Governance recipe: secret sauce

June 28, 2006

By ROBERT BREEN

Above all the principles of democracy is the principle of publicity, according to William Ebenstein, author of "American Democracy in World Perspective." The book goes on to say that "secrecy is the death É of the democratic process" and that government conducted in secrecy is "one of the essential principles of totalitarianism."

Recently, some of us have read that our local Fourth Estate guardian, the Petaluma Argus-Courier, is having a problem getting information from the city regarding certain crime statistics.

Now, I don't know if withholding crime stats dealing with the elderly, women and children is an attempt by a Chamber-of-Commerce-mindful City Hall brain trust to create a sort of artists' conception of what they want us to think Petaluma is: A rosy, crime-controlled, yellow-brick-road place where the most vulnerable of citizens exist in peace and tranquility. But I do know that democracy does not grow well in the dark -- mushrooms and dictatorships do.

And in a variation on Edmund Burke's adage "all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing," dictatorships continue to thrive when citizens either don't know or don't care whether their government does its daily business in secret.

Thankfully, in addition to the Argus, at least one citizen does know and care: Bryant Moynihan. On May 30, former councilman Moynihan sent a letter to the Petaluma City Council requesting city staff to demonstrate to the public how proposed charges and fees for the sewer treatment plant capital improvement project were calculated, and whether they are reasonable.

Mr. Moynihan pointed out that excessive fees are considered a special tax, one that requires a two-thirds vote of the community and is prohibited from being charged on utilities by the city charter. He also stated that "no apparent benefit" comes from a 5.6 percent administration fee for the sewer plant project that will cost average ratepayers $500 each.

It should not be surprising, considering the city's apparent penchant for slathering secret sauce over its recipe for governance, that Mr. Moynihan did not receive the information he requested.

Frustrated but not deterred, Mr. Moynihan contacted the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association's director of legal affairs, Timothy A. Bittle. Mr. Bittle then wrote a nice little letter to the city of Petaluma's attorney, Eric W. Danly, explaining the facts of life in places such as California, where we have what is called a Constitution.

Hello, City Hall: The California Public Records Act, Government Code section 6250, et seg., "requires local governments to cooperate with requests from the public for budgetary details, and the voters recently added article 1, section 3(b) to the California Constitution to make access to such government information a constitutional right."

Mister Bittle then explained: "Where local governments abuse their authority by stonewalling requests about the peoples' business," HJTA "will often get involved." And he finished with: "By keeping the public informed, you will avoid misunderstandings and potential litigation."

How's that for giving fair warning to wannabe secret keepers?

We should presume this revolutionary concept about the public's constitutional right-to-know includes the citizenry of through-the-looking-glass Petaluma, so why are we being treated like mushrooms? Crime statistics and sewer-plant finances aren't exactly a matter of national security.

Maybe the city enjoys the game of brinkmanship. As of the date this article was submitted, June 22, the city still had not responded to the Jarvis Association request that Mr. Moynihan be provided with the information he is constitutionally entitled to.

But whatever the reasons for stonewalling a former councilman and dragging its clumsy, super-sized feet in providing crime information to a newspaper, the city of Petaluma has a constitutional obligation to conduct city business openly. And if the brain trust in the local tower of power doesn't buy that, they are in the wrong country and don't deserve to keep their jobs, because they don't respect American democracy.

(Robert Breen is a Petaluma resident and author of the novel "Welcome to Purgatory.")