In Whitewater, there’s a one-monthly Planning Commission meeting. Those meetings have an agenda that’s posted online. The agenda for the June 14th meeting is available online now.
It’s common in Whitewater for city officials to refer to employees collectively as “city staff, so I’ll do the same by way of a question. Whitewater municipal staff: where’s the packet of information that you prepare for each Planning Commission meeting? Anyone listening to the meetings hears references to a packet, and an electronic packet of documents typically accompanies the Common Council agenda online.
Why no electronic packet for Planning? It cannot be because it cannot be done, as there’s an electronic packet for Council. It cannot be because the City of Whitewater cannot afford to scan a papers into a copier, as there’s plenty of money for other things, like groundbreakings, press releases, celebrations, catered gatherings, etc.
Planning in the city is important enough that planning documents should be prepared timely, and placed online as council documents are placed online. It’s not a favor to citizens to make available to them the things for which they are already paying, and that should be readily available as a matter of good, open government. (Just as, by the way, it’s not a favor to citizens to record only one meeting a year of some public meetings; it’s a failure to provide resources to make each and every meeting available as a complete and accurate electronic record.)
It’s a simple choice for the City of Whitewater: provide a simple electronic record in advance of a meeting, as good government policy would indicate, or sit around and make excuses for how Whitewater shouldn’t have, or doesn’t need, what should be the minimum for every community in America.