Transparency is the principle of allowing those affected by administrative decisions to know about the resulting facts and figures and about the process that resulted in those decisions. – ICMA
Published January 12, 2024 | 7:35 am PST
The principle of open government is not new. Throughout our nation’s history we have made progress on making government more accountable and accessible to voters. Yet, many people still feel that government is not responsive to their concerns. This cynicism about government leads to low public participation in elections. In California, 81 percent of eligible voters are registered to vote, and only 41 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. In Pomona, off cycle elections typically see a turnout of 25 percent of registered voters. The lack of voter participation is due to a lack of transparency in decision-making. The voters can change this by insisting Pomona adopt a transparent budget process that engages the community and values their participation.
If you ask any elected official in Pomona if they think government should be participatory, they will likely answer in the affirmative. If you ask these same officials what they are doing to make governing more participatory, you’ll probably get a blank stare. Pomona struggles with finding constructive ways to engage residents in the decision-making process because the city schedules meetings at times that are inconvenient for residents. In 2023 the city announced budget meetings for March 27 at 5:30 pm and another on April 5 at 3:00 pm. These meetings are not accessible to people who work, but then maybe that’s the point of scheduling meetings at times where public participation is not possible. Participatory government is one whose intent is to make itself accessible to residents where they reside and at times that are convenient to them. The metric for these meetings should be the number in attendance, not the number of meetings. Having meetings at times that people cannot attend demonstrates a desire to prevent citizen participation. We should not accept a situation where our elected officials refuse to create forums for meaningful citizen participation.
Government should be collaborative. A collaborative government seeks to find ways to obtain community and stakeholder input on policies and community priorities. It uses an iterative process to inform decision-making. By creating a feedback loop, an iterative process ensures that policies can be adapted to changing conditions or as new information exposes flaws in previous approaches. A collaborative process ensures a dialogue rather than a focus on point-in-time feedback. The City currently employs surveys to obtain resident feedback but does not engage in ongoing discussions about policy implementation, updates on approaches, or alternatives to current approaches. Quarterly and midyear updates and meetings on important city projects should be the norm to ensure that residents remain informed about the status of these projects. These meetings should be more informal than council meetings to ensure that residents have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with staff and elected officials.
Government should be transparent. Transparency is more than informing the public what the decisions are, it is about informing residents how decisions are made and what factors were considered and rejected, and why. We know the city formulates priorities, but we do not have any understanding why or how these became priorities, or even what issues were rejected and why. Santa Monica employs a budget process where it holds year-round town halls to listen and document community priorities. Through these meetings the city formulates a budget, which is a political document that reflects the values and concerns of the residents. Without question, this is arduous work, but it is necessary towards ensuring a well-functioning and transparent budget process. More importantly, it allows residents to see their participation come to fruition as it becomes city policy.
These ideas are not new, they are part of the core values for Public Administrators and should act to guide elected officials. If Pomona made a sincere effort to adopt these values it would see greater resident participation, greater satisfaction with government, and a city whose policies are more closely aligned with resident values. We must not accept the status quo and must continue to insist that our elected officials agree to abide by these core values; and we must be willing to oust those who are reluctant or refuse to adhere to them.
Guillermo Gonzalez has a Master of Science in Public Administration from California State University – Los Angeles where he graduated with honors. He has been a resident of Pomona since 2011 and is currently a candidate for Pomona City Council.
