Public best served by open airing of concerns

Peace on Earth, good will toward men.

Good idea any time of year, right?

Well, yes and no.

When it comes to spending the public's money, peace and quiet isn't always a good thing.

When public meetings are short and sweet, we tend to wonder what details have been glossed over, overlooked or manipulated before the meeting even began.

And, since the Gazette is often the only representative of the public in attendance, if then, the opportunity for abuse seems too tempting.

We have no specific board or instance in mind, and believe most local elected officials try to serve the public interest as best they can. But we are concerned when discussion seems to be absent or one-sided, and that most of the details seem to have been hashed out before the meeting begins.

The public is best served by a clear and open airing of concerns on both sides of any issue, and, better yet, given ample opportunity to provide its own input.

There is no reason the discussions cannot be civil and respectful, of course, but both sides need to be heard.

The concept of "e-meetings," discussed at Monday night's school board meeting, will be valid only if all members of the public have access to all the information available to board members, as required by open meetings and open records laws.

We've seen too many examples where the conversion to electronic records has left those records nearly inaccessible to reporters and the public. We've also seen the federal privacy laws used as an excuse for keeping all sorts of public information away from the public.

On the other hand, a school official has found a way to use electronic records to give the board and public a much better idea of the school's financial condition.

Finance director Rick Haney has built a custom spreadsheet that tracks all 2,600 of the McCook Public School system's accounts and summarizes them for easy understanding.

"That's the most information we've gotten in the nine years I've been on the board," school board president Greg Larson told Haney. "We appreciate your effort."

Congratulations to Haney and all involved in gathering the data and making it accessible.

It's a good example of harnessing computer power in the public interest, and one that should be emulated at all levels of government.