Communication & Transparency
It's time to bring the District into the modern age with web, email, and social media outreach.
On May 2, 2012, the Half Moon Bay Review published this:
“For years, the San Mateo County Harbor District Commission has operated in a fog. It is one of the few local boards that refuses to videotape or broadcast its proceedings. It requires time-consuming, formal, open records requests for even the most basic information. And through the years it has resorted to a hidden ballot to appoint members to a public trust that the district treats more as a private club.”
In 2010, I requested that Harbor Commission meetings be videotaped. In response, Peter Grenell, Harbor District Manager said, “It is in the best interest of the District not to videotape meetings.” Despite a vote against this recommendation, meetings have not been videotaped so far.
If you want to find the details of what's going on at the Harbor District, you must submit a formal public records request, on paper. Days or weeks later you'll get a response back, on paper. This is in an age where everyone else, even government agencies, are on Facebook and Twitter, and broadcasting on YouTube and Livestream.
It's time for the Harbor District to catch up with the modern world. The website looks outdated by a decade. They don't even publish an email newsletter. These procedures, or lack of them, appear to be obstruction to many observers. A commitment to better communication would go a long way toward earning community trust.
