From Sky-Hi News (Grand County): What makes government transparent?

That answer involves many, many layers of case law, legislation, expectation, ideology, opinion, awareness and even attitude — too many layers, in fact, to deliberate here.

In essence, it’s how expensive fees are for obtaining records, or how well minutes are recorded and kept, or how populated websites are with information, or how emails are exchanged among government officials, or how they conduct business in private, and everything in between. Transparency, or the lack of it, includes what isn’t recorded, or what may be hidden from our view.

It wasn’t easy, but the Sky-Hi News has conducted its first-ever Sunshine Audit in celebration of National Sunshine Week, held this week of March 16-22. The audit involved all incorporated towns in Grand County and Grand County government, as well as four major districts in the county: the two school districts, the hospital district, and the library district. The districts results will be published next week.

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