The following was written for the Williamsburg Watch Substack newsletter, published by Digby Solomon, former president of the Daily Press, and can be found here in its original form: https://www.williamsburgwatch.com/i/157345404/your-right-to-know-what-government-is-doing
Imagine you wake up one morning, flip on the TV news, and there, broadcasting from Duke of Gloucester Street, a beaming reporter is announcing that crews are onsite, ready to break ground on an Olympic-sized swimming pool right there in Merchant’s Square. The camera pans to an artist’s rendering of a multi-level patio, replete with lounge chairs, a tiki bar and potted palm trees. The reporter announces that this city-funded project will not be open to area residents, only tourists on holiday in Williamsburg.
You’re understandably aghast. You’ve got questions. How did this happen?
Sometimes we need hyperbole to make a point. And the point here is that as a government of, by and for the people, the people have a right to know how decisions are made, how their money is spent and who is responsible for the decisions that impact them.
It’s not a novel concept. One of the grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independence was that King George III convened legislative bodies at unusual places and away from the repository of public records, “for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.” James Madison famously added, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
Though these notions have always underpinned our ideals as a nation, it wasn’t until 1966 that the federal Freedom of Information Act was enacted to codify them. Virginia passed its own version of FOIA in 1968. As laid out in its opening provisions, the act exists to ensure “ready access” to our state and local government meetings and records.
“The affairs of government are not intended to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy since at all times the public is to be the beneficiary of any action taken at any level of government,” reads Section 2.2-3700 of the Virginia FOIA.
FOIA sets out the processes by which anyone can ask to see the records our government is creating, keeping and using as they do business in our name. FOIA is the ultimate in oversight, the original “receipts.”
You have the right to ask for records that would help you understand how the DOG Street Deep End came into being.
You also have a right to attend meetings where these matters were supposed to have been discussed. Virginia’s FOIA sets out rules for those meetings aimed at allowing the public to watch their representatives at work.
Unfortunately, we see too many instances where those in government either don’t know the law, don’t understand its application, are ignorant of the reasons for the law or, at the very worst, actively undermine the law.
It’s not because they are evil people — they are usually our friends or neighbors. It’s because they fear the power of information, just like Madison said. They fear losing control of the message and they fear the possible repercussions of oversight.
What these folks underestimate is the power of transparency. It’s the power truth and openness have to build trust and encourage buy-in. The more upfront they are, the more the people they serve will believe them, not only when things go well, but even when things start going wrong.
If everyone embraced the basic humanity and underlying civic virtue of an open government, it might not be a glittering utopia of swimming pools and palm trees, but it would be a place of infinitely more trust in our government, in institutions, and even in each other.