Cicero may soon become a model for openness in government.
At its Jan. 11 meeting, the Cicero Town Board approved the creation of a citizens’ committee whose purpose is to encourage more openness in government.
“The purpose of the Cicero Committee on Open Government is to think of what information to which the public would like ready access and how to make that information more accessible to the residents, and then suggest ways to implement those ideas,” said Deborah Gardner, who set up the committee.
The members of the committee, in addition to Gardner, are Dennis Cook, Town Clerk Tracy Cosilman, David Kirk, Mike Labulis, Karen Lee and Mark Venito.
“I believe that this committee, with the support of the board, can make a difference,” Gardner said. “I want Cicero to be a model of open government in Onondaga County, and I think that we can do that.”
Gardner, a member of the Cicero Democratic Committee who has been attending and videotaping Cicero’s board meetings for some time, said the idea for the committee actually came from Supervisor Jim Corl last summer when he was still just a councilor.
“Ever since I’ve been coming to these board meetings, I’ve said that it’s very hard to get information,” Gardner said. “Jim and I had a discussion in August, and it was actually his idea. When he got elected, he said, ‘You want to do this?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I do,’ and we sat down and talked about not only ideas, but also how to implement those ideas. I asked around and I came up with a few names. Other people came up with some names. We all want the same thing.”
The first meeting was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17. The first meeting was set to be closed to the public, Gardner said, so that the members could get to know each other, though all subsequent meetings would be published and open to the public.
In other business:
The board approved a purchase order for $200,000 for about 5,000 tons of rock salt for the highway department. Highway Superintendent Chris Woznica had originally requested a purchase order of $400,000 for 9,500 tons of rock salt to cover the months of January through April, but because the winter had been relatively mild, the town highway barn is still about half to three-quarters full of rock salt.
“We like to try to keep about 7,000 tons in there at all times,” Woznica said. “This year has been great. We haven’t used any salt, really. But with a couple of nor’easters, I can go through 5,000 tons of salt real quick.”
Woznica was concerned that, if the purchase offer with the company ran out in the middle of a storm or major winter weather event, the town could run out of salt and the company wouldn’t deliver more without a new purchase offer.
“That’s the only reason we go for the blanket,” he said. “If we don’t spend the $400,000 between now and April, it’s not like we don’t have the money. I don’t want to get the town caught short. We’re not spending it; we’re just putting the purchase order in. We put an order in for 2,000, 4,000, 5,000 tons at a time. We don’t order the whole thing at once.”
In the end, the board opted to approve the smaller purchase order.
“It’s just something we want to monitor because of budgetary issues,” Corl said.
The board will be holding work sessions regarding hiring new town engineers and attorneys at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, and 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6.
“It’s our organizational meeting,” Gardner said. “We’re still feeling each other out. That’s why it’s closed to the public. We really want people to come to subsequent meetings with their ideas and suggestions.”
Gardner’s hope is that the committee will truly open up government in the town and beyond.
“I don’t want people to say, ‘I didn’t know there was a public hearing about that,’” she said. “‘I didn’t know this happened.’ ‘I want to see this document and I can’t find it.’ I want people to know where to go to get information. I’d like to see the town pushing information to people.”
