January 20, 2008

St. Peters won't televise audit


St. Peters just doesn't get it. The Missouri State audit conducted on the city is set to be released in a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday at 7:00 PM. However, the city has decided not to televise the meeting on its cable access channel. The lame excuses offered by St. Peters for not televising the audit continue a pattern of actions taken by the city to keep information from its residents. Whether it be eliminating dissenting viewpoints from it airwaves, interfering with citizen comments or taking action to keep residents off its televised meetings, the city is not a friend of open and honest government.
What makes this even more interesting is that elected officials claim the report is good news for the city. While it should not matter whether the report is good or bad it is an opportunity to provide the residents a window into how their local government works. This is the purpose we have local cable access channels and I would suspect the Auditor's report would be watched by more residents than a regular council meeting. Perhaps this is why Mayor Len Pagano and others at city hall want to keep this off the air.

No comments: