Shawn Beqaj, the vice president for public affairs with Bresnan Communications, toured Montana last week to discuss, among other things, “wideband,” the blazing-fast Internet service that will, in a few years, allow you to download a feature-length film in a few dozen seconds. But I was far more interested in a contract Bresnan recently won from the state to provide it with a new network and whether Beqaj agreed that Montana municipalities remain archaic in this age of information.
On that subject, Beqaj was diplomatic and said his company looks “forward to providing the bandwidth necessary so that the state can become truly leading edge in e-governance.”
Any improvement would be appreciated in the journalism business and several other fields that rely on access to government documents rarely available online. I still really wanted Beqaj to agree with me that all these records should be digitized and our state is a chronic time-waster. He wouldn’t, of course, but then stressed that Montana’s state bureaucracy is eager to improve.
“The principal reason they put the proposal out to bid is to have an advanced network in order to provide modern applications,” Beqaj said.
Good for them. When they can begin using any sort of “advanced network” it will at once reduce frustrations for them and us. I understand that state agencies often have to do more with less and have made great strides in recent years to make its network more user friendly – the recent digitizing and online availability of information about the stimulus money spent on each county is a good example of that.
But I am still dumbfounded that so many public records must be released in hard copy: One example is the records kept for new corporations and limited liability companies. At this paper, we pay for them to be mailed to us each month. We then go through each page with a highlighter and transcribe them onto a Word document. We have an account with the state and when it runs low and we forget to fill it, we aren’t billed, but just won’t receive them. Remember, these are business records that anyone can access by simply asking and paying.
I am not blaming the fine employees at the Secretary of State’s office who provide us these documents, rather the system in which they are confined. I assume officials would use “modern applications” to provide a list of new businesses online if one was provided and, with hope, that’s one of the steps Bresnan will encourage the state to take.
By no means are state municipalities the only ones that seem to inadvertently guard information and then forced to work abnormally hard once they’re asked to dispense it.
The Treasure State Network, a conservative group from Bozeman, has argued that it is hitting mostly roadblocks since requesting copies of county and city government contracts. Many municipalities have answered the request with a canned response that says the group needs to come into each office in person, search public documents themselves and pay 50 cents for the first page and 25 cents each additional page.
That response, whether warranted, leaves each of these municipalities wide-open to criticism. The Treasure State Network has argued that it simply wants to post the contracts online so the public can scrutinize the way in which the government spends money. That raises the obvious question: Why aren’t these contracts posted online already? While the cities and counties are at it, they should also begin posting all court records online and videos of all their meetings. Some already do.
It’s unpleasant on both sides when a reporter, or anyone else, calls a government office several times a day asking for the same information and then grows frustrated when it’s not delivered promptly. Overhauling the system is the first step, and it’s promising to see the state of Montana take it.