Mural Artist: Dan Burgevin
Today’s Morning Buzz is by Deb Mohlenhoff, City Manager for the City of Ithaca, New York. Connect with Deb on LinkedIn.
- What I’m Reading: Just finished Demon Copperhead — 5 stars — definitely recommend!
- What I’m Watching: Dept. Q on Netflix — Two episodes in and already addicted.
- What is my Self-Care: Just starting doing a weekly yoga class called Unwind — it’s every Friday after work and a perfect way to de-stress from the busy week.
How’s this for the plot of the next Indiana Jones movie:
An archaeologist stumbles upon the ancient burial grounds of Municipalia — binders and filing cabinets full of agendas, budget documents, and zoning maps. “Let’s open the floodgates!” cheered a council member. “Every memo, every spreadsheet, every email — we owe it to the people!”
The public portal launched with fanfare. Data! Documents! Decades of archived meeting minutes! At first, residents clicked and explored with glee. But soon, they found themselves sinking.
One resident read a line in a budget spreadsheet about “vehicle allocations” and assumed city staff were getting luxury SUVs. Another saw the phrase “operational reorganization” and launched a neighborhood panic about mass layoffs. Journalists misinterpreted internal drafts for final legislative actions.
It was the tar pit of transparency: the more information poured out without explanation, the deeper everyone sank in confusion, misinterpretation, and mistrust. The more the city tried to explain, the more it seemed like they were hiding something.
In the age of 24-hour access live streams and Freedom of Information Act requests that rival the scripts to all five Indiana Jones movies — transparency has become the go-to tool for any local government that wants to build trust. But let’s be real — sometimes it feels less like finding the elusive Holy Grail and more like stepping into a tar pit of despair.
Don’t panic. You’re not alone. As leadership guru Simon Sinek put it in this excellent video on transparency, it’s not about sharing everything — it’s about sharing the right things in the right way. And no, dumping a 600-page budget PDF or a 100-page zoning revision online without explanation is not transparency.
So how do you keep your transparency efforts from sinking into confusion, misinterpretation, and public outcry? Let’s dig in like an archaeologist looking for lost treasure — just not too deep, or we’ll get stuck in a pit full of snakes just like Indiana Jones.
The Temple of Transparency
Like Indy stepping into an ancient temple, city governments often think transparency means flashing every secret vault open all at once. But in his video on transparency, Sinek warns that true leadership transparency isn’t revealing every step, but sharing the map to the treasure — which means mission, vision, and purpose, not every dusty artifact.
For our Common Council, we have developed a template that staff use to provide important context, legislative history of the issue, budget impacts, and staff recommendations. Each memo closes with a “choose your own adventure” section for Council — that explains exactly what their choices are and hopefully focuses the discussion on that decision. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that council members’ votes are the last step in a long journey, not the first. The memos also are great summaries for the public who want to get up to speed on an issue before a final decision is made.
Pro tip: Share what matters — show the why behind your decisions — the golden idols of intention and strategy.
Use Technology Tools (Not Ancient, Dusty Scrolls)
Modern transparency requires tools, not just dusty agenda .pdfs buried on a clunky website. If your city’s “open data portal” looks like an Excel tomb from the ’90s, it’s time to upgrade. Using platforms like OpenGov, Granicus, and CivicSend can turn cryptic budget lines into resident-friendly treasure maps. It’s frustrating to a city manager who wants to provide the data that is requested, but learns it only exists in paper form or in an incompatible File-Maker Pro database from 1995.
Here in Ithaca, we are launching OpenGov as a tool for both staff to input departmental budgets and for Council (and the public) to view real-time financial data and budget reports. Here’s a great link to some case studies that demonstrate how to boost transparency and trust using online tools.
Pro rip: Prioritize spending on enterprise platforms that not only aid in transparency, but make staff more efficient. Also, upgrading your tools doesn’t just make things shinier — it helps your community feel like part of the adventure.
Raiders of the Lost Trust
Indiana Jones might face rolling boulders, but local leaders are constantly dodging a distrust that’s been simmering for decades. Conspiracies, scandals, and broken promises have turned America’s confidence in government into a buried artifact. This environment has made it more challenging for staff to ensure that facts and data remain the center of attention. In an attempt to engage the public in a more intentional way, we piloted a new tool with a participatory budgeting program this year and loved the level of engagement we received.
Pro tip: Find meaningful ways for the public to be engaged in the quest. Create forums, advisory councils, and participatory budgeting programs where even the loudest town hall legend feels like the trusted Templar Knight, and not a cursed idol guardian.
Transparency Is Your Holy Grail
Transparency is not an information avalanche — it’s a principled exchange. Be deliberate. Be clear. Be strategic. Like any great archaeologist, the best leaders know: What you choose to show is just as important as what you keep in the vault.
Eventually, Municipalia found its footing — not by covering things up, but by laying out clear stepping stones: explainers, infographics, community workshops, and “TLDR” summaries. Instead of dumping data, they started guiding people through it.
Final Indy movie plot twist? Transparency is essential — but without clarity and context, it’s not a clear path. It’s quicksand filled with snakes under a rolling boulder.
Choose wisely.