More accountability in town government - DPW and TM

One particular incident comes to mind as to what's wrong with our town government. Last year the highway department was on the ballot to request an override for some funds. I happened to be at the meeting for other reasons. But anyway a speech was given to the BOS about it.

One member of the BOS raised a simple question - how will the money be used? Do you have a plan, and how do you know you don't need more (or can live with less)? The answer was that "I am an elected official in this town and I don't have to answer to you". He repeated the question politely but each time that line of reasoning that "well the people elected me and it's my business, I don't have a song and dance up here and a fancy paving plan". Anyway, the override request was denied, thanks in part to this performance.

In the business world, if you ask for money some reasons to justify its expenditure are always required. In fact, they want to know what the return on the investment will be in a particular time frame. Only in a place like government could someone actually think they are above explaining where the dollars are going.

I'm sorry but that reasoning is not good enough. I think the townspeople and BOS deserve better. The charter review committee should remember this - this is exactly the attitude that works against progress and getting things done, and potentially that a reorg of town government could fix. A DPW could potentially do this as well as appointing a town manager with budgetary authority.

I think the people of Auburn deserve better visibility into the workings of the Highway and all departments, since it is their money being spent. Whether we need to form a DPW and town manager to do this, maybe we don't but it's clear we need to be more accountable.

Another potential for improving this accountability is to publish timely information on the web. Most information is out of date. Budget numbers could be published regularly - where are we with the snow removal budget for the year, what is the priority list for paving etc. Right now this information is treated like a privileged guarded secret. At best it's available if you dig through records in the town hall. Other towns are earning awards for their web presence, we should strive for that and I think it would improve the trust among residents.

Some examples of towns in Massachusetts who won this award from the above link:

Communities receiving the 2007 E-Government Award were: Amherst, Andover, Arlington, Ashburnham, Ashland, Barnstable, Becket, Bedford, Bolton, Boston, Boxborough, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Chelmsford, Concord, Dedham, Douglas, Dudley, Dunstable, Duxbury, Falmouth, Framingham, Franklin, Gloucester, Groton, Harvard, Hingham, Holden, Holliston, Hopkinton, Kingston, Lenox, Lexington, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Maynard, Melrose, Methuen, Nantucket, Newton, Northampton, North Reading, Palmer, Paxton, Peabody, Pelham, Plympton, Provincetown, Salem, Saugus, Scituate, Sharon, Shrewsbury, Somerville, Southampton, Southwick, Spencer, Springfield, Stow, Sudbury, Swampscott, Tewksbury, Uxbridge, Westfield, Westford, Weston, Westport, West Springfield, Weymouth, Winchester, Winthrop, Woburn, and Worcester.

“We are pleased to be able to honor so many towns this year,” said Common Cause executive director Pam Wilmot. “Many communities rose to the challenge and significantly improved their Web sites over the past year.”