After many, many months of prodding and pushing…then pushing some more…the audio of Council Meetings in the City of Monroe are available online. Unfortunately the recordings are not very good quality and you can’t hear most speakers. I don’t think the equipment has been budgeted for the nice Granicus software, so City staff deserves a big thank you for doing this much.

This link to the City’s webpage also provides past meeting minutes so you can see who voted for what and provides the “Council Packets” for each meeting, which is the information presented to Councilmembers at the meetings so they can have discussions and make their decisions.

The next step for the Council is to make all their email communications public by using a bulletin board or blog of some sort. So much has been made of “hidden” council emails in the past that the only way to be transparent and eliminate the argument from those who cast aspersions is to go ahead and make them public. The one exception, of course, are any emails or communications that are confidential (relating to the purcahase and sale of property or litigation) where the release of the information would harm the taxpayers. When this happens, the goals I set forth a year ago in the Open Government Ordinance will be well on their way to becoming reality.