Raise the Hammer
By Joey Coleman
Published April 02, 2012
The citizens of Hamilton are poorly served by an accountability and transparency sub-committee that strives to decrease both accountability and transparency at City Hall. That's obvious to everyone outside of City Hall. What may not be obvious is that City Hall is poorly served by this as well.
At first glance, the committees goal of decreasing citizen complaints to the integrity commissioner - by keeping the $100 complaint filing fee and imposing a gag order against citizens - appears to serve City Hall. It does not.
Without internal mechanisms pushing civic government toward greater transparency, situations such as the latest controversy arise. For politicians, it's like visiting the dentist - you can put it off and it becomes more painful, but eventually you're stuck in the chair and it becomes a root canal.
Now external pressure will force a swing of the pendulum to a level of transparency beyond what the public was originally prepared to accept, and at a speed much faster than the public originally expected.
The problems with this subcommittee are easy to convey and the public immediately grasps the situation.
The public outrage of the latest anti-accountability legislation is putting council back in the hot seat and feeding cynicism about City Hall. The spotlight is back on council, citizens are angry, and the Spectator has joined the call for the subcommittee to be transparent.
Ultimately, citizens are poorly served by the committee's anti-transparent actions because it represents a betrayal of public trust. It's for this reason, and solely for this reason, the subcommittee must be disbanded and replaced with a mechanism that actually promotes both accountability and transparency.
This was first posted on Joey's personal website.
By we hope (anonymous) | Posted April 02, 2012 at 14:52:19
Joey writes, "Now external pressure will force a swing of the pendulum to a level of transparency beyond what the public was originally prepared to accept, and at a speed much faster than the public originally expected."
"will,"...we hope. Qualify, Joey--even if you are predicting correctly--and we hope you are.
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