By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – January 10, 2021 It doesn't seem all that long ago that the citizens in this Country were viewed as the employers and the government was considered the employees. At least that is what the founders of this once great nation assumed would be the dynamic if this new form of government had any hopes of surviving. The government at the national level was meant to be small, with only a very few tasks to accomplish, the States not much more. When I view either, it is impossible to characterize them as "small". With National budgets running in the trillions and State budgets in the Billions nothing about government in the United States can be considered small. At the local level we seem to be following the example of the National and State governments and along with it an alarming trait, lack of transparency. While I wouldn't even speculate about the process for learning about how National and State agencies operate or the complex nature of how they spend their allocated funding, it should be much simpler to access what people in government at the local level do and how the money is spent. Yet, when I view our County's government, or even the City's, an even smaller one, I immediately become aware of a complex arrangement of Boards, Authorities, and Councils that are responsible for overseeing not a few hundred thousand dollars , but millions. That would appear to be for most folks a tremendous obligation for those as our representatives to assure the taxpayers that the money was spent wisely. As governments have abused the trust of those employers over the years, an increasing call is being made for those asked to represent us to be more transparent. It doesn't appear that the message has been received all that well as we continue to be rewarded constantly with glimpses of regular government malfeasance. I think that the original concern by the founders of the United States, was as government grows, transparency wanes. For a period of time we depended on the good offices of the local press to be inquisitive enough to keep at least superficially the government on the straight and narrow, but with continued growth and the deterioration of news services, that has been missing for some time. We seem particularly afflicted with it for many years now, and it will likely get worst unless we demand accountability from our Boards, Councils, and Authorities. We can no longer assume we are getting the best government money can buy, because it simply isn't true. Unless we have a more informed electorate, we will continue to have scoundrels spending taxpayer money in ways that benefit only the scoundrels. I say this because it has become an onerous task, just to get public information that should be freely available to anyone who requests it. Not only have local agencies been shy about revealing public information, but in many cases out right refusal to assist has become more common. While that in its own right doesn't mean something's up, history of abuses over the last twenty or more years should raise a few eyebrows. Not only that, but when discrepancies have been revealed, nothing happens, and its all chalked up to "honest mistakes", if it even graces the public view. Growing governments seem to equate to lessening of transparency, something to consider in our case at the local level.