Open Government Is Good Government
This week March 11th is Sunshine Week, a national initiative which promotes the importance of open government and freedom of information.
Communities across the country are adopting open government policiesthat commit to putting more government data and information on-line. Information such as building permits, restaurant health inspections, and crime statistics are readily available in many counties and cities. Among Western New York local governments such information is not as easy to access.
Many local government web sites in WNY need improvement as documented by an organization named Sunshine Review, which evaluates and grades government web sites.
Sunshine Review provides the following grades for the City of Buffalo and County of Erie:
City of Buffalo C
Erie County B-
Governor Cuomo recently issued an Executive Order requiring state agencies to:
- publish their data on-line
- requiring every agency/department to designate a Chief Data Officer to be responsible for complying with the Executive Order
- establishment of a Data Working Group to assist in carrying out the Executive Order
- Within 6 months, each state entity shall create a catalog of their available data and propose a schedule for making such information available to the public
- an Open Data Handbook will be created by the state’s Information Technology Department and the Data Working Group to assist state agencies/departments
Your Town Supervisor, Mayor and County Executive could also issue a similar directive to the departments and agencies they oversee. Your Town Board, City Council and County Legislature could also pass an Open Government Policy directing the departments and agencies that they oversee to make more information available to the public.
The definition of reinvent is:to replace with an entirely new version, to make over completely, to recast something familiar or old into a different form.In my opinion we need to reinvent government, business and ourselves. Today’s world is about constant change driven by the power of new ideas.For the past 17 years as an attorney, I have worked in government at the county, city, authority and school district level in the Buffalo, NY area. I have seen first hand the need for reinventing how government operates. For a period of four years, I served as Chief of Staff to the 9 member City of Buffalo Common Council. Government must engage the talents and skills of its citizens by becoming more collaborative and transparent in its decision-making and operations. Utilizing technology as a tool to engage citizens is something all governments need to explore.I have great respect for entrepreneurs as they put their passion into a vision, which results in new products, new services and new jobs. Entrepreneurs are on the front lines of change. As an adjunct college instructor, I see how students and everyone for that matter must continually change and reinvent themselves to survive and be successful in today’s crazy world economy.Some of my favorite change agent writers are Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Gary Hamel and Guy Kawasaki. I welcome the opportunity to meet new people, to further my own learning and to share ideas.On a personal note I am 47 years old, my other half Cheryl is an attorney in private practice and together we have three children, Michael age 20 and Joseph age 14 and our newest shock of an addition Julia, born 11/2/11. 
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