Shouting matches at public meetings are not uncommon in Newton. Debates over subjects as mundane as math make national news. At times, observers and participants seem mystified by the assumptions made, accusations thrown, and the ugly name-calling. After the teacher’s strike, the City Council acknowledged the need for “a renewed focus on transparency to the city’s budget, processes, and the roles and responsibilities of key groups within city government.”
Two years before the teacher’s strike, the League of Women Voters Newton (LWVN) began work on a Municipal Transparency and Accountability Report. The report, released on November 18, focuses on improving access to information on the City website. According to LWVN co-president Frieda Dweck, “One of the ways in which we believe the city can achieve greater accountability and transparency is through the improvement of its website; while not an easy fix, also not, we believe, a contentious issue.”
The LWVN report was created for residents searching for information more complex than ‘paying a city bill or reporting a missed trash pick-up.’ The LWVN surveyed community groups and found that the most popular method of finding information was to call contacts at City Hall. In this survey, ‘the transparency of Newton’s government today’ ranked 5.6 out of 10, in large part because of the difficulty accessing information on the City’s website. Survey respondents said:
- On the City’s website, documents are uploaded as PDFs, making documents such as City Council minutes or reports, hard to search by issue and financial spreadsheets impossible to sort.
- Meeting minutes do not attribute comments to the Councilors speaking and do not always include presentations given.
- Information on City department pages varies. Some City departmental web pages describe duties and provide contact information, while others do not.
- There is no overall explanation of how the departments, committees, and commissions work together.
The report offered many suggestions, including:
- Using open data sets to allow residents to see crime statistics like car break-ins, maps of road closures, etc.
- Purchasing off-the-shelf municipal software, like OpenCheckbook or Clear Gov, that allows laypeople to follow the City budget.
- Posting documents, such as Committee minutes, in non-PDF, searchable formats.
- Forming a citizens’ commission on local government transparency to create a plan for improving trust and engagement through greater transparency.
The LWVN report noted the City has been improving its website; for example, the new Docket Tracking System has made it easier to follow an issue through the City Council. Councilor Susan Albright told Fig City News that the docket tracking system is still being improved, with additional links to agendas, reports, and meeting materials for each item.
The LWVN report is similar to, but more expansive than, the City Council’s Community Dialog Working Group (CDWG) recommendation on Transparency: “Ensure that the city budget, including revenue and expenditures, has a clear, approachable summary that facilitates understanding and accessibility. Engage the Comptroller and Finance Committee to assist with creating a small number of visuals that convey the most important aspects of the city’s budget. This work would also include a ‘glossary of terms’.” The LWVN report asks for more. It asks the City to provide easy access to primary data, including, but not limited to, financial data.
The LWVN report and the CDWG both recommend creating easy-to-understand ‘overviews’ or ‘explainers’ on how the City government works, including roles and responsibilities, organizational charts, and budget processes.
Responses by City Leaders
Asked by Fig City News to comment on the LWVN report, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller replied, “The League of Women Voters has provided a valuable service to Newton with their Municipal Transparency and Accountability Report. I’m grateful for their diligent work.” City Council President Marc Laredo said government transparency is of “critical importance,” but that funding to improve the website would have to be balanced against other budgetary needs. Both noted they were looking forward to reading the report.
City Councilor John Oliver, leader of the City Council’s Community Dialog Working Group, said he “loved the idea of using open data sets” and agreed that “transparency is one of the biggest things to work on.”
One Example: Tracking a Cost-Saving Suggestion
To examine the LWVN’s concerns regarding the difficulty of following an issue using the City’s website, Fig City News explored the details and progress of one cost-saving suggestion: moving low-turnout elections to align with state and federal elections:
On March 22, 2024, the BC Heights online newsletter reported that the City Clerk, at the request of Councilor Albright, described to the Programs and Services Committee how moving local elections onto even years with state elections could save the City over $200,000 per election. Fig City News attempted to explore the potential impact and progress of this suggestion and found that:
- The P&S Committee’s online meeting minutes noted that a home rule petition is required and that “Multiple Councilors noted opposition to the proposal,” but it did not identify the Councilors or include their specific comments. The City Clerk’s presentation was not included in the minutes and was not found on the City’s website.
- A search through the City’s online election results revealed that local election turnout is below 30% (as low as 17%), and state/presidential elections are over 75%.
- It was difficult to find the cost of a single election. The City employs 250 election workers per election, and each of the 26 voting locations has a police officer on duty. The voting hours and locations do not change between local and state/federal elections, but the volume of ballots to be managed varies. The Elections Department 2024 budget was $415,084 for three higher-turnout elections. Three elections at $240,000 each would equal $720,000.
- A search through the new Docket Tracking System found two additional election expense requests from the Mayor for the 2024 Election: $15,000 for postage charges and $5,000 for additional salaries required for the Presidential Primary, from a Special Elections Overtime Account. Searching the City website for more information on the Special Elections Overtime Fund produced many unrelated hits. How the Special Elections Overtime Account was funded and how much remains in the fund is unclear.
- The NewTV Gov Channel has a recording of the March 20, 2024, P&S meeting, and that video shows a slide outlining components of the estimated $240,000 cost of a single local election with vote-by-mail, 5 days of early voting, and 60,000 registered voters:
| Seasonal Wages Regular Overtime Work by Other Departments Election Training Stipend Rental/Lease – Property Cleaning/Custodial Services Postage Printing Posters Advertising/Publications Voting Machine Supplies Municipal Ballot Printing Total Cost | $75,000 $7,000 $50,000 $5,000 $2,000 $1,300 $65,000 $1,500 $1,000 $14,500 $18,000 $240,300 |
- The minutes of the November 20, 2024, P&S meeting show that Early Voter (EV) turnout ranged from 4.4% (March 2024 Presidential Primary) to 6.9% (September 2023 Municipal Primary). The Election Commission anticipates 4.5% EV (344 voters per day). Costs were not discussed.
- In the 2024 Presidential election, 44% of Newton voted by mail, 17% in-person early, and 39% in-person on November 5
- The next citywide local election will be March 18, 2025, with two days of early voting. The special election is to fill a vacancy in the Ward 7 School Committee seat, and the next election for the full School Committee, including the Ward 7 seat, will be in the fall of 2025, date to be determined.
- The Docket Tracking System indicates that Docket item #26-24 (“Discussion and possible Home Rule Petition regarding moving Newton’s municipal elections to even years along with federal and state elections”) remains held and has not been brought up again in City Council.
