The Gloucester County freeholders voted last week to adopt a list of transparency reforms that require basic information to be posted on the county website. The communication updates are most welcome if long overdue.
The Republicans claim credit for the reforms, first proposed in February by their two newly elected GOP freeholders, Larry Wallace and Vince Nestore. The Democratic majority says, well, they’ve been working on these improvements all along.
Both sides are probably right, to a degree, but the measures OK’d last week bear a close resemblance to items in the “County Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights” that Wallace and Nestore put forward months ago.
The final version includes eight of the Republicans’ original 11-point reform proposals.
Regardless of who takes credit, well-informed citizens will welcome the upgrades.
When the county’s revamped website debuts Sept. 1, residents can expect to see online posting of the rules of the freeholder board; county department assignments; meeting agendas and resolutions; financial disclosure forms; labor, employment and professional contracts; bill lists; the total cost of county payrolls; and budgets, audit reports, and bond statement summaries.
A couple of the good ideas suggested by the Republicans did not make the cut, like fiscal impact statements for proposed resolutions. While these could not have been extensive as what the state Legislature (with its large staff) requires, limited cost estimates are still worthwhile. The statements would help county taxpayers understand what a given project or contract might mean for their property tax bills, now and in the future.
Also remaining on the “to do” list is televising freeholder meetings. It ought to be doable with little or no added expense by partnering with a school that has video production equipment and students. A televised meeting or budget hearing might not win any Emmys, but it can offer the public a front-row seat on the conduct of county business.
The Democrat majority in February offered rather shallow excuses for its earlier failure to provide some basic information on the county website, or to make it easier to find.
Deputy Freeholder Director Warren Wallace says the information has been available to anyone who files an Open Public Records Act request. Really? Nobody should have to file a cumbersome OPRA request to obtain everyday county government information. Nor do we think the additions to the website all had to wait for a site upgrade, as Democrat Freeholder Heather Simmons suggested.
These days, when any sixth-grader can upload documents, charts and videos to his own website at will, county government should be able to do at least as much. Gloucester County, finally, is getting closer.
Aug 21, 2011 Comments Off admin