No Secrets Here, Salem Government Says

SALEM, MA - Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll announced a new plan for transparency and openness in City government in her State of the City address earlier this month.

The first to parts of the plan are already underway. A weekly listing of City board vacancies and electronic versions of all of the mayor’s filings with the City Council are now available online.

“Openness and transparency should be values ingrained in every action we take as public officials,” Mayor Driscoll said, according to a news release. “Salem has long been a leader on this front and this year we’ll take our commitment to transparency to even greater lengths.”

Other initiatives in the new transparency policy include:

• An online version of the Salem Visual Budget and forthcoming FY2017 City budget
• Additional open source data added to the city’s new online GIS mapping tool including an “Adopt-a-Hydrant tool, paving history, resident parking zones, and more.”
• A Salem Participatory Budget round in which Salem residents will be invited to propose new development projects.

“When information is available to residents interested in a particular issue, it can help avoid confusion and misinformation,” Mayor Driscoll said in the news release. “Transparency not only provides even greater access to public information, it can improve the delivery of City services and thereby enhance the quality of life in Salem.”

To see the vacancies and filing click HERE. To see the GIS mapping tool click HERE.

[Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]