OPEN GOVERNMENT

*Major economic decisions should be made openly and the municipal finances should be an open book to citizens who pay the bill.

*Backroom deals, the lack of discussion, and media complicity with arrangements between business and government have proved very costly. Beyond the financial costs, these practices have left the citizens alienated from their own government.

*The city government should encourage a real understanding of municipal finances and other questions. Municipal officers should make a more concerted attempt to keep the existing television, radio and newsprint media thoroughly briefed. However, market forces place serious limits on the willingness and ability of these commercial media to offer in-depth access and analysis. For this reason, the new information technologies will provide a far more reliable means of communication and government.

*Expanding informational technologies opens new opportunities to encourage the informed and interested citizenry in the production of its own sources of information and analysis. We plan to encourage this new media because it allows for both greater diversity and deeper analysis than commercial media has been able to deliver. It not only allows for information to be conveyed but for feedback to be solicited, registered, and have meaning.

Without open and transparent government there can be no accountability.