Change is Hard Homewood

• All planning, deliberation, and discussion on city issues will be open to the public;

• A good example from recent Homewood history is the 2016 $110M bond issue, penny tax and construction contract bidding the previous administration planned for two years in their own, closed-door meetings...

• Alabama law lays out the rules for open meetings and records, but there are many work-arounds.  This statement is meant as a reminder for elected officials to keep all their planning work out in the open - even if there is a legal way around it.

 

• All official city correspondence will take place on city servers or stationery, and be subject to public disclosure;

• Official documents and records can be protected and kept in one central location.

• It is the city’s responsibility to the public. Not only are documents and conversations on personal computers subject to hardware failure or theft, they are also hidden from the taxpayers who fund them.
   

• All city council and committee meetings will be video recorded and available the next business day;

• Facebook live segments have been posted on Homewood City Voters group page, and every one of them has recorded between 500-900 views per video.

• In 2016, the Finance Committee in October discussed the $110 Million bond deal for the first time on record, just one week before the council’s vote to approve it. A video would have given the citizen a hint of what was behind the vague agenda item: "“Schools and Parks request for funding.”
   

• The city website will be upgraded to serve as the primary channel for public information and notifications;

• The city relies on four bulletin boards to satisfy its legal public notice requirements. We aren‘t calling for the city to stop posting in these public gathering places. We ARE asking the city to add the website to that list, and upgrade its design and organization for that purpose.

• The website is currently managed by a part-time contract worker, who adds new information as officials request it. However, managing the webpage could be a model and accountable communications position if the city leaders demand it.
   

• The council will hold periodic public forums to hear comment on voter issues;

• We support reinstating the public forum on capital spending along with a yearly mayor’s report on the capital spending situation.

• Passed in 2010 as part of a 19-page fiscal policy, a forum was held in the spring before the fall budget to bring more light -- and control -- to the budget and spending process. It was a good policy that lasted only two years.
   

• The city will commit to an “open checkbook” policy, posting to its website a list of the expenses paid each month, and the payees.

• Yes this is possible! Other cities and states make the monthly invoices and other financial and budget information public and available to citizens to self-serve. 

• Without this check/payment detail on our $55 million Homewood City budget, only a financial professional or investigator can “follow the money,” as citizens are often told to do.
   

We believe reaching this level of transparency requires a change in current habits. Therefore we also support hiring a City Manager to relieve elected officials of the many daily chores of running a city. We understand that “change is hard,” but we are certain that this is the right time and the right direction for our city. We ask our current officials and 2020 candidates to give their stated support to this change. We are ready to support it with our votes at our municipal election, August 25, 2020.

 

Signed,

Homewood Voters for Open Gov’t