At a past Forks Township Board of Supervisors meeting, I voted for a motion to improve the transparency between the board and the public. The motion was to get a final proposal of the cost to post audio tapes of our meetings on our township website. Incidentally, Williams Township has started to webcast its Board of Supervisor meetings.
The basis for my support of this motion is my strong belief that elected officials must take concrete actions to improve the transparency between the board and the public. As I have always said, it is hard to imagine a greater trust between a local elected official and the public than the promise of an open government. This trust is a bond that enables the public to maintain faith in its public institutions.
By being open with the public, we are providing relevant information about the facts surrounding our decisions, and taking the time to actually listen and understand the public's input. If a critical decision involves a specific person, then the privacy of that person needs to be honored, but the process used to make the decision needs to be shared with the public.
Find out what's happening in Palmer-Forksfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
We need to remember that being a public official is not about meeting our needs but meeting needs of our community. These are the people who have placed a scared trust in us to make the best decisions possible.