A Full Plate as Gavel Is Passed to Wieder : Head of Supervisors Needs Help to Open Government

It ended smoothly enough last week. Supervisor Roger R. Stanton passed the chairman’s gavel to Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder to fulfill the Board of Supervisors’ custom of rotating the chairmanship each year among its five members. Stanton downplayed tensions reported by The Times over his apparent effort to hold onto the chairmanship for an additional year. So now, on with the show.

Indeed, the board has enough serious problems on its plate, with persistent budgetary headaches, increasing demands for social services and more, that it can ill afford to have such backstage problems distracting it. Wieder will have a chance to relay how she sees those important substantive issues when she gives her opening address on the state of the county on Jan. 26.

But the approach to government is set early on. One area where Wieder already has vowed to do better is in open government, the very issue brought to the surface by the reported Stanton power play, which he denied. The succession flap highlighted the board’s modus operandi, which is basically to build consensus for a decision behind the scenes, and then come to the public with an uncontested decision. The supervisors need to do more of their business in public in 1993 and beyond.

It is the public’s business after all, and there is no need to shield ordinary citizens from any fireworks resulting from disagreement. Wieder last year made some colleagues angry by publicly questioning the consent calendar, which gives supervisors a chance to pass dozens of items quickly. But more of this business needs to be conducted openly.

In 1990, the board suddenly canceled a scheduled vote on a controversial proposal to mandate automated sprinklers in all new homes, and developers had opposed it. Now, three years later, the issue never has come back before the board and never been debated publicly. The public deserves better, and Wieder’s pledge to improve on open government is a hopeful start.

There is, too, a public educational function the legislators should be exercising. Too many decisions backstage keep ordinary citizens from becoming interested and involved in county government and informed on important issues, whether about health care, the courts or the jails.

There is no suggestion of violating the state’s open meetings law, but it’s the spirit that counts.

When supervisors, and supervisors’ aides, regularly decide important business through telephone calls, and through the exchange of a kind of courier system of evaluating proposals, the public loses out.