[Sosfbay-discuss] Mercury News gets something right

[Wes Rolley]

I often make fun of the "Murky News".

The following editorial today is one on which I support their effort 
100%.  Given the history of the City Government in San Jose, this is 
long overdue.  Whether Ron Gonzales or Tom  McEnery, City Hall in San 
Jose has long been the hallway of back room deals.

This is local, this is important and I would like to see the Santa Clara 
County GP issue a local press release supporting the Mercur News on this 
issue.

Wes

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  A note from the executive editor


    SAN JOSE IS ENTITLED TO OPEN GOVERNMENT

Dear Reader,

A rotunda made of glass rises from a public plaza in the heart of 
downtown, the centerpiece of San Jose's striking $382 million City Hall 
and the symbolic seat of government for the nation's 10th-largest city.

``It reflects a contemporary vision of government being transparent and 
open to view,'' Rob Steinberg, the local architect involved in the 
project, said just before its completion last fall. The dome, he said, 
is ``welcoming everybody to see the people's business.''

But too often these days, the ``people's business'' at City Hall is 
obscured by secrecy. The noble intentions of the dome are clouded by an 
arrogant disregard for public participation.

Little or late notice about important decisions limits public debate. A 
clear preference to withhold, rather than release, public documents 
hinders the free flow of information. Deals cut in private are presented 
to a surprised public left holding the bills.

We've seen all this, and more, in the past several years from elected 
officials who talk about transparency in government but usually operate 
in a way that guarantees the opposite result.

Enough. San Jose needs a sunshine law -- the kind of strong, open 
government ordinance that cities across the state, including San 
Francisco and Oakland, use to ensure that the public's business takes 
place in full view.

This week, you may hear a lot about open government and freedom of 
information. Editors across the country will be writing about ``Sunshine 
Week'' -- an annual effort of the American Society of Newspaper Editors 
to make sure the public understands the importance of keeping the 
public's business in the open.

Clearly, editors have a lot at stake in this battle: Access to 
information is the bread and butter of our newspapers and Web sites.

Without the Public Records Act, the Mercury News never could have 
revealed the real story behind the cost overruns at the new City Hall. 
Without the Brown Act, which mandates open meetings, council members 
could line up a majority of votes in secret -- which got the city 
council into trouble recently when it attempted to take over the 
Tropicana Shopping Center. We have fought in court, not always 
successfully, for information that you should know: public employees' 
salaries, the criminal history of a priest who molested a disabled man 
and witness accounts of ticket-fixing by a local judge, among other battles.

And while we'd sure like to spend less on legal bills arguing for 
information that clearly is or should be public, the need for a sunshine 
law in San Jose ultimately isn't about us.

It's about you.

You are entitled to public information.

That's why this effort to push for greater access is being supported by 
the League of Women Voters of San Jose/Santa Clara and several area 
neighborhood associations concerned about open government. It's also 
backed by the San Jose Business Journal and Silicon Valley Community 
Newspapers.

*San Jose at the helm*

We hope the move to greater transparency is embraced by all of our 
communities in Silicon Valley. And we expect that San Jose -- as the 
largest city in Northern California -- can blaze the trail for others.

Here's just one example of why a sunshine law is needed. In January, the 
operators of San Jose's Grand Prix got a $4 million subsidy in taxpayer 
money to keep the downtown race afloat for the next two years.

It doesn't matter whether you hated the race or thought it was a lively 
event that brought more than 150,000 people downtown. Even the amount of 
the subsidy isn't the issue.

The issue is that although the mayor knew in November that a new 
infusion of the public's cash had been requested, the public wasn't told 
the details until 24 hours before the city council took a final vote on 
the matter. There were no meetings held ahead of time, allowing 
residents to engage in a meaningful debate about how their money was 
being spent. That's not transparent government. That's doing business 
behind closed doors -- no matter how much natural light comes into that 
dramatic new City Hall.

What's interesting is that if the same issue had come up in San 
Francisco, Oakland or even in Milpitas, residents would have learned 
about the subsidy in time to react to it. In Oakland, they would have 
had 10 days' notice in advance of the meeting; in Milpitas, eight days; 
in San Francisco, three. Why the difference? Those cities have sunshine 
laws.

Unfortunately, the handling of the race subsidy is not an anomaly in San 
Jose.

There was the $80 million proposal San Jose officials made to Major 
League Soccer in an attempt to attract a new team to replace the 
departed Earthquakes -- all before the issue ever came to a public 
council vote, let alone a full public airing. . . . And let's not forget 
the downtown land designated for housing -- property that, in secret 
talks, really was being considered for a baseball stadium. . . . And the 
Norcal garbage scandal -- another backroom deal that cost the city 
$11.25 million. . . . And the $45 million surprise involving the cost of 
furniture for the new City Hall.

Sunshine laws help prevent that kind of secrecy by closing loopholes in 
the state's Public Records Act and Brown Act, creating stricter 
provisions for notifying residents of meetings and more explicit 
criteria for what information must be released and when.

Given the demonstrated penchant for secrecy here, we need to get beyond 
talking about open government. We need to start doing something about it.

*Guiding principles*

A San Jose sunshine law could be based on four principles that are 
proven to work well in cities nationwide:

• The public's business should take place in public -- including 
meetings of the council, advisory committees, boards and commissions, as 
well as meetings of the Redevelopment Agency.

• Members of the public should have a meaningful opportunity to 
participate in decisions that affect them and to understand how those 
decisions are made.

• Government records are presumed public, unless specifically exempted 
to protect vital interests.

• Members of the public should not need a lawyer, or repeated trips to 
City Hall, to gain access to records.

Those are the general elements of a sunshine law. For those of you who 
want to dive into the specifics of what we think a model sunshine law 
looks like, we invite you to read an ordinance that we have drafted at 
*www.* *mercurynews.com*.

Yes, we'll acknowledge up front that it's a bit unusual for a newspaper 
to get into the law-drafting business. And we know other sunshine 
ordinances have been proposed by council members.

But as an organization that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each 
year fighting to bring information into the public realm, we have a lot 
of familiarity with what's common practice across the Bay Area and in 
California -- and where San Jose comes up woefully short.

We offer this draft sunshine law as a way to start the conversation 
about how our government can better serve the people.

We'd like your feedback, and to know about your experiences. What 
information do you think should be public? Where have you run into 
roadblocks? Is City Hall telling you what you need to know about 
decisions that affect you? Let us know what you think at 
sunshine at mercurynews.com <mailto:sunshine at mercurynews.com>.

The time for truly open government in San Jose is long overdue. Let's 
make the transparency symbolized by the 1,032 panes of glass of the 
rotunda a reality in how San Jose conducts the public's business.

Thank you for reading.

Susan Goldberg

Executive Editor


-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
http://www.refpub.com/
Tel: 408.778.3024