Editorial: Good government needs to engage public

The relationship between government and the governed should be collaborative and cooperative.

After all, we don’t live in a monarchy. Our leaders aren’t — or shouldn’t be — aristocrats born to the privilege of rule.

No, the more local our government, the more familiar the origin story. Borough council members and township supervisors, school board members and even county commissioners started their journeys to office in our neighborhoods and backyards. They taught our kids and owned pizza joints, sold cars and built houses.

And that is why the people and the powerful should be on the same side. The people are the ones who choose their leaders.

Yet some local government meetings can seem more like pitched battles than a give and take of ideas and decisions.

Why? Why do some municipal or school or county governments not just hold the public at arm’s length but treat them like the enemy?

They can refuse to answer questions. They can withhold information. They can utilize malicious compliance in answering Right to Know requests — technically giving a response in the required time frame but without any of the requested information.

They can make public comment periods an obstacle course to be navigated and make public meetings as shrouded in mystery as possible. Consent agendas allow for one vote on a whole raft of measures rather than actually breaking down what public servants are doing with public money and public property.

It’s an idea that distances people from government, making them less likely to participate in their community. That’s tragic, as we need more people to get involved in all levels of government, from just attending meetings to serving on boards and running for office.

The City of Pittsburgh is addressing this with a new department: the Office of Public Engagement.

Council President Theresa Kail-Smith says the point was to “effectively connect residents with city services.” That’s great. People need fewer roadblocks when it comes to navigating those services and more bridges to get them from where they are to where they need to be.

But beyond that, there is a need to reach out to people rather than waiting for them to stretch out a hand first.

What people need is to be efficiently, even enthusiastically, connected with city government, city leaders and civic involvement. They need to be courted for their participation. They need to be invited into the process rather than discouraged by government bodies that make engaging a challenge and a chore.

Maybe the Pittsburgh Office of Public Engagement can be the start of that. But every municipality can look at what its processes are — and whether it is reaching out to people or pushing them away.