Transparency at What Cost?

Government agencies have always seen making public records accessible as an extra step or job to be done, but this paradigm has shifted recently. Now transparency can be and is created as part of the public meeting process, making staff time much more efficient and the public record much more accurate. Webcasting technology is built into minutes annotation tools used by meeting secretaries and clerks to automatically start, stop, and index webcasts live during public meetings. Legislative meeting votes can be displayed not only in the meeting room, but are automatically published or distributed to the Internet and logged into the integrated public record. This same technology now permits the automation of the legislative and public hearing processes, resulting in enhanced communication, efficiency, and record-keeping during meetings. Supporting documentation integrates seamlessly and automatically in the public record, removing the necessity of post-meeting review and edits. Therefore, transparency is created through the tools the government uses to do its work with no room for interpretation, delay, or corruption and without creating additional work. In fact, in most cases these new government automation tools actually decrease the cost for government agencies to do their existing work.

Online transparency tools have an important return on investment beyond the staff time saved in managing the actual public meeting records. After any public meeting, government staff must take and respond to phone calls from the public requesting a copy of the meeting’s minutes and recording. The staff must then facilitate and complete the purchasing process, locate the requested information, make copies, and prepare it for shipment. Not only does this result in a significant time investment for staff, but citizens must wait for anywhere from five days to four weeks to receive the information they requested as well. By providing the complete integrated public record online, on demand, and free of charge, the government can increase operational efficiency and improve its public services dramatically.