Schweyer's Plan for Allentown
Reform Editorial

> Reform Must Continue at Every Level of Government

Every now and again, Americans choose to drastically alter the direction of our government. There is little doubt that 2006 will go down as one of those years. It is important to note that although not typical, this is not a new phenomenon.

In 1994, Americans bought into the GOP's Contract with America which ended 40 years of Democratic control in the United States Congress. In 1992, it was the "economy, stupid" that influenced American's enough to end 12 years of a Republican-controlled presidency.

This year, the War in Iraq and the pay raise in Harrisburg were enough to strike the collective nerves of Pennsylvanians. I suspect, however, that those macro issues alone were not enough to create the tidal wave of anti-incumbency that swept away 25% of the Pennsylvania State Legislature and dozens upon dozens of federal officeholders.

Bribery scandals (see Senator Conrad Burns and Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham) and reprehensible sexual assault accusations (see Congressmen Mark Foley and Don Sherwood) took center stage during the 2006 election cycle. But what was more disheartening to the majority of voters was the blatant lack of respect for the rule of law.

Government cover-ups of powerful men convinced voters that not only were there bad people who needed to be voted out of office, but the way government business was conducted needed to be changed.

As a result, candidates across Pennsylvania had to address fundamental questions about the way government works. On the federal level, people demanded increased Congressional oversight and lobbying and ethics changes. On the State level, voters were interested in re-examining late-night session and the influence of powerful lobbyists.

Hopefully our federal and state lawmakers will recognize this call for change and take it quite seriously. I truly believe that they will.

However it is just as important for our local elected leaders to recognize that this year's election results were also an indictment on the way local government works. People want a more open and honest government - in the Halls of Congress as well as in city halls.

Let's look at Allentown. Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania, by far the most populous municipality in the Lehigh Valley, and the primary economic engine for our region. One would imagine that an average voter could look up email addresses for their councilmen.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.

At the time when I wrote this editorial, committee meeting minutes are non-existent on the web. Don't even begin to look for proposed legislation on its website - you won't find it.

In examining other municipal websites in the region, the results were similar (that is, for the ones that bother to have a presence on the World Wide Web). My point is this: our local governments need to move into the 21st Century so that they can be more open, more accessible and more responsive to the concerns of their constituents.

I strongly feel that the vast majority of people who serve in elected office do so because they believe in a sense of civic duty and have a real desire to improve their community. However, I do know that they have to take steps towards reform in order to ease the minds of citizens who are concerned about the state of democracy.

I have some simple suggestions.

1) Make municipal websites more user-friendly. They should include a basic outline of the government's structure and the names and contact information for appointed and elected officials.

2) Upload committee meeting schedules, meeting minutes and proposed legislation on the web.

3) Candidates for local public office are required to disclose the source of their campaign's funds. The Federal and State governments have searchable, electronic campaign databases; our counties should consider something similar so that voters have greater opportunity to see who have contributed to candidates.

If local governments take these steps, they will demonstrate that they recognize that regular people deserve the fundamental right to know what their government is doing. Furthermore, it will increase opportunities to interact with their elected leaders. This will give average Americans greater confidence in their local government.