Tag: transparency

Meeting the Mayor

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I was invited to a blogger breakfast this morning with Mayor Becker. After digesting the surprise and wondering how they decided who to invite (there were only 7 bloggers there) I was excited to see what it would be like. Early on the question was asked if anyone present took a conservative perspective on their blog – I felt a bit lonely but I sure enjoyed meeting some of the bloggers that I have been interacting with for quite a while.

Three things really stuck out to me during the course of the morning. First (and least importantly), it’s nice to have someone else paying for breakfast. Second, I sat next to Glen Warchol and because of my recent interest in journalism and the interaction between reporters and politics, it was fascinating to watch as Glen fired off a number of questions and followups to the mayor to start things off. My respect for the art and skill of the information gathering side of reporting increased noticeably (nothing this morning really touched on the synthesizing and word-crafting side of reporting, but my blogging has already built up my appreciation for that aspect of the process). And the third thing that really stuck out to me? That’s what this is really all about . . .

One of the major topics this morning was the issue of transparency. I really think that this blogger breakfast is a part of the mayor’s transparency initiative – it’s another way for him to try to engage people and get them invoved and connected wtih their city government. Towards the end of the meeting Glen asked all of the bloggers if any of us had sought press credentials at the capital. It occurs to me that part of transparency is making sure that we make use of the options to get information that are already available to us. None of us had sought press credentials at the capital and Glen said we should give it a try. A few of us decided to look into it.

I called Ric Cantrel this afternoon to inquire and was told that the capital was pretty open to anyone who cared to visit, the meetings were generally open to the public and the elected officials wanted to get information out in any way that they could, and finally that they don’t have a policy one way or another on giving press credentials to bloggers. Ric expressed an interest in figuring out a manageable and reasonable policy on granting credentials to bloggers and suggested that it might be useful to meet with a group of bloggers to start hammering out such a policy. I trust that Ric is genuinely interested because he has been a significant force behind The Senate Site blog which is a good source for information – especially during the legislative session.

If anyone else is interested in taking part in the discussion let me know – I’ll keep you updated as I try to set things up.

Tags blogging, connections, government, media, policy, Press Bloggers, Salt Lake City, transparency

National

Holding Out Hope

Our President-elect ran a primary campaign on themes of hope and change – I liked the tone he set at that time. Once he had secured the Democratic party nomination he insisted that the Democratic party cease accepting money from political action committees – I liked that action towards change. Once the general election campaign got underway the tone of his campaign changed to a more traditional type of politicking and I set aside my hope that he might be a different kind of politician.

After he had won the election I entertained the hope that he would prove to be the best version of himself that he had shown during the campaign rather than a lesser version that could also be seen during the campaign. I did this not because politicians have a good track record (and certainly not because Obama had any track record) but because I believe it is our duty as citizens to give our leaders the benefit of doubt until they prove themselves unworthy of that benefit (which is sometimes very quickly). As I have watched his actions since the election my hope has been strengthened by observing the concrete steps he is taking to promote transparency within his administration so far. I hope the pattern of seeking input and sharing directly with the public continues and proves to be a valuable pursuit. I am intrigued by the "team of rivals" that he appears to be building for his cabinet and hope to see positive results form that as well.

I guess I’m just happy to see that after four weeks I actually have more hope that he will be his better self in office than I had the day after the election.

Tags campaign promises, Obama, transparency

life Local

Help Me Brainstorm

I ran into one of the candidates for city council today who happens to work in the same building I do. We took a few minutes to talk (politics naturally) and as we talked we realized that both of us have a similar desire to accomplish two things here in Lehi – we want to discourage apathy among citizens and increase transparency in our local government (all levels of government really, but let’s not bite off more than we can chew right now). We have agreed to get together soon after the elections are over next week and discuss some ideas for getting more people interested in what’s happening in our local government and for making information about what’s happening with our local government more readily available.

Our hope is that by doing this we might be prepared to hold candidates accountable in future elections for what they say, and how they respond to citizens. If we can get more citizens interested in the issues that the city is facing that might encourage our elected officials to be more proactive about communicating, or at the very least they might realize that there are many people who are interested in the challenges that the city is facing.

As I sat down to write tonight I realized that I know many people who are very interested in politics (local politics in many cases, but few who are local to Lehi) who might be able to come up with some ideas on how to accomplish these aims. I decided to invite the thoughts of my fellow bloggers on how we might go about encouraging participation and transparency. Are there technologies that you would recommend for these aims? Do you have any ideas about how to encourage people to be more active? Do you know any tricks to building a politically oriented organization that could accomplish these goals?

Tags activism, discourse, Lehi, transparency