For the past seven years, I have volunteered my time, energy, and expertise to serve in numerous committees, councils, working groups, and boards assembled by local government agencies. I have also participated as a community activist in coalitions advocating for community oversight over police surveillance technology, jail plans and policies, housing-funding plans and more.
These experiences have taught me a great deal about the critical role that transparency plays in the healthy operation of local governments.
Ohio Sunshine Laws outline the rights that we — as Ohioans — have to access public records, meetings, decisions, and policies. They also outline the obligations of public officials to generate and keep records, make them publicly accessible, and open their meetings, decisions, and deliberations to public scrutiny — to “work in the sun”.
But while government transparency is the law, our right, and public officials’ obligation, it is also a lot more. Over the past 7 years, I have learned that government transparency…
… enables a democratic government. Authoritarian governments control the public narrative through propaganda and keep their constituents in the dark about how the government actually operates. Democratic governments can also use “propaganda-like” tactics to market the decisions and actions that public officials want the public to support. However, governments cannot function effectively if their constituents rely exclusively on government marketing. Constituents must be able to understand how their government operates and how public decisions are made, even when this learning makes the government look bad. Only then can democracy survive.
… protects us against corruption. The concept of Sunshine Laws is based on the idea that transparency (“sunshine”) can serve as a “disinfectant”, preventing the breeding of corruption (“germs”) in secrecy. Transparency, however, doesn’t only protect community members against government corruption. It can also protect ethical public officials working in the public interest when they face systemic pressures threatening the integrity of their public decisions. Sometimes, transparency can be a public official’s best friend, too.
… results in better public policy. Public policy isn’t always developed to advance the public interest or with the involvement of constituents and individuals with relevant lived experiences. Yet, when an honest attempt is made to include community members in the development of public policy, the resulting policies are almost invariably better for those directly impacted. The City of Dayton and Montgomery County’s websites both agree that “openness” results in “a better informed citizenry, which leads to better government and better public policy”.
… fosters trust and collaboration. You have probably heard how important it is to trust our government and to collaborate with them. But an often-overlooked factor impacting how much community members trust the government is how public officials respond to requests to access public records or public meetings. When public officials distrust their own constituents and preclude them from accessing public information, distrust in government inevitably follows. Opening meetings and records enables public officials to demonstrate their trustworthiness and show us — their constituents — that they trust us.
Government transparency isn’t just the law, or our right, or the obligation of public officials. Government transparency provides an opportunity to engender the trust between community members and public officials needed to create the healthier, more collaborative democratic government that we all want. I hope that we will seize it!
Julio C. Mateo is a Dayton resident, a human-rights activist, a Human Factors psychologist, a member of the Coalition on Public Protection, and a graduate of The Journalism Lab.
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