Thursday, August 6, 2009
Barry / Politics MDHA: You are Invited to Join the 21st Century
Posted by Bruce Barry on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:49 PM
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In the wake of recent news about MDHA's expansive use of funds for convention center public relations, it seemed like a good idea to have a glance at the minutes of meetings in which MDHA commissioners approved (and later amended) their contract with PR firm McNeely Pigott & Fox. So naturally I browsed on over to the MDHA web site to mine their archive of meeting agendas and minutes, only to discover that MDHA puts none of that information online.
So then I asked MDHA public information officer Terri Woodmore to shoot me the minutes documents I need by email. When she told me it might be next week before I could get them, I asked why on earth it will take several days to email me a couple of readily available electronic public documents. Her reply: "They are not electronic." They are not electronic? Are they using Selectrics down there at MDHA? Or crayons? Here's a sampling of just some of the key Metro boards and commissions that post and archive their minutes online:
- Civil Service Commission
- Election Commission
- Planning Commission
- Board of Parks and Recreation
- Historical and Historic Zoning Commissions
- Metro Sports Authority
- Transportation Licensing Commission
- Social Services Commission
- Metropolitan Transit Authority
- Board of Zoning Appeals
- Board of Health
We have handed to MDHA responsibility for what is often called the largest public project in the city's history, and this turns out to be an agency that doesn't word process its commission meeting minutes, much less make them easily available to the public?
And while we're on the subject of open 21st century government, other Metro panels that also do not post minutes online, including the Airport Authority, the Beer Board, the Arts Commission, the Library Board, and the Human Relations Commission (to name just a few), should also get with the program.
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When she told me it might be next week before I could get them, I asked why on earth it will take several days to email me a couple of readily available electronic public documents. Her reply: "They are not electronic." They are not electronic? Are they using Selectrics down there at MDHA? Or crayons?
I'm thinking mimeograph, but perhaps they've heard of a 20th century innovation called a "facsimile machine."
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Posted by
Andy Axel
on 08/06/2009 at 5:37 PM
