“Maybe you were one of those local governments lucky enough not to get picked by the New York Coalition for Open Government for scrutiny about how well they share information with their constituents.
But if you were put on the spot today to produce the information, what grade would your community get?
That’s the question every local government official should be asking themselves as they evaluate their relationship with the citizens they serve.
For the second time in about seven months, the nonpartisan activist coalition has issued a report card for randomly selected local governments on how well they scored when it comes to posting meeting minutes and recordings of meetings online, posting agendas and meeting documents, live-streaming meetings and allowing public comments during meetings.
In the latest report, the group selected a sample of nine villages out of 551 in the state, including Scotia, Cobleskill and Colonie in our area. Only two in the state got a grade of A – 100% compliance. Scotia and Colonie each got a grade of D, with a score of 65 each, and Cobleskill got an F, with a score of zero.”
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Editorial Board. Schenectady Gazette 5 March 2021.