CITY HALL: San Diego launches new open-government section on website

(CNS) – A new open-government section of the city's website
went live this week and will include notices, agendas, the minutes of public
hearings and other documents required to be made public by voters or City
Council members.

Among the information that voters required to be posted in recent
propositions are lists of pension payments to retired employees and
construction contracts worth more than $25,000.

Residents also can get information on lawsuits, capital improvement
projects, public employee pay and labor agreements. Those items were added by
the City Council.

Much of the information was already online, but it will now all be
organized in the open-government section.

“The public has a right to know what their government is doing and
why,” Mayor Bob Filner said. “This information will help make it easier for
the public to participate and find documents.”

The change comes during Sunshine Week, March 10-16, which promotes open
access to government information.

Filner stressed that knowledge is power.

“I learned from experience what knowledge and action can do in making
the world a better place back in the 1960s, and it's a theme that has carried
through my entire political career,” Filner said. “Knowledge is power and it
can change the world.”

The website is sandiego.gov/opengov.