We Need Transparency of Government

Tradewinds,

Now, thanks to investigation of a responsible senator, Mr. Barshinger, we finally know what happened with our improvement fund. We did not know that the senate changed the rules of distribution of these funds without informing us.

The question is the transparency of our government. Nobody informs the public and the press about important changes in legislation and rules. If we knew, we would certainly have protested against misuse of our funds.

What did the administration of St. John do? Did they protest and did they mobilize the public? Certainly not. What did our “representative” senator who was in the senate at the relevant time do? Probably nothing.

This lack of transparency of our government explains why all improvement projects take such endless time. Parking belongs to this category. We need parking and many places are occupied by vendors where you can get great bargains: buy one banana for one dollar. Instead, we need parking spaces. This improvement does not need any financing, only good will of incorruptible officials who do not accept donations, no matter how small, from people who misuse our parking spaces.

I would appreciate if our St. John administration responded: what did they do to avoid misuse of the improvement fund, (did they protest and inform the public?) and what they did to free the public space for parking?

Z. Hruza
St. John

EditorÂ’s Note:
Repeated requests by St. John Tradewinds for an accounting of the St. John Captial Improvement Fund elicited the February 2006 release of an updated itemized accounting of the fund after almost a year of effort.