Since his inauguration, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh has promised to increase accountability and transparency for city services and his administration.

In his “state of the city” speech late last month, Walsh said he wanted to “deliver on our promise of accountability.” Walsh, at the time, said the city would create an Office of Accountability, Performance and Innovation and stream Common Council meetings online, beginning in April.

“You will be able to see and hear government happening from wherever you are,” Walsh said in the address.

The API office will act as a new performance management system, Walsh said, and it “will drive continuous improvement in quality, customer-focused city services.”

Through the office, the city will host “accountability meetings.” Those meetings will be held in the iLab, formerly the SyraStat room in City Hall, and will be open to the public.

SyraStat was a financial and performance management program created in 2002 and implemented by former Mayor Matthew Driscoll, according to WRVO Public Media.

The Syracuse city website has not been updated to include the API office under its list of departments. The exact timeline for its creation is unclear.

Walsh stressed that holding city government accountable is important during his mayoral campaign, promising accountability for police, the Syracuse Land Bank, code enforcement and City Hall, in his platform.

The Common Council faced scrutiny after unanimously appointing Michael Greene to a vacant at-large seat, which some said illustrated a lack of transparency from city government, according to WRVO. The appointment was not a matter of public record, WRVO reported.

“Because I wasn’t elected by the people I want to make myself really transparent and open to people who want to come and talk to me about their ideas,” Greene said, according to Syracuse.com.

Common Council meeting streams should be up and running by the city budget sessions this spring. The council usually meets weekly, but during budget season, it meets daily.

A grant will help upgrade technology in the Common Council chambers. Since cameras and sound equipment will be installed soon, anyone with internet access should be able to stream the meetings online.

Per the New York Department of State’s Committee on Open Government, “open meetings of an agency or authority shall be, to the extent practicable and within available funds, broadcast to the public and maintained as records of the agency or authority.”

“Folks have a real habit of saying, you don’t do anything,” Common Council President Helen Hudson told WRVO. “So they’ll have a real opportunity to see that we sit there and go through hundreds of agenda items every session.”

Hudson was appointed president in November 2017 and Greene filled her vacated seat last month.

Published on February 19, 2018 at 10:26 pm

Contact Jessi: jmsopori@syr.edu