In my opinion, the City of Asheville, over the last couple of decades, has been very good about transparency. My only problem is that staff never answers my questions until after my deadlines, but that’s beside the point. City council agendas are posted with reams of staff reports, and council likes to talk all night about this and that. Granted, sometimes the conversation consists in tidbits of one councilmember showing off how he hasn’t read the reports, or another practicing his public speaking skill. My latest hero is Marc Hunt, who I will compliment again because he persistently asks for clarification when speakers are not being direct, and he tries to tie words down to reality. I think it’s a lost art that used to be called “seeking understanding.”
But I digress. The latest news is that city government is going to become even more transparent. Code Asheville was in the news awhile back, as they were developing a site to allow citizens to look at municipal data. It was just a skeleton back then. Now, the city has hired three more people. One will manage a city news site, and two more, for better or worse, will serve as embedded public information officers. The city is also going to try out letting folks participate in council meetings from home. A moderator would monitor electronic inputs and relay information to council. I’m not sure how, short of that “just machine to make big decisions,” the monitor will filter the commentary down to two days’ worth.
