Government… To The People
There was a time when politicians considered themselves “public servants”. But at the look of things, we are considered the public servants who do so at the pleasure of those we elect and they hire.
Public servants have all the tools they need to keep a grip on information that rightly belongs to the people, whether it’s a police report, a principal’s disciplinary file or a spending plan, a Tribune examination has found.
Since 2005, more than a thousand citizens have filed complaints about public officials in Illinois who refused requests for public records, most often by completely ignoring them.
A review of those complaints, along with dozens of interviews, reveals a culture of secrecy shrouding the machinery of your government. Public meetings are often theater, where votes are pro-forma endorsements of decisions forged in e-mails and memos you will never be allowed to see.
I find it hard to believe that this only happens in Chicago, but if so (given the makeup of our current administration and the location of their talent pool), let’s not hope the present hubris doesn’t mix with “sit down and shut up”.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Same out here. Every week there’s someone at the City Council meeting asking why their requests for information have not been filled. The Council just sits there with empty stares, if not glaring.
The local paper did an undercover expose on the different branches of county government and their response to requests for information. Basically, every government body, e.g city, county, police school districts, in the county failed, and the police and schools were the worst.
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:08 pm
This is the reason to have limited, distributed organizations of “authority.”
It is easier to hold a group of people to account when they have limited authority and are physically accessible.
Our government, and its many institutions, have become “too big for their briches”, too arrogant.
Tyrants, be they emperors, kings, lords, dictators, or titled by any other name, rule by their supporters.
We may very well be witnessing the rise of the Fourth Reich.
I have for a long time wondered what happened during the Nazi’s rise to power. Have we reached the point of no return? Is it time to act and with what means? Unfortunately, I do not have this answer.
The founders of this country were able to draw a line; but, as of now, we have not. I suppose we continue to observe, gather evidence, and, God willing, we retain the will and means to act when and if necessary.
May 4th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Well, Bob, I’ve seen this very behavior in our city council several years ago. The situation had to do with the city building something that would dramatically affect the value and saleability of my home. My wife and I went to a number of council meetings, and addressed them a couple of times, only to be laughed at from the bench and told that we were stupid.
We noted that the votes happened awfully quickly during the meeting, too much so for them to be deciding things right then. A friend, a local free-lance reporter, clued us in to a pre-council meeting where the whole agenda was discussed and each member polled, well before the actual public meeting occurred.
The ultimate end was the city council got what they wanted and we got the shaft. The councilman for our district was the only person that voted on our behalf. And I felt that it was only for show, since it was apparent the rest of the council couldn’t give a damn.