In an action best classified as penny wise and pound foolish, the Westcliffe town trustees have decided to ask voters in the April 6 town election to allow them to publish town ordinances by title only, rather than in their entirety.

 

The motivation—at least on the surface—is to save money.

 

But we contend that there’s a vast opportunity for improper and potentially illegal activity by adding another layer of murkiness to what should be clear, visible and easy-to-understand operations of a local town government. In recent months, here and elsewhere, we’ve seen misdeeds—attempted and real—occur even with plenty of transparency in place. Just think what elected officials might do if that transparency becomes slightly more opaque.

 

What’s additionally troubling is the town’s desire to wrap the whole matter around the issue of saving money. There’s no question that in today’s tough economy, everyone needs to tighten their belts. But in this case, the argument doesn’t hold water.

 

In 2009, the town of Westcliffe spent a grand total of $2,024 to publish all of its mandated legal notices in the Wet Mountain Tribune. Of that amount, just $406.56 was spent to publish the four ordinances adopted by the trustees. Given the town’s total budget of $541,287 for 2009, the publication of ordinances equaled a mere 0.0008 percent of that total. In our estimation, a small price to pay for the citizenry to know of every dotted “I” and crossed “T” of the laws that impact them.

 

In the near future in this space, we’ll give an example of what could go wrong if the trustees fail to publish ordinances in their entirety. In the meantime, the town’s 0.0008 percent solution to saving money is, indeed, penny wise and pound foolish.