Trust Issues - Local Government

Michelle Gamble-Risley - December 2002
Center for Digital Government
Excerpt from Interview : Todd SanderChief Information Officer, City of Tucson Arizona

CDG: What are some sleeper issues in your city?

Sander: I think one of the things we're going to have to deal with is the notion of trust between government and its constituents. If we're willing to engage people in these community conversations whether they're local, state or federal, there has to be some understanding of what that means. There has to be a belief that these [engagements] are legitimate; people will be heard; their information or opinions will be dealt with judiciously. In some respects, people just don't tend to trust government -- and the more sophisticated we get with our tools and our processes, the more difficult it will be for people to trust unless we're more thoughtful about the kinds of protections we put in place. It's about personal information, and appropriate dissemination and access to public records, which has certainly become more of an issue since September 11. There was a big rush to just make government completely visible. Everything we had we were looking at trying to figure out how to put the information out on the Internet -- in retrospect that probably doesn't make that make sense. People do need to have some information about government to understand why decision are made and hold government officials accountable; but they don't necessarily need unfettered access to plans for city halls, legislative offices, sewer systems, telecommunications, etc. So, I think maybe the issue that we in government need to think about is what the appropriate relationship is between available information and what should only be available under special circumstances.