In response to a question that leaned toward issues of FOIA and open government posed to candidates at a recent Town Council Forum (watch for alerts here when those are available online), Mr. Chafin expressed his opinion that he blamed the media because of inadequate coverage.
Sorry, Mr. Chafin but the bottom line is fixing blame does not fix the problem. We need answers to problems not blame-placing. Technically, there is no legal criteria for the media to be covering events. It is the governments responsibility to follow the legal guidelines for public notification and input from citizens.
The media (particularly local newspapers) do play a crucial role in keeping people informed. Reporters are human and as such can not be everywhere at once. That is precisely why we must rely upon the integrity of public officials to insure that the “we the people” are being kept properly informed.
Mr. Barber’s reply indicated that work was being done to meet the legal requirements. He asserted that documents could be picked up by anyone who wanted them. (Please note that this would require that the documents be available and in a readable form.)
All of the other candidates expressed a strong desire to go beyond the letter of the law to provide a very open form of government. The overwhelming sentiment was that citizens who are informed are citizens who are involved.
There are a lot of citizens that because of health or time constraints are unable to attend public meetings. For these people, having minutes of meetings and reports available online could be a valuable service. If individual email accounts are not cost effective, a central email address for Town Council and one for Planning Commission would allow citizens to send in their comments and questions. After all, it is the role of government to serve ALL the people.
I realize this would increase the work load of elected and appointed officials. However, it is part of the job. It is the job of government to listen to the people and respond to what the people want, not what the government determines is best (however contrary that may be to the voice of the public). It is the job of GOOD government to reach out to the people and to actively seek citizen participation. Moving into the electronic age and providing documents, recordings/videos of public meetings, and access to officials via email would be a very good start towards following the spirit of the law when it come to the Freedom of Information Act.
I call upon elected, appointed, and paid officials to show a good faith effort to show the citizens of the Town of Christiansburg that those citizens are important. I call upon elected, appointed, and paid officials to go the ‘extra mile’ by providing services that not only meet the FOIA requirement but exceed them.
