Regular stuff of municipal life.
Paris selectboard dealt with regular business last night: authorizing payroll, paying bills, filling vacancies on town committees. All of this information is on record and can be examined if any citizen is interested. Most aren't interested because the information is pretty mundane, complex, and there is an awful lot of it.
Taxes. Always there, a larger burden or a smaller one.... Mil rate, overlay, clear understandings of implications and explanations...
...TPR might take a look at those.
As for public information: now there's an issue. It is an interesting point that the media becomes the most vocal operative on that issue - perhaps because information is their bread and butter. It has to be said that sometimes the public media has been a sad source of public betrayal.
However, the fact remains that the issue - of information about and pertinent to the public being made available to the public - is so critical that laws have been crafted at both the state and federal level as vehicles for the public to have access to information that has in the past been hidden - and could easily still be.
The US Freedom of Information Act (Title 5, U.S.C.,§552) passed in 1974, and Maine's Freedom of Access Act (Title 1, M.R.S.A., §401,et.seq.) passed in 1975, are operative pieces of legislation. Although there are times when it really is necessary to protect a sensitive situation from premature release of information, there are countless attempts to manipulate and block information by blanket phrases like "national security," "privileged information," "need to know," and more.
Or
the suggestion that was thrown about at last night's meeting by one selectman, in reference to an employee evaluation coming up - having an executive session [editor's note: secret] to be sure each selectperson is in accord before meeting with the employee.
Does this remind Paris voters of a situation in this town 6-22-09? .
TPR will visit this topic in more detail.
