A WORK DISCUSSION IN 8 HOURS OR LESS

With governments at all levels now providing increased transparency (sharing information on public management issues, progress with public projects, reports on Internet websites, etc.), will this prompt more citizens to become involved in local government or policy development? Explain.

ANSWER THE ABOVE QUESTION AND THEN REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 125 WORDS EACH)

I think increased transparency is hurting involvement in local government and policy development.  This increased transparency is revealing how messy the process really is and the average citizen wants nothing to do with it.  This increased transparency also opens the door for criticism at a large scale.  News outlets thrive on making small issues into scandals, and transparency makes this more likely.

An example of this is during the city manager’s interview process at my previous city, the interim city manager was interviewing for the position.  He had been in that role for almost a year, and was comfortable with the staff.  Before the interview, he jokingly asked one of the administrative assistants if his fly was up.  She took offense to this inappropriate comment and reported it.

The local news media latched on to it and it became headline news as a scandal for two weeks.  That candidate eventually got the job after apologizing for the comment.  Was the comment inappropriate?  Yes.  Did he apologize profusely after realizing how it was taken?  Yes.  Did the news media need to run him through the mud for two weeks over a non-issue?  No.