This is why I have heard people make comments like, “Why not give this new guy a chance?” This happens even when the the incumbent does an outstanding job and even though the “new guy” has no skills for the position and runs solely for the “ego trip.” People, due to a lack of understanding, truly believe anyone can do it just as well as anyone else. So if someone is younger or seems to want it bad, they figure, what can it hurt, let's try the new guy.

If they truly understood how local government worked and the damage that can be done in just a few short years, they would not be so ready to give anyone a chance. Companies don't hire CEOs like this so why do we elect government officials who make multi-million dollar decisions like this?

Then when things fall apart or break down, citizens just attribute it to “government is bad.” When the real reason is they “hired” an incompetent person.

I had hoped the opengov and transparency efforts would help. But all the information doesn't help someone who doesn't understand what they are looking at. So I believe this non-participation, nonchalant voting in elections, and complaining after the fact will not begin to stop unless we start teaching students about local government, its impact on their lives, and their responsibility as a citizen of that government.

It reminds of a phrase I heard recently: You can tell the true pioneers because they have the arrows in them.

I believe that your perspective is the future of elected leadership, the difficulty is getting from today to that future. That makes your job twice as difficult because to stay in office, you have to play the current game while creating the rules for the future.

If I understand properly, you're not actually looking to the public for polling statistics, but instead to share information with them while educating yourself on issues. I suppose for now, the group of citizens that takes advantage of this will be small. I would expect that they will also be a dedicated and growing group.

Keep up the good work!

Sure you do, check out the CityCamp Exchange:
http://e-democracy.org/citycamp

And the more global e-democracy building crowd: http://dowire.org/x

Steven Clift

This is powerful stuff. Every elected official should read it.

Since I work in public communications, for me it speaks not only to the importance of elected officials understanding and using these tools, but also to the importance of your public communications office being staffed (i.e. budgeted) for this.

The public will increasingly turn to these spaces and tools for breaking news and information, and if your city, county or agency isn't there with an official message, the void WILL be filled.

@BarbChamberlain
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
Washington State University Spokane
@WSUSpokane
http://www.spokane.wsu.edu
http://www.facebook.com/WSUSpokane

I'm no attorney, but a conservative interpretation is that if you as a government official create a document, it's a government document. So all the rules apply.

Agree on your public meeting comments. If I saw even one other council member discussing something on my Facebook page, for example, I'd shout out a warning.