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How the City Will Operate

Chapter 4Open Government

2,483 words · Mike Seiler · Owen Sound, Ontario

In this chapter

• 4.1 Open Books
• 4.2 Public Budget Dashboard
• 4.3 Public Contract Register
• 4.4 Public Asset Register
• 4.5 Council Decision Register
• 4.6 Public Commitments Register
• 4.7 Public Correction Log
• 4.8 Plain-Language Government
• The One-Page Rule
• 4.9 Quarterly State of the City Report
• 4.10 Annual Public Audit Meeting
• The Open Government Standard
• The Commitment

Trust in government should not depend on trust in a particular Mayor, councillor or employee.

It should come from a system that allows residents to see what government is doing, what it costs, who made the decision and whether the promised result was achieved.

That begins with open information.

This plan has already made a simple commitment: open books, public measurement and a source behind every significant number.

The purpose is not to bury residents in documents.

A thousand pages of information can be technically public and still be practically impossible to understand.

True transparency requires information to be:

• accurate;
• current;
• searchable;
• understandable;
• available without unnecessary barriers;
• presented in context;
• connected to the decision it supports.

The standard should be:

Open by default. Private only when there is a legitimate reason. Understandable in either case.

There will always be information that should not be made public.

Personal information must be protected.

Confidential legal advice must sometimes remain confidential.

Certain employment matters require privacy.

Sensitive infrastructure and security information should not be published merely in the name of transparency.

Commercial negotiations may sometimes require temporary confidentiality to protect the public interest.

Open government does not mean careless government.

It means that whenever information must remain private, the reason should be legitimate rather than convenient.

4.1Open Books

Residents should be able to understand where City money comes from and where it goes.

The annual municipal budget is an essential document, but it should not be the only place residents can see the City's finances.

We should build an ongoing public financial picture.

At a minimum, residents should be able to understand:

• total City revenue;
• property tax revenue;
• user fees;
• grants;
• transfers from other governments;
• investment income;
• borrowing;
• departmental spending;
• salaries and benefits in aggregate;
• capital spending;
• debt;
• reserves;
• major contracts;
• major purchases;
• grants provided by the City;
• significant project overruns or savings.

Every major initiative in this business plan should eventually be connected to its actual financial results.

If we promise that something will cost $100,000 and it costs $140,000, residents should not have to search through several years of financial statements to discover that.

The initiative should simply show:

Approved: $100,000
Spent: $140,000
Variance: $40,000 over budget
Reason: Published beside it

The same principle applies when something comes in under budget.

Transparency should not exist only when the news is good.

The Open Books Rule

For significant municipal programs and projects, residents should be able to follow the money from authorization to completion.

That includes:

1. original estimate;
2. approved budget;
3. funding source;
4. contracts awarded;
5. significant change orders;
6. actual cost;
7. continuing operating cost;
8. final result.

The purpose is not suspicion.

It is accountability.

4.2Public Budget Dashboard

The City's annual budget should be accompanied by a simple public dashboard that allows residents to understand municipal finances without becoming accountants.

The dashboard should answer basic questions.

What does the City collect?

Show the major revenue sources.

What does the City spend?

Show major service areas in dollars and as a share of the operating budget.

What does a typical property tax bill support?

Provide an understandable example showing how the municipal portion of a property tax payment is distributed across City services.

What changed from last year?

Show:

• increase or decrease in operating spending;
• major staffing changes;
• new programs;
• programs ended;
• debt change;
• reserve change;
• capital investment;
• major external funding.

What is driving the tax change?

Separate:

• inflation;
• wage settlements;
• new positions;
• service expansion;
• debt costs;
• capital requirements;
• asset maintenance;
• outside-government requirements;
• new revenue;
• verified efficiencies.

Residents should not simply be told that taxes increased by a certain percentage.

They should be able to see why.

Proposed Budget and Final Budget

The public dashboard should show both.

Residents should be able to see what changed between the budget first proposed and the budget ultimately approved by Council.

That allows public consultation to mean something.

4.3Public Contract Register

Large amounts of public money move through contracts.

Residents should be able to see who the City is doing business with.

A public contract register should include significant municipal contracts and purchases, subject to legitimate confidentiality requirements.

For each contract, the public should be able to see:

• supplier;
• general purpose;
• department;
• contract value;
• award date;
• contract term;
• procurement method;
• whether the contract was competitively awarded;
• renewal options;
• significant amendments;
• final cost where applicable.

Where a contract was not competitively bid, the reason should be identified.

Examples might include:

• emergency procurement;
• sole-source requirement;
• proprietary equipment;
• continuation of an existing specialized system;
• another lawful procurement exception.

The important point is that the exception should be visible.

Local Procurement Reporting

The register should also allow us to measure, without manipulating the procurement process:

• how many local businesses bid;
• how many qualified;
• how much municipal purchasing remained in Grey Bruce;
• how much went elsewhere in Ontario;
• how much went elsewhere in Canada;
• how much went outside Canada.

The purpose is not to promise contracts to friends or restrict legitimate competition.

It is to understand where public purchasing power goes and determine whether unnecessary barriers prevent local businesses from participating.

4.4Public Asset Register

The City owns and operates assets worth far more than a single annual budget.

Those assets include:

• roads;
• bridges;
• sidewalks;
• water systems;
• wastewater systems;
• stormwater infrastructure;
• buildings;
• parks;
• vehicles;
• machinery;
• docks;
• recreation facilities;
• public technology;
• other municipal property.

Our existing initiative proposes an infrastructure and systems index showing the age, condition and cost of major public assets so residents can understand what the City owns and what condition it is in.

That idea should become part of the City's normal financial reporting.

For appropriate public assets, the register should eventually show:

• asset category;
• location;
• age;
• condition;
• expected useful life;
• last major maintenance;
• planned maintenance;
• estimated replacement period;
• estimated replacement cost;
• funding status.

Not every piece of information should be publicly displayed.

Detailed security information concerning critical infrastructure should remain protected.

The purpose is not to publish information that creates risk.

The purpose is to make long-term stewardship visible.

Why This Matters

A City can appear financially healthy by postponing maintenance.

That does not make the City healthy.

It transfers the cost into the future.

The asset register will allow residents and Council to distinguish between:

a true efficiency

and

a bill we have simply postponed.

4.5Council Decision Register

Council agendas and minutes are essential, but major decisions should also be easy to follow over time.

Create a searchable Council Decision Register.

For every significant Council decision, the register should identify:

• the question;
• date;
• staff recommendation;
• Council decision;
• recorded vote where available;
• estimated cost;
• funding source;
• responsible department;
• implementation target;
• current status;
• related reports;
• final outcome.

This becomes especially important when projects extend across several years.

A resident should not have to remember which Council meeting discussed a project eighteen months earlier.

The project itself should tell the story.

Decisions That Change

Council sometimes changes direction.

That is not automatically a failure.

New information may become available.

Costs may change.

Another government may change a program.

A pilot may fail.

A legal issue may arise.

The public record should show:

1. what was originally decided;
2. what changed;
3. why it changed;
4. who made the new decision.

Changing course can be responsible government.

Changing course without explaining it is what damages trust.

4.6Public Commitments Register

Election platforms often disappear after election day.

This one should not.

Every measurable commitment in this business plan should enter a public Commitments Register.

Each commitment should be categorized as:

Not Started

In Development

Under Review

In Progress

Completed

Changed

Delayed

Not Proceeding

If a commitment is changed, delayed or abandoned, the reason should be published.

Each Commitment Should Show

• original wording;
• date promised;
• responsible lead;
• municipal authority;
• outside partners required;
• estimated cost;
• current cost;
• target date;
• current status;
• next step;
• outcome.

The register should preserve the original promise.

A government should not be able to rewrite yesterday's commitment to make today's result appear successful.

Promises That Depend on Others

Some commitments will require:

• Council approval;
• Grey County;
• Ontario;
• Canada;
• Saugeen Ojibway Nation;
• another public agency;
• private partners;
• public consultation.

That dependency should be identified from the beginning.

A Mayor should not claim sole credit for something that required many partners.

Nor should the City claim failure was unavoidable when it never made a serious attempt.

The public record should show the work.

4.7Public Correction Log

Government will make mistakes.

The question is how it responds when they happen.

Create a visible Public Correction Log for significant factual errors in official City communications, reports and public dashboards.

The correction should identify:

• the original statement;
• what was wrong;
• the corrected information;
• date corrected;
• whether the error affected a decision;
• what action was taken if necessary.

Minor spelling mistakes do not need a public investigation.

Material errors do.

No Quiet Corrections

If a significant number was wrong when the public relied upon it, simply replacing the number on a webpage is not enough.

The correction should remain visible.

This creates a culture in which admitting an error is normal.

That is healthier than creating a system where employees, councillors or elected officials feel pressure to defend something simply because admitting a mistake would be politically uncomfortable.

The Standard

We will not promise perfection. We will promise correction.

4.8Plain-Language Government

Government documents often become difficult to understand because they are written for governments rather than residents.

Technical language will sometimes be necessary.

Legal terminology will sometimes be necessary.

Professional engineering, accounting and planning reports will sometimes require specialized language.

That does not prevent the City from explaining the decision plainly.

Every major public report should begin with a short summary answering:

What are we deciding?

One paragraph.

Why are we deciding it?

Explain the problem.

What is recommended?

State it plainly.

What will it cost?

Include both initial and continuing costs where known.

Who pays?

Property taxes, existing budget, reserves, debt, user fees, grants, partners or another source.

What are the alternatives?

Present reasonable options.

What happens if we do nothing?

This is often the missing alternative.

Who is affected?

Residents, businesses, employees, property owners, another government or a particular neighbourhood.

What happens next?

Give the expected timeline.

How can a resident comment?

Make participation obvious.

The One-Page Rule

Where reasonably possible, every significant proposal should have a one-page public summary.

The detailed report can follow.

The engineering can follow.

The financial tables can follow.

The legal analysis can follow.

Residents should still be able to understand the basic decision on one page.

Clarity is not the enemy of expertise.

It is the responsibility that comes with expertise.

4.9Quarterly State of the City Report

Every three months, Owen Sound should publish a concise State of the City Report.

This should not be a promotional newsletter.

It should be an operational report.

Our existing plan already commits to a quarterly public scorecard showing both successes and failures.

The quarterly report should include:

Finances

• operating budget status;
• major revenue changes;
• capital spending;
• debt;
• reserves;
• verified savings;
• significant overruns.

Municipal Services

• major service response times;
• backlog;
• completed work;
• unresolved problems.

Infrastructure

• projects completed;
• projects underway;
• delayed projects;
• major asset failures;
• maintenance progress.

Downtown

• active projects;
• vacancies where reliable data is available;
• public-space improvements;
• events;
• measurable pilot results.

Housing

• applications;
• approvals;
• municipal processing times;
• housing initiatives;
• County partnerships.

Business

• start-up inquiries;
• service times;
• procurement opportunities;
• local participation.

Community Life

• recreation participation;
• outdoor programs;
• volunteer participation;
• youth participation;
• accessibility improvements.

Public Safety

• relevant municipal safety measures;
• major emergency issues;
• prevention initiatives.

Open Government

• major decisions;
• corrections;
• public consultations;
• commitments completed;
• commitments delayed.

What Did Not Work

This should be a permanent section.

At least one part of every quarterly report should ask:

What did we try that did not work as expected?

Sometimes the answer may be nothing significant.

When something did fail, residents should hear it from their City rather than discover it later.

What We Learned

Failure without learning is waste.

Failure that produces useful knowledge can still create public value.

The quarterly report should explain both.

4.10Annual Public Audit Meeting

Once each year, hold a dedicated public meeting focused not on introducing new promises but on reviewing the previous year.

Call it the Annual State of Owen Sound Meeting.

The purpose would be simple:

Here is what we said we would do. Here is what happened.

The meeting should include:

The Money

• budget;
• taxes;
• debt;
• reserves;
• capital spending;
• efficiencies;
• grants;
• major financial variances.

The Commitments

• completed;
• in progress;
• delayed;
• changed;
• abandoned.

The Assets

• infrastructure condition;
• major maintenance;
• capital projects;
• future liabilities.

The Services

• response times;
• workload;
• staffing;
• resident complaints;
• improvements.

The Community

• housing;
• downtown;
• recreation;
• local business;
• youth;
• seniors;
• accessibility;
• community partnerships.

The Difficult Questions

Residents should be able to submit questions before the meeting.

Reasonable time should be reserved for live public questions as well.

Questions should not be selected because they are easy.

Critical questions belong in an accountability meeting.

The Mayor's Report

The Mayor should personally identify:

• the most important accomplishment of the year;
• the largest disappointment;
• the commitment most at risk;
• the largest unexpected cost;
• the most promising opportunity;
• the most important lesson.

A public leader should be willing to say:

"I was wrong about this."

That sentence should not be regarded as political weakness.

Used honestly, it is evidence that government is still capable of learning.

The Open Government Standard

The purpose of transparency is not to make City Hall defensive.

It is to make City Hall better.

A resident should not need a Freedom of Information request simply to understand an ordinary public decision that could reasonably have been explained in the first place.

A councillor should not need to search through years of records to discover the history of a major project.

A municipal employee should be able to point to a common source of accurate information rather than repeatedly answering the same question.

A journalist should be able to verify a public claim.

A student should be able to study how the City works.

A tradesperson should be able to see upcoming opportunities.

A taxpayer should be able to understand where the money went.

And a future Council should inherit a clear record of what the previous Council decided and why.

This is why open government is not an additional municipal program.

It is the method by which every other municipal program should operate.

The Commitment

Under this plan, Owen Sound will work toward a public system in which residents can answer seven basic questions about any major municipal initiative:

1. What are we doing?
2. Why are we doing it?
3. Who decided?
4. What will it cost?
5. Who is responsible?
6. Did it work?
7. What happens next?

If those answers cannot be found, government is not transparent enough.

The final standard is simple:

Nothing hidden for convenience. Nothing complicated for appearance. Nothing claimed without evidence. Nothing quietly forgotten when it fails.

Open the books.

Show the work.

Publish the result.

Correct the record when necessary.

Then let the residents of Owen Sound judge for themselves.