We live in the Information Age.
Google that phrase. It takes 0.46 seconds to get 10,180,000,000 results.
Yet Westport cannot convey basic information — background material on upcoming board and commission meetings, say — to its 26,000 residents.
“Most towns haven’t kept up” with the Information Age, John McCarthy says.
Westport is “probably better than many,” he acknowledges. “But we can do better.”
If he — and a group of like-minded citizens — have their way, we will.
John McCarthy
A 1982 Staples High School graduate who returned here a few years after college and now serves as CFO for technology companies, he has a strong interest in local affairs.
He walks the talk, having run for — and served on — the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).
McCarthy comments frequently on town issues, on “06880.” He’s not the only one.
So after he wrote some long-simmering thoughts about how well (that is, poorly) town bodies share information, he shared them with several Westporters he thought might share his views.
They did.
McCarthy was sparked by 2 recent controversies: The Westport Community Gardens/Long Lots Elementary School project, and a new plan for Parker Harding Plaza.
While very different issues, he says, “the outpouring of concern over both are largely driven by the same recurring theme: Ordinary Westport residents do not feel like they always get the complete story from elected and appointed officials.”
This is not the first (and second) time this has happened, McCarthy notes.
And, he adds, “it is a non-partisan problem. It has existed with both Democratic and Republican town administrations.”
The Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve may be impacted by renovation or new construction of the nearby elementary school. But detailed plans have not been released publicly.
The result — “The Open Westport Initiative” — is “a non-partisan effort to make information and data created and stored inside Westport’s town government easily accessible to the public.”
“We have to make sure everyone has access to facts, so they can make up their own minds about issues,” McCarthy says.
Without access to information, residents “attribute malice” to decisions that are made. Often, McCarthy explains, “the decision-makers just have more facts.”
The reason that, for example, background materials are not posted along with meeting agendas — though they are emailed to commission, board and RTM members — is not because of malice, or a desire for power, he believes.
It is due, he says, to a combination of inertia, lack of technical know-how, and “maybe fear from lawyers that sharing everything might somehow hurt the town.”
Whenever he talks about “transparency” with town officials, McCarthy says, “they say, ‘all meetings are publicly noticed.’
“That’s true. But we have to go well beyond the legal notice.”
McCarthy notes that some meetings are still recorded on cassette tapes. He urges the town to invest in real-time transcription — a technology that is readily available.
Some town meetings are still interrupted to change cassette tapes.
McCarthy would also like to see every bit of information on a Town Hall computer or server — except for private, personal data — be searchable by every resident, wherever they are.
“None of this should be controversial,” McCarthy insists. “Though I’m sure it will be.”
The next step is “getting people to talk about this. Let’s see if any elected officials want to take it up as a battle cry.”
Perhaps, he says, a group like the League of Women Voters can develop a “public transparency scorecard.” They could grade local boards and commissions on a variety of criteria, and publicize the results.
This project is not tied to the upcoming municipal election, McCarthy says. However, “if I was running for office and supported this idea, I’d say, ‘If elected I’ll do whatever I can to make this a reality.”
So far, McCarthy has financed the entire project himself: He paid $10 to register the OpenWestport.org domain.
He hopes “06880” readers will comment on his idea (including perhaps, “things are fine just the way they are”).
“I have lots of good stories about dealing with Town Hall. Other times, there’s room for improvement,” he says.
“It all comes down to the old saying: ‘Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But they’re not entitled to their own set of facts.’
“I want us all to operate from the same set of facts.”
The Open Westport initiative was signed by Toni Simonetti, Morley Boyd, Tom Prince, John McCarthy, Susan McCarthy, Chris Grimm, John Suggs, Grayson Braun, Jamie Walsh, Doug Enslin and Jay Walshon. Click here to read the full document. Questions? Email john@openwestport.org.
(If “06880” helps you keep up with whatever is happening in town, please support our work. Just click here. Thank you!)
Do facts matter in Westport ? Do facts matter throughout the USA ?
As a matter of fact Richard…they do.
Brilliant, long overdue initiative! Thanks to the committee for getting the ball rolling.
Hi John, I think this is a great project and I would like to help. Tom Risch 203-858-2211
Excellent initiative, count us in John McCartney! Knowing that we have many tech entrepreneurs in this town, we’d even be able to set up a “tech task force” to replace these recorders 🙂 But seriously, as engaged citizens of Westport and initiators of Smart Water Westport, we have pleaded with the town, the P+Z, and the town attorney to obtain public records around the water consumption and approval processes of large utility projects such as the pump station and the water tanks on North Ave. We have been forced to copy physical papers at the towns offices (who has time to do that?) and our requests to receive additional data have taken several months! We were forced to file not one, but multiple FOIA requests, and these take even longer. We would back any candidate that supports transparency. Thank you Dank Woog for continuing to publish these important topics.
All this is great but what keeps it from happening is training. Training for town staff as well as its citizens or it will further the opposite. No caused by no knowledge of how to use these new systems, especially for us seniors
Excellent idea. Thank you John McCarthy.
It would also help to have a simple daily or weekly list of new and ongoing town initiatives, plans, proposed developments, etc. so that we’d know what we want more information about. Along with the name of each – Parker Harding Redevelopment, Long Lots Elementary Redevelopment – should be the address of the website(s) with appropriate information.
Hi John this is sal liccione yes i support this and all of as member of the rtm for 2 terms now I been a. Big supporter of freedom of info I calling on this for along time even before I got on the rtm I will do what I can to go out and get support from sal liccione district 9 member of the rtm
Another example of lack of transparency and facts are the proposed plans for Longshore. Just lots of rumors flying around. Town needs to do much better!
Think this is a terrific idea! The time is certainly right.
This should be a priority for our town government, and especially elected officials. I would like to see freedom of info/transparency in government an election issue! Candidates, where are you?
Brilliant initiative! So important, I copied the idea and reserved http://www.openweston.org.
I will take the opportunity of this discussion to request that First Selectwoman Tooker hold a BoS meeting at which the BoS will review the Longshore Plan adopted by the Parks & Recreation Commission and submitted to the First Selectwoman for approval or modification. This should be done before requests for relevant funding is sought for particular projects. The Plan is a good one, but it has not yet received the support of the BoS. It should.
Great idea! Some DPW initiatives are supposed to be published in 3 ‘newspapers’ according to the archaic language in the regs. For example, info about potential new sewers. And yet, when I asked a person in DPW where the information was being published, I was told that they didn’t know and it was the Town Clerk’s responsibility.
The big issue I see here is that we no longer have a publication or two that are read by the majority of town residents. We used to have The Westport News and Minuteman. Now, we rely on Dan’s blog (and thankfully, we have that) plus perhaps one other site online but let’s not forget, some people are NOT online, so they would not even be able to access the town’s website.
Not sure what the answer is to this other than another hard copy town newspaper plus a mailing to every resident but hoping others might have ideas. When a project is proposed which will impact a resident’s taxes, it should be imperative that they are notified and the town should not be happy with just 80% of affected homeowners knowing.
An email from Town Hall today highlights the need for the town to change how it does business and why openwestport.org exists:
The agenda for today’s LL School Building Committee has this item: “It is anticipated that the LLSBC will vote to enter into Executive Session at 5:45 PM to discuss contracts.”
“Executive Session” is also known as “Closed to the Public” or “Behind Closed Doors.”
Some legitimate questions arise: What is in those contracts? What are they for? What will the taxpayers be paying? Who benefits? Was one contract approved over another? Why? What was the decsion criteria? Does a member of the committee have a possible conflict of interest for or against one of the contracts? Why doe these need to be reviewed in private? Etc.
Doing the Town’s Business behind Closed Doors invites distrust of town government and doesn’t serve the public’s interest.
It’d be great to see if the 1st Selectwoman’s hand-picked committee reviews these contracts today in public session.
I do not think they will touch a leaf on the gardens. Nor should they.
I have no doubt John, your thoughtful comment quite possibly caused this meeting to be cancelled.
We are all growing very tired of the bs.
It’s one disaster after another.
Shocking carry on.
HooRay! Long overdue. I strongly support the
Initiative and am happy to offer to help with my
Limited IT skills.