I was surprised last week when I found out the City Council meeting has been changed to Tuesday night this week. I don’t remember seeing anything put out about it in the local papers or on the city website so I did a little investigative work.
Here is what I found out. The city put the new date on the current city council agenda link on their website. So if you have the time and know where to look you can click on a series of 4 different links and find out that information. If you were not looking for it, you wouldn’t know.
The city also no longer puts public notices in our local paper. They have decided to use the Seattle Times to inform the public. The reasoning given was that the city could not get the information out soon enough and the city couldn’t get things passed fast enough. The River Current gets delivered every Thursday and the council meets every other Thursday. Why the need for change? The River Current also gets delivered to all 1800 homes in Duvall and several of the businesses. The Seattle Times gets delivered to 513 homes in Duvall. Essentially only 28% of you now know what is going on in the city government.
Intentionally or not it seems like the city is trying to keep us in the dark. I begin to worry when it looks like the government is hiding or trying to hide what it is doing. I worry when they change the date of the last public hearing on the budget to a new day of the week during a holiday week and they essentially only tell 28% of the public. (Assuming that you actually read the public notices)
I worry when the city is concerned about not being able to pass things quickly. Now don’t get me wrong I’m all for government efficiency but lets streamline our expenses not the amount of information that gets provided to the citizens. Now maybe I’m a little paranoid but isn’t it a little dark in here?
I’d guess the needle is leaning more towards paranoia. You need to give the Duvall residents a tad more credit then that. Picking up the phone or clicking four times in a web browser are the only skills required :)
ReplyDeleteWell I didn't know about it till i read it here. are we all paranoid?
ReplyDeleteWere you planning to attend on Thanksgiving?
ReplyDeleteIt appears that at least some of the citizens got the message about the council meeting. This is great. I hope that all who hear about it will attend and get more involved. I only wish the city was doing more than telling 28% of us about it. Dont you agree?
ReplyDeleteThe Seattle Times online is accessible to all Duvall residents.
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