On The Issues | Open Government

Ensuring government is open, fair, and inclusive
I have been a leader in the city's efforts to make its government more open and accessible to residents and looking for ways to improve our public policy and decision-making processes.
I co-sponsored the resolution creating the Ad-Hoc Committee on Best Practices in Northampton Decision-Making and was an active member of that body during its yearlong public process, performing extensive research on practices in other municipalities, creating and maintaining the committee's website, and co-authoring its final recommendations to the City Council. I have since worked to implement several of its recommendations, particularly those related to the City Council's meeting process and reforming our City Charter.

I sponsored legislation restricting City Councilors from serving on regulatory and administrative boards like the Planning Board or the Board of Public Works in order to ensure a clear separation of powers in city government. It was controversial at the time because it forced three of my colleagues to step down from other boards, but it was the right thing to do and I didn't back down.

I sponsored legislation calling for the appointment of a special charter review committee to review our overall governmental structure every ten year. I went on to appoint that important Charter Review Committee as Council President, and most recently I put a plan before the City Council for implementing its recommendations.

I have pushed for improvements to our city website, including creating a better access point for citizen volunteers, creating a search engine capacity to find things more easily, and making more financial data like contracts and salaries more open and available to the public.

As City Council President, I have convened special workshops and public forums on important issues to ensure a full, two-way discussion of issues outside the more formal legislative process. At the very beginning of the term, I conducted a special workshop for new city councilors and the public on the legislative process and the council rules in response to concerns about the Mayor exerting too much control at our meetings.

As City Council President, I implemented new meeting protocols to make our meetings more open and accessible to the public, including having our meeting agendas projected on a screen so that members of the public could better follow and understand our work. I implemented a new and more transparent timing system for the public comment session that has eliminated previous concerns about fairness. It has ensured equal, uninterrupted speak-out time for any and all residents.

As City Council President, I took personal responsibility and leadership for our body's Executive Session minutes - a subject of public controversy in the term prior to my election. We implemented new rules requiring me as City Council President - not the Mayor - to review Executive Session minutes on a quarterly basis and to release them to the public as soon as the reason for their embargo (e.g. legal, real estate, etc.) had been satisfied.

I believe strongly that local government must be open, fair and transparent and have worked hard to make that ideal a reality during my three terms on the City Council. I also believe the best public policy decisions are those made with good public participation and review and have pushed for changes in our decision-making processes to ensure that happens.

These principles of open government and public participation will be the cornerstones of my administration as Mayor. I will work with my staff, department heads, and city committees and boards to ensure greater openness, inclusiveness, and accountability throughout Northampton government.

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