The watchdog columnist for the San Jose Mercury News says that the new sunshine ordinance that will go before the voters at a yet-to-be-determined time will improve open government. Alameda is also considering a new ordinance much needed in a city where a well-compensated fire chief was filling up his personal car at city gas pumps. -db
San Jose Mercury News
Commentary
September 26, 2010
By Thomas Peele
After nearly a decade of debate, a sunshine ordinance calling for more government transparency is moving forward in Berkeley. One is also under consideration in the city of Alameda.
The state’s Public Records Act and its open meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, are the minimum transparency requirements a government must employ. Nothing stops a county, a city, a water district or any government entity from passing local rules that improve upon them.
And there is no question that improvements to access are needed everywhere.
Advocates in Berkeley have gathered enough signatures to qualify a Sunshine Ordinance for the ballot, a step that comes after years of discussion. It is unclear when it might go to voters. A City Council work session is scheduled Tuesday on the proposal.
Whenever the proposal goes to voters, there is no question they should vote yes.
In a city where council meetings sometimes drag on until dawn, tighter controls are needed.
The proposal would set an 11 p.m. meeting curfew and increase the number of days an agenda must be made public before a meeting from four to 12. That’s a big step to slow down the ramming through of proposals and increase public awareness.
The Berkeley proposal would also take very progressive steps to make routine government records public. Top officials would be required to keep their appointment calendars online and update them weekly.
Imagine that, access to the day-to-day schedules of the people who work for you and whose salaries you pay.
The best sign for the need of the Berkeley proposal is that the city’s bureaucrats are against it.
“… (T)he redirection of staff resources away from current functions in order to meet new obligations imposed by this proposed ordinance could significantly affect the level of service the city is able to provide “…,” a staff report on the proposal says.
That report also claims the ordinance would cost the city $2 million in “ongoing annual costs.” Proponents of the measure dispute that number.
Berkeley pays a lot in salaries to people who endorse the status quo. Records show more than a third of all city employees were paid in excess of $90,000 last year. That’s just salary, it doesn’t include benefits.
It should go without saying that an understanding of transparency is inherent in such high-paying government work. But it isn’t. Could the city fund any costs of the sunshine ordinance by cutting salaries?
Alameda is a far different place than Berkeley, but it, too, would benefit greatly by increased transparency.
Any time I have requested records from Alameda the experience has left doubts about the city administration’s commitment to transparency. Pay data comes slowly and grudgingly. A public records request by the Bay Area News Group earlier this year for parking ticket data was met with recalcitrance.
Alamedans have legitimate concerns about how their local government spends their money — highlighted by the recent suspension of Fire Chief David Kapler. He is being investigated after someone snapped a photo of him gassing up his personal car, a BMW coupe, at the city pumps.
Records show he filled up the car on the taxpayer’s tab seven times in June alone.
The city paid Kapler $201,960 last year. His actions prompts the question: For that kind of money he can’t afford to buy his own gas? Add to the equation that the city already provides him with an official vehicle.
Kapler claimed his contract gave him free gas for his personal car. What it does give him is a monthly vehicle stipend of $250. He also claimed he had verbal approval from a former city manager to take free gas. That such an agreement — if it existed at all — wasn’t in writing is troubling.
Would a sunshine ordinance have stopped Kapler from taking the gas? No. But it might have stopped him sooner.
Suppose the city was required to post more routine records on its website? Suppose those records included gas logs? Then someone outside the city bureaucracy might have seen that the logs showed how often Kapler filled up his little blue car.
There’s no reason why Alameda’s proposed sunshine ordinance couldn’t require it.
It could even require that the city post a video camera overlooking the gas pumps and post a permanent web link to it. You know, so everybody can keep an eye on things.
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