Please accept this request of city council to place on the agenda
consideration of an Open Government Initiative (OGI). The OGI would be a
broad initiative to set in place programs that would enable our citizens to
better access information, become involved more in the city itself and act
as a tool to keep our city leaders proactive in working with our community
to make decisions.

Considerations under the OGI would include but not be limited to:
* Sunshine Reforms Act -- tightening up of the meeting and posting
process to allow for a longer time between posting the agenda and the actual
meeting -- two weeks minimum.
* Sunshine Reforms Act -- set forth a mandate for city council and
city management to give commissions proper lead time to make recommendations
on a particular issue under the purview of those commissions (example:
fields and the parks and recreation commission)
* Sunshine Reforms Act -- reform the community services (city council)
agenda and procedures literature to limit the overuse of the consent
calendar for issues more fit for regular business and put a hard stop on
council meetings at 11pm. No exceptions. We cannot continue to make
decisions after the community has gone to sleep.
* Re-design the city website to make information more accessible,
easier to find and more timely -- and to allow real-time communications with
the city council.
* Develop a mandatory schedule to hold regular city council meetings
in Belle Haven.
* Appoint a finance/audit committee as oversight to the budget
reporting process.

First things first.

As the first pillar of the OGI, we propose that our city council immediately
appoint a Brown Act guided audit/finance committee made up of three council
members. Residents could be added based upon qualifications. This audit
committee will work with the finance director to put in place a structure to
manage the numbers -- a set of rules to guide the reporting process and set
in place a consistent platform to evaluate costs of running programs and how
to present the data clearly. This will allow the committee to review the
budget reports from the city finance office for accuracy, raise questions
for the finance director and put the report through council to the public
without bias. The committee can address future financial matters and make
recommendations to council as appropriate. But this is not a policy making
body. All policy will be set by the council.

The goals of this audit/finance committee are as follows:

* Creation of a consistent process around the presentation of the
budget
* Better and more frequent communication to the community as to the
city's financial picture
* Systematic reporting structure that will provide quarterly reports
for the community and potentially move to monthly reports.

The proposed finance committee would report into the city finance director
and to the city council if approved.

This type of committee has been suggested by many citizens of Menlo Park.
And while there are many great projects that our council is pursuing right
now, there no more pressing needs than getting our financial picture back
into focus.

In light of a very busy council calendar over the next several weeks, we
respectfully withhold the Sunshine Reforms and website evaluation requests
under the Open Government Initiative until this item have been addressed.

Respectfully,
Rich Cline, Council Member, Menlo Park
Andy Cohen, Mayor Pro Tem, Menlo Park
Received on Wed Feb 21 16:55:58 2007