Open Government, Transparency, and Accountability

What could be more important than trust in our local government? Efforts to provide transparency are what builds trust.

Lack of transparency in our local government was recently brought into the spotlight during the Pedestrian Bridge discussion, where a feasibility study conducted by FDOT recommending against building the bridge was never disclosed to the public. Even after a formal records request was made to the Village, this document was not disclosed. Councilman Henry Rosenthal discovered this document through a records request submitted to FDOT.

So, it appears we have a transparency problem with governance in the Village and the Pedestrian Bridge debacle illustrates the point.

Perhaps the most important goal of the Islamorada Community Alliance is to assure that our local government becomes more transparent, participatory and a collaboration with the residents. We need to know what’s happening and get more involved in local decisions that impact our community before it’s too late!

Here is the short list of transparency issues we have identified:

1. Governmental decisions are being made by Email, circumventing public meetings and the Sunshine Law.
2. Residents are not being always adequately noticed about issues and events. 
3. Residents are not given ample time to learn, understand and participate in the decision-making process.
4. Developers have ample access to staff to seek staff approvals for their projects, while the residents get three minutes to speak at a hearing and only after recently being inadequately noticed with insufficient time to understand and research the issue.
5. Proper Conflict of Interest disclosures are not being made.
6. Public Records were removed from website to avoid an ADA challenge.
7. Public participation during the pandemic has not been properly managed by the Village staff, resulting in excluding residents.
8. Staff is not being held accountable for lacking transparency standards.
9. Important policies are not in writing; example policy on completing public record requests.
10. Planning department not properly documenting milestone decisions that impact future decisions.

Through open government efforts, the ICA aims to assure our Village government:

• Builds trust with local constituents
• Empowers the public
• Becomes more innovative, effective and efficient
• Makes wiser decisions
• Fosters a culture that values everyone’s contributions
• Increases accountability and ethics
• Tracks how our tax dollars are spent