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May 13, 2010

EDITORIAL: Bills would enhance the public's access to government

Press-Republican

The New York State Legislature is continuing to make progress in assuring that government is open and accessible to all citizens, and that is a very positive development.

It currently is considering bills in the Assembly and Senate that would oblige local governments to provide to the citizenry copies of all documents relating to matters to be discussed in a public meeting. The bills have yet to be acted on, and the State Association of Counties has spoken up against them. But the bills should be passed in the interest of openness on all government levels.

The bills would require governments to provide access to any document to be discussed. Anyone sitting through a government meeting can be stymied when the discussion turns to a budget, or a proposal, or a project detailed in a report or a paper that the spectator doesn't have. The details may become complicated and would be made considerably clearer if only the information were available on a sheet that could be followed along.

The proposed legislation would require that copies of proposed resolutions, regulations, laws, rules or otherwise pertinent documents be made available before the meeting.

The documents could be provided in paper or electronic form. They could be posted on the government's website.

The New York State Association of Counties argues against the legislation as too costly, citing administrative costs in the electronic form. NYSAC also claims adding such information to websites could involve bandwidth not currently available, because of the size of some documents.

However, cost savings would be realized from fewer FOIL requests for the documents after the meeting.

Besides, the cost of government by all means includes keeping citizens informed. Access to these documents is not a special privilege that should be granted by government at its own discretion. It should be fundamental to the conduct of the best and most accessible government. It should be considered the minimal standard of responsiveness.

Government isn't some remote entity that exists to take care of its constituents as it sees fit. Those constituents are as much a part of government as the representatives and bureaucrats themselves. Whatever the citizens want in an effort to be informed and involved should be theirs.

The companion bills are sponsored by Democrats Amy Paulin of Scarsdale in the Assembly and Craig Johnson of Nassau County in the Senate. With all that's going on — and not going on — in Albany this year, it's easy for important legislation such as this to get lost.

We urge legislators to embrace these bills, show New Yorkers that citizens matter and make the bills law.

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