This morning, Mayor AC Wharton signed an executive order making city government more open and transparent.  I had the honor of representing MemphisConnect.com, one of a handful of media outlets in attendance witnessing the mayor’s fulfillment of this campaign promise.

Working my digital camera, my iPhone’s voice memo app, and a good old fashioned pen and paper, I moved inline with the other media, listening and scribbling attentively as the mayor eloquently conveyed the spirit of this order: “…openness in city government….government as a trust….officers as trustees….fending off the appearance of impropriety….streamlined process and avenue for obtaining information.”   His attentiveness and commitment to being as responsive as possible to the public and its concerns were clearly reflected in his remarks.

As a contributor to MemphisConnect.com, I found the order’s specific references to “social media venues such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube” were particularly interesting.  I am interested to see exactly how these will be employed in practice, but the fact that online social media forms a central pillar in the mayor’s transparency implementation plan shows a forward thinking I find refreshing, especially with respect to government.  Along with the mayor’s “virtual town hall meetings” (where three or more town hall meetings are conducted across the city at once) the city is poised to pioneer new and compelling ways of serving its constituents that can be a model for the rest of the country.

After signing the order, the mayor took questions and the journalists in attendance jumped right in.   Several beat me to the punch on the major themes: what lead him to do this, what “open door” actually means, what the roles of social media and the city website will be, etc.

I decided to ask a more specific question regarding whether document requests that have a high cost might have these costs reduced as part of this greater openness on the part of city government, citing as an example a person receiving a copy of a requested internal affairs investigation (which from experience a few years back cost me $55!).  The mayor responded with an explanation that there is a balance that must be maintained between ensuring greater access to records (passing on “reasonable” costs in a manner consistent with the law) and discouraging “voluminous [frivolous] requests”.  The software developer in me thinks that as more and more documents are  pushed online, perhaps this issue can be mitigated to some degree with electronic copies and the appropriate authorizations.

Moments later, the press conference ended.   Executive Order 01-2009 was in effect.  A new chapter in openness began.  Our city begins to benefit.

Many thanks to Kerry Hayes and Elizabeth Lemmonds for making this opportunity for MemphisConnect.com possible.

Politics & News