Transparency In Leadership

Our leaders, at all levels, should be responsible for active engagement, answering queries, and our historical data should be readily available to the public.

Basic Issue

The current procedures, specifically public comments, are designed around the convenience of the Court and do not encourage active citizen participation. Historical data is published to the website via PDF despite being actively recorded in a database. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) restrictions are referenced as limiting factors in discussion and strategy but there are situations that imply private communication among certain members . As a whole, the public is largely unaware of the purpose and function of the Quorum Court or it's members.

My Position

The Quorum Court should invest in efforts to move Washington County to the forefront of political transparency that include naming conventions, meeting process, data access, and data/evidence based decision making that reduces partisan politics.

Update the naming convention to more established norms that reflect our current times and understandings. This may require state level engagement.
Clearly post meeting guidelines online and practice enablement techniques in meetings to ensure the public is aware of the processes at every meeting.
Update the website to provide easily searchable results for QC votes as well as outcomes on local elections (shift from PDF to easily searchable, user focused, online search database).
Rely more heavily on evidence based research to make decisions for our county, recognizing we exist in a world where there are many existing and well vetted solutions to common problems