in Musings, Politics, Raleigh

Open records and city boards

I’m a big fan of open government, having seen what closed government gets us. When I was chair of the East CAC, I offered streaming video of our meetings so that as many people as possible could see them. But some in the CAC became concerned last year when City Attorney Tom McCormick’s deemed that CAC chairs’ email are public records.

I’ve blogged before about how I thought Mr. McCormick was wrong about CACs, but I agree with him (and the N&O editorial page) that new social media technologies present a challenge to the Open Meetings Law. Do I think the law can ever keep pace with technology? No, not a chance. So what is one to do?

There is also one statement from Mr. McCormick which bears studying:

McCormick said the Raleigh City Council complies with the law. But he said he believes other officials in Wake County and elsewhere do not.

That could include, for example, a quorum of elected officials who privately discuss public business on Facebook.

The contradiction in this statement, of course, is “privately discuss public business on Facebook.” Ultimately, nothing on Facebook is “private.” True, “private” forums could be created, and certainly “private” messages could be sent through Facebook to a quorum of a boards’ membership, but it would have to be a pretty deliberate attempt to circumvent the open meetings law. There’s nothing the law can do to prevent deliberate attempts to break the law – especially since the open meetings law is so toothless in its current form.

On the other hand, forums like Facebook offer unprecedented opportunity to advance open government in ways that have never before been possible. Social media can connect constituents more closely with their elected officials. The public can gain an appreciation of the work their public officials do that was unavailable to them before social media arrived.

Like any technology, social media can be used for good or evil. If I were trying to hide something, though, I can certainly think of better tools to use than social media!