Timely Topic: 'Honest And Open Government' Is Focus Of Detroit Forum

In response to concerns about past Detroit secrecy and abuses, a forum on open government will be held Monday at Wayne State Law School.

Joel Kurth, a Detroit News writer who's painfully aware of the challenges involved, previews the six-hour event:

Monday’s forum on “building an honest and open government in Detroit” at Wayne State University grew out of concerns after the racketeering conviction of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Speakers are expected to include U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, by video, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert.

Part of the focus is on a law called the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), intended to open most public records that don't involve personnel issues, trade secrets or selected other sensitive topics. But hurdles of time and cost can arise, Kurth notes:

Most court records are public, but cost $1 to $2 per page for copies. Records sought through FOIA can often cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and take weeks to receive.
The law allows agencies to charge the salary of the lowest-paid employee to process the request. It also gives agencies five business days to respond and extensions of 10 more for complicated requests. Add in holidays or government furlough days and that can mean about a month.
“Any reform bill on FOIA faces a buzzsaw of opposition from local government entities,” said Michael Reitz, executive vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in Midland that has sued the city of Westland over FOIA fees that require a $5 deposit.

Monday's free discussions on "Why Public Integrity Matters" run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The forum, subtitled “Why Public Integrity Matters," starts at 9 a.m. in Partrich Auditorium, 471 W. Palmer. Fittingly, it's open to the public without cost.

"Detroit needs to make public integrity and accountability the central focus of its governance aspirations,” moderator Bankole Thompson, editor of the Michigan Chronicle, says in WSU's event posting. “What this city has gone through in the last decade should not repeat itself because leaders owe it to the next generation to leave a legacy of integrity."

Attendees are expected to come from business, government, nonprofit groups and foundations, according to the university.

After Holder's opening remarks via live video from Washington, D.C., Detroit Free Press Publisher Paul Anger and other "media stakeholders" will discuss their role of the media in ensuring public integrity and good governance.

Speakers also are scheduled to include: