Following up a little bit on the issue of online transparency on the city’s website I decided to look into some board meeting minutes.
You will recall from Cover up that the city installed new software this year that eliminated our ability to search council agendas prior to 2014. This act undoubtedly makes it more difficult to research and prove what has been going on.
Looking at the Downtown Development Corporation section of the city website we learn that they have had four meetings, the last of which was in August of 2013. Only two sets of minutes are available. The minutes of the last two meetings are not. This makes it hard to know what was discussed and who voted for what.
The Bond Overview Advisory Committee section of the web site shows 14 meetings. Minutes are shown for four of them. As decisions are being made about how to spend the money from our quality of life bonds one would think that it would be important to know what our “overviewers” are up to.
Our Financial and Audit Oversight Committee has eight agendas listed with six sets of minutes.
Neat huh? You get the idea.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Brutus, I don’t know about the other meetings you mentioned but I do have some insight on the Bond Overview Advisory Committee (BOAC).
The BOAC members do not make decisions on how to spend bond money – their role is strictly advisory. They can provide support, make recommendations and provide comment all they like, but decisions about expenditures is on Council.
That’s what those guys are up to, in a nutshell. But I do agree that meeting minutes should be up to date. That they’re not creates the perception that something underhanded is going on – most likely case is that whoever’s putting those things together has taken longer than they should to post them.
Carlos
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This is the description of BOAC duties from the city website.
“The BOAC shall meet at least quarterly to review information from applicable City Departments regarding the voter approved 2012 Bond Issue Projects (2012 Bond Projects) for the purpose of reporting periodically, in conjunction with City staff, but not less than twice a year, to the Mayor and Council on the status of progress of the 2012 Bond Projects. The Mayor or City Council may request the BOAC to make reports to the general public on the 2012 Bond Projects on a one-time or regular basis. The BOAC will perform such other duties related to the 2012 Bond Projects as may be requested from time to time by the Mayor.”
Only one set of Downtown Development Corporation minutes are posted under the “minutes” section of the DDC webpage. There are others posted within the agendas. For example, if you open the DDC agenda for Aug 1, you’ll find a link to June 18 minutes. You can find the Jan 8, May 28, June 18, Aug 1 (all 2013) minutes that way. But there are no minutes posted since those dates.
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Carlos/Project Manager — Who are you quoting?
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Another commenter (i don’t remember who) on this site who had an issue with my use of information originally posted on the city website.
Just an attempt to tweak your nose a little.
Cheerfully,
Carlos
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I’ll take nose tweaking for my own words but not for anyone else’s words.
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I think it was George Orwell who wrote that he who controls the past, controls the present. I can see why that is a strategy that might interest Wilson, Firth et al on whose watch we received this little erasure of the past.
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