Sunshine Week

There is an editorial today in the Worcester Telegram in regards to Sunshine Week. Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. In fact the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association has asked legislators to consider six bills that would tighten up the state's Open Meetings Law.

Although I applaud these efforts, I would think that the Worcester Telegram would need to look no further then the Airport. There is one line in the Telegram story "the impulse to conduct the public’s business out of public view is strong. Lately, improper meetings of officials in the local coffee shop or pub to evade public scrutiny have given way to exchanges of e-mail." They may have well been referring to the airport, of which one of their own reporters is still on the board and a past chairman.

The airport is a public asset worth anywhere between 25-40 million depending on who you ask. Right now we are at a critical crossroads with only 111 days left in the current operating agreement. Based on the official monthly Board Minutes:

• the tax-payers have no idea as to the status on any commercial airline negotiations.
• the tax-payers have no idea what IMG has been doing, although we have spent more then $200,000 on their services.
• no mention at all as to the progress in any negotiations with MassPort.
• the meeting itself fails to include any budget numbers.
• untimely posting of the meetings on the web, February is still not on-line as of March 11th

Take this test. During the summer of 2005, Tom Moore and myself were able to get copies of the Board Minutes for the entire year and post them on our website for everyone to see. Up until that point they were not being published anywhere. Now take a look at the January, 2005 Board Minutes. Although the meeting was 58 minutes long, the minutes are 9 pages long and full of excellent information.

After our efforts, the airport started posting their minutes on the web in January, 2005, but there has been a dramatic change in the minutes. Now look at any monthly minutes in 2005. Although the meetings still average about one hour, the minutes average 3 pages and the information is lacking to say the least.

Again from the Telegram " Open government is not an option. It is mandated implicitly by the Constitution and explicitly in its right-to-know offshoots, notably the Freedom of Information Act and, in Massachusetts, the Open Meeting Law. " I could not agree more with the Telegram, especially when an entity like the airport is costing the tax-payers right now $150,000 per month, after the MassPort subsidy.