implement the following:
OPEN GOVERNMENT POLICY STATEMENT
As part of an open government initiative, many cities have adopted an open government policy. Open government policies set out clear and concrete principles, goals and benchmarks that can be applied across departments and in a variety of arenas - technology, open meetings, disclosure of information, citizen participation, contracts negotiation, and in almost any area of government.
This serves several purposes:
· It provides clear direction and expectations to department and bureau chiefs
· It offers the public a means to evaluate the City's progress on opening government
· It provides a benchmark upon which officials can base our evaluations of specific policy proposals
· It ensures City policies address issues of diversity at the all levels of servic...
Click here for full text