Transparent governance
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Against all logic, it is next to impossible to make public officials understand that if they perform their duties out in the open, as if they have nothing to hide, people will be more inclined to trust them. If they did this, their jobs would be easier.
But, no, lots of politicians and the bureaucrats who work for them just don't get it.
That ought to be the lesson learned, so far, from the state audit of Ogden's purchase and resale of the long-vacant American Can Co. building in the city's downtown. The city used a $900,000 state grant, as well as other funds, to purchase the building with an eye toward creating a so-called "high-tech center" as part of the city's downtown redevelopment efforts. It then transferred ownership to American Can LLC and Riverside Technology Foundation, the latter being the parent company of a charter high school, the DaVinci Academy of Science & the Arts, which occupies part of the building.
But the high-tech center never panned out. So, last year the building was sold by American Can LLC and Riverside Technology Foundation to the Ogden Community Foundation, a creation of city government. Then, in January of this year, the Ogden Community Foundation sold its interest in the building to a group of private investors who are leasing space to Amer Sports.
Ever since the building started changing hands, there have been questions about who was a part of the deals and how the city was involved. Some interested observers have been filing open-records requests for information concerning the transactions and governance of the Ogden Community Foundation. At least some of the motivation of those requests was, we think, counter-productive: to force the city to return the original $900,000 state grant, because the high-tech center never materialized. In any case, those records requests were not honored.
In June, an opinion by the Utah attorney general's office stated the city made a good-faith effort to create the high-tech center, and so repayment of the grant was not required. Then, as the primary campaign for Ogden mayor heated up, candidate Neil Hansen -- who also represents a central Ogden district in the Utah House of Representatives -- demanded a state audit of the use of the $900,000 grant and associated transactions. The audit released this week reached the same conclusion as the attorney general's office: Ogden acted in good faith and need not give back the $900,000.
But the audit blistered the city on a couple of related points. The financial information should have been included in the city's fiscal reports. In a related matter, it said since the bylaws of the Ogden Community Foundation made it a public entity -- its board members were to be selected from a list of candidates originating with Mayor Matthew Godfrey -- it should have responded to the open-records requests. That it did not, the audit says, meant that while the "city may have complied with the letter of the law, it certainly did not comply with the spirit of the law, which includes providing citizens with answers to their questions about the use of their tax dollars."
Ouch.
For the zillionth time, people: Operate in the open to begin with and these sorts of blunders can be avoided. And when someone asks for information, just give it to them. It really is that simple.
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