by Jefferson County Administrator Jim Moore
comments open from November 16 until December 5

Transparency in government kills apathy. That’s my firm belief and reason for my optimism. Forums like this blog and other social media encourage citizens to become involved in shaping decisions that affect their lives. Citizens’ collective and individual voices reach decision makers with as much clarity and pointedness as a message delivered by a lobbyist. For the first time in history, we have the technological ability to conduct mass, multi-party, two-way conversations between government officials, elected leaders and citizens. Now, if we don’t involve citizens in government, it’s because we don’t want to.

In my 35-plus years of public service, I’ve never been so encouraged by the opportunities for better government than now. I am hopeful because I see a national appetite for transparency marking the beginning of a shift in the way we do representative democracy. The days of back room deal-making are soon to be gone. Forever. We are connected. Citizens now have the opportunity, and indeed the responsibility, to participate more fully than was possible just a couple of years ago.

Soon, transparency and increasing levels of citizen involvement will be a fundamental expectation of government at every level. This is good, because the end result will be better government. So thank you for taking the time to become involved. I encourage you to check out our Citizen Input Town Hall meetings information on Transparent Jeffco. We will be having more of those in the future, so watch for those announcements.