Commentary: Despite what Tribune says, West Jordan government acts with transparency

The sun of transparency is in fact shining bright in West Jordan.

The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story and an editorial last month questioning whether cities have adequate “sunshine” or transparency in city council meetings. The story highlighted West Jordan City as holding closed meetings in 93 percent of its regular council meetings. While this is an accurate number, it implies an incorrect assumption.

For instance, if the City Council held less frequent but much longer closed meetings, a lower percentage would result given the Tribune’s calculation method. Perhaps further discovery on how open and transparent West Jordan City actually is to her residents would have provided more accurate and transparent information. The sun can shine both ways. Once a person does some reading of public council meeting minutes, one can see how much sunshine the City Council provides its residents.

Allow me to elaborate with the common topics provided in Utah law for closing city council meetings. First, West Jordan is growing. West Jordan has more homes and businesses being built and moving in than ever before. The city has recently been involved in the sale of several city-owned properties, including the Fairchild building, the former Salt Lake County Library building on 7800 South and vacant land the city owned but surplused. The public very likely received a better value on the sale of these properties through closed negotiations rather than negotiating in the public forum among the various buyers, a concept that is provided for in state law and considered a fiduciary responsibility of elected bodies.

Second, The Tribune indicated the city “lost” department heads. The department heads were not lost. Employers don’t “lose” employees. Employees are generally fired, quit or retire. These “lost” employees to the Tribune were department heads who actually retired after many years of dedicated service. There have also been other personnel matters dealing with the character and competency of individuals which are governed by privacy laws as provided by Utah’s Open Meetings laws. Individuals would not want those discussion to be public.

Last, litigation. West Jordan is nearing Utah’s third most populated city and cities get sued. So we discuss litigation strategies, also for the benefit of our residents. Is it worth it to continue defending the suit? Is it better to settle? Has there been precedence? Where are we headed and do we need to make adjustments to strategy? There is a reason for the court system to work effectively.

So with this information, how does West Jordan provide more sunshine during closed meetings? We provide the general topics discussed in closed meeting and publish them in our public meeting minutes. Simply read our public City Council minutes on the city website and you can see topics and times for topics discussed in closed session.

Can The Tribune find any other Utah public entity that open and transparent with closed meetings? Just imagine, an individual can see what the City Council discuss in closed session in general terms. This can include discussion about Employee #1 for seven minutes, the Maples or Sycamores surplus property sales for 27 minutes and litigation on the Smith case, Jones case among others.

Yes, we and other cities do have closed meetings as provided under Utah State Law. Despite the Tribune article, West Jordan City provides leadership, unparalleled transparency and sunshine of closed meetings in the effort to be as transparent as possible in performing the citizens’ work — work that West Jordan residents can be proud of.

Alan R. Anderson is mayor pro-tem and a member of the West Jordan City Council.