Anybody home at City Hall?

We’ve gone on record calling for Sonoma’s city government to take steps to move into the 21st Century by adopting new technologies and making government more transparent. Yet a quick look at the city’s website reveals it’s not even keeping up with the 20th Century.

The legal record of actions and discussions at city meetings, whether City Council or Commissions, is found in the official minutes, yet even this most basic of public information is woefully inadequate, or non-existent.

The latest posted City Council minutes are from September 21, 2015, over six weeks ago. City Commissions show the same pattern or worse;

Minutes for the Planning Commission – July 9, 2015
Minutes for Community Services and Environment Commission – September 9, 2015
Minutes for SV Citizens Advisory Commission – June 24, 2015
Minutes for the Design Review Commission – None!

This raises the question: what can a citizen do to easily find out what business is being conducted by the City of Sonoma? In our opinion, minutes should be posted as soon as they are approved, or even in advance of approval (with a disclaimer that they do not become “official” until approved).

We don’t know what is causing the delay in getting minutes posted and available, but whatever it is should be addressed immediately. It can’t be a matter of money, since the city seems to have enough to cut $250,000 funding deals with the Chamber of Commerce, for example. Hotel tax revenue keeps setting quarterly records, and sales tax and the City’s own ¼-cent tax add even more to the coffers. The tourist industry values customer service. Why doesn’t our local government?

We believe what’s going on here reflects the city’s unfortunate but currently prevalent attitude towards the interests of the public, namely that respecting the needs and expectations of ordinary citizens is not a high priority.

It’s the citizens who are paying the salaries of city staff, and citizens rightfully expect to get what they pay for. Given that the city has recently decided to produce only “action” minutes and not even a full record of meeting discussions, producing and posting timely minutes should be predictable and routine, but that’s not happening. It’s not right.