What Are We Doing?

Comparing transparency (July 28, 2016)

I attended a meeting the other night where Bill McDaniel was griping again about the way Liberty Utilities has been operating. As is true for many such persons, McDaniel knows next to nothing about what actually goes into running a water utilities, but that doesn’t stop him from second-guessing Liberty Utilities.

What should have stopped him, though, was the realization that without full and complete transparency on the part of Liberty Utilities, he would have no idea what to complain about. As it is, everyone has the ability to criticize Liberty Utilities because virtually everything Liberty does is out in the open.

Compare and contrast that to the Town of Apple Valley. At one time, the Town repeatedly stated that it was going to be transparent about the millions it is spending attacking Liberty Utilities. That transparency has proved to be ephemeral at best. The two so-called transparency reports issued by the Town are so riddled with errors (and worse) as to be untrustworthy.

Even those so-called reports have stopped coming out, though, despite multiple assurances to the contrary. To this day, the Town continues to hide costs, and has spent untold thousands in legal wrangling to avoid having to respond to public records requests about this and other topics.

Maybe if McDaniel turned his attention to what the Town is doing behind closed doors, he would find a deserving target for his ire.

— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.