Three Republican candidates are seeking their party’s nomination to run for Sully District supervisor. The nominee will be selected April 25, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., at a Firehouse Primary at Westfield High. The winner will face Democrat School Board member Kathy Smith to replace the retiring Michael Frey (R) as Sully District supervisor.
In Fairfax County, the lack of transparency surrounding the deaths of John Geer and Natasha McKenna are fueling a rising level of cynicism about the most accessible level of government — the local level. There are few issues that are more important for us to be discussing than the public’s lack of faith in the institutions that have made our county and country great over the last two centuries. Our lack of faith in our public institutions threatens the legitimacy of our government, and it is critical that elected officials and candidates for office recognize that danger and act to combat it.
The solution to increasing trust between the government and the citizenry is openness, transparency and honesty. Being honest about mistakes, being transparent and providing information before it is demanded, and demonstrating a commitment to inclusion and the willingness to listen is the only way we can begin to restore trust in government.
Today, more than ever before, government has the tools to make our political processes and our way of governing more open and transparent. The internet gives us the ability to place a nearly limitless amount of information at the fingertips of the public, and through social media like Twitter, Facebook and other sites, those within government have unprecedented access to their constituents.
Information is power. Giving citizens the information they need to make an informed decision empowers them and makes us all feel more confident, even when mistakes are made.
The Geer and McKenna cases are perfect examples. In each case, someone lost their life through the actions of Fairfax law enforcement. And, unfortunately, in both cases, facts were slow to trickle out. After attempts to limit the amount of information available, a significant amount of information was released in the Geer case, but by then the damage to the reputation of Fairfax County and our highly professional police force was done. In the McKenna case, it took months for a more than cursory explanation of the death of a 37-year-old mother in the custody of the Fairfax Sheriff’s Department. What has been revealed, that McKenna was tasered four times while restrained, raises as many questions as the information released has answered.
This is unacceptable. No matter how bad the facts appear or what mistakes may have been made — if any — the public has a right to know what happened, and law enforcement deserves the ability to explain and defend their actions.
When I served on the Electoral Board, I made transparency a priority. Elections have always been controversial, and the inevitable charges of ballot stuffing, voter suppression, voter fraud and the like swirl around every race, especially those that are close. Knowing this, and knowing how attention is often focused on Fairfax, the largest jurisdiction in Virginia, we made it a priority to get as much good information out to the public as quickly as possible. When a perfect storm of human error and mechanical breakdowns caused concerns during the 2013 General Election, we quickly communicated with the public to provide solid information and assure voters everything was being done to ensure the security and accuracy of the election. That included our board putting every recount-related document on our website, as well as writing and publishing a detailed report about all the events and issues that were raised and explaining our rationale for the decisions we made.
At the same time, we engaged voters directly via the news media and social media to give them the chance to ask questions, probe our answers and learn more about the process. What we did, and the success we had doing it, is a model for how open, transparent and responsive government can work.
We must restore trust and faith in our public institutions at all levels. Fairfax County has given itself a black eye by not being transparent in the Geer and McKenna cases, and we must not allow that to happen again. Citizens deserve to know what is happening inside the halls of government, and the best way to ensure mistakes are corrected is the cleansing power of sunlight. Officials at every level of government must make transparency and open government a priority.