We tend to define people by what they do, some more than others. Teachers, pilots, doctors, firefighters, police officers and pastors carry an iconic identity, so much so their identity sticks long after they retire. For years, I was associated with a product I founded: BoardDocs. Introduced in 2002, BoardDocs was designed as a paperless governance platform to streamline how governing bodies, from school boards to municipal councils, create, manage and distribute meeting materials. What started as a paperless agenda solution eventually grew into a pioneer of cloud-based governance, transforming operations for thousands of organizations.  It became so pervasive in the governance world that when I attended conferences for organizations like the National School Boards Association and the International City/County Management Association, I was often called Mr. BoardDocs. Make no mistake, building and supporting BoardDocs was a team effort, but the service became so widely adopted that my personal identity became associated with the brand.  BoardDocs was acquired in 2016, and my time as Mr. BoardDocs began to fade into obscurity. Since then, most traces of BoardDocs in my life are gone, save a couple of sweatshirts and some swag from our conferences. What remains, however, is my knowledge of the inner workings of public governing bodies and how the most effective organizations engage the public. Like most government activities, there are strict laws for how governing bodies conduct business. While these laws vary from state to state, they usually cover when and how to publish upcoming meeting dates, sharing the agenda in advance, how the meetings are conducted, and reporting on the activities of the governing body during those meetings.  After working with thousands of governing bodies, one thing became clear: the best organizations don’t meet the legal mandates; they actively engage their citizens. Organizations that posted agendas and all supporting documents well in advance of the meetings had more engaged and satisfied citizens. We also found that when organizations proactively linked agenda items with video, audio, background materials, and voting results, voters rewarded organizations by passing more bonds and having more trust in their government. The best of the best would conduct strategic planning by linking every agenda item to the goals of the strategic plan and hold themselves accountable with a dashboard showing their progress. The public could see how each council member voted and supported each initiative.  There is an entire ecosystem of best practices and online tools associated with what has come to be called electronic governance, in which the best organizations work to build community capital.  It frustrates me to see our local school boards, city councils and county governments in Summit County treat public transparency like a box to check. They do the bare minimum required by law and stop there. We deserve better. That means bringing people into land-use decisions before any development is considered, making meeting access effortless, and tracking how every elected official actually votes. It means setting real goals, using simple dashboards to track progress, and letting the public judge whether our leadership is representing the will of the people. The cynic in me believes this is not a simple oversight, but intentional. When a small group of insiders holds power over government, it is best to build barriers to the information. Sure, we can find the minutes online. Yes, the meeting video can be replayed. But what if you wanted to know how a planning commission member or council member supported the Dakota Pacific project? What if you could watch the deliberation on pay increases for elected officials without scanning entire meetings? What if I told you that for Summit County government alone, over 100 public meetings have been held across various councils, boards and commissions in just the last six months? In these sessions, appointed and elected officials make decisions directly impacting your family, property values and tax dollars. Yet unless you have time to sift through dozens of obscure PDF agendas or skip work to sit through hours of video, tracking those decisions is next to impossible. Try finding every instance a council member voted on the controversial Dakota Pacific development or searching for the exact moment elected officials debated their own pay raises. You will quickly realize that while the records exist, true accessibility does not. Our local governments must do better, and the ultimate mechanism for holding them accountable is using every election cycle to demand change. In our county, the Clerk’s Office is responsible for compiling and distributing crucial election and governance information to the public. As voters, we need to actively press candidates on where they stand on modern transparency. We should be asking them directly: How do you plan to better engage the public, lower the barriers to information, and keep our electorate genuinely informed? Until we start demanding tools that offer true insight over simple compliance, we shouldn’t be alarmed when the decisions that shape our community continue to shock and surprise us. Ari Ioannides, chair of the Summit County Republicans, is a recovering tech entrepreneur, founder of BootUP PD, and serves on local government and nonprofit boards. He offers a conservative perspective on local politics. He can be reached at [email protected] The post The Porcupine Quill: Holes in the net ensuring accessibility, accountability appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less