On Friday the 26th we made a significant move towards greater transparency in Waxhaw. The BOC unanimously agreed to publicly broadcast the “two-by-two” meetings that are held preparatory to the regular meetings.
Click the video to see the discussion. Below are my comments on this topic from the regular Tuesday meeting:
Thank you to all the residents both here and online, for your attention to the matters of our local government. And thank you to the staff for all your hard work in the preparations of these meetings.
Leading up to this meeting, I participated in the “2×2” process that the staff organizes. For those who are not aware, “2×2” refers to the splitting of this board into groups of two, so as to avoid the limits of Open Meeting statutes. These statutes are intended to ensure that decision-making on public matters is public, by specifying a maximum number of officials who can meet privately to discuss government business.
The rationale for the “2×2” meetings, is that they allow the staff to take the temperature of the board on various matters before discussing them publicly. The idea is that this will save the staff from spending too much time on something that will not survive public presentation before the board.
But this “2×2” process also costs the staff time, because they have to make the same presentation three times – before three different pairings of board members. We are spending a lot of resources on avoiding public scrutiny.
The “2×2” process also violates the spirit of Open Meeting statutes, in that consensus is developed behind closed doors.
In my opinion, this manufactured consent has the effect of suppressing citizen engagement in our local government. People feel left out of the decision-making process.
I think we should add this as a discussion item for the upcoming retreat, so we can figure out how to be more efficient and transparent in our meeting preparations.