Transparency

Building trust in government and increasing understanding of the city process

Transparency in government occurs when citizens can understand the how, what, and why in government processes. Since many people are skeptical of government processes and at times frustrated by the complexity of these processes, taking time to explain the process and purpose of government work to the community can help improve citizens’ trust in government.

Transparency For Complaint Aversion

In one instance, local arts writer Ed Fuentes criticized DCA’s public artwork at LAX as being inaccessible to the public due to the airport’s high security. The writer expressed a common sentiment critical of government’s lack of inclusiveness by claiming the art was only semi-public.

Working with DCA public art staff, DCA’s social media manager learned about the programming process and mission and used the @Culture_LA Twitter account to neutralize the situation by first acknowledging the inquirer’s question and then explaining the reasoning and mission of DCA’s public art programming at LAX.

 We stated the purpose of our programming by specifying our intended audience.

Ed Fuentes agreed with this explanation. This concluded the inquiry thread.

Explaining the reasons behind the design of a public art program, DCA’s response mitigated an upset constituent. In this instance, the direct and open channel of communication provided by social media allowed a citizen and an arts writer to raise a concern for DCA’s work and, as importantly, provided an opportunity for DCA to respond to his concern and clarify the purpose of its programming. This kind of dialogue is critical to building citizens’ trust in government and eventually increasing participation and effectiveness of programs.

Recommendation:

Listen closely and daily to citizens’ inquiries and concerns about government programming and process. Work with DCA’s divisional staff to come up with a response that thoughtfully and patiently informs citizens and increases their understanding of government programming and process.

Live Tweeting To Involve Those Who Are Not Present

Live tweeting informational workshops can be an effective way to increase constituents’ understanding of DCA’s programming and process. It extends the knowledge transmitted beyond physical interactions at a workshop into the digital sphere of social media. The City of Los Angeles is geographically vast. Using social media helps provide information access points for constituents who work and live in remote locations.

DCA live tweeted a Grants Workshop that took place in Echo Park on August 1, 2014. After the workshop, @Culture_LA published all of the information posted at the event and supplementary materials.

The event itself was designed to clarify the grant application process and the live tweeting brought the discussion online and further opened the discussion. Live tweeting a workshop may not replace physical interactions at a face-to-face meeting, but it may increase the baseline understanding of programming and encourage those interested to follow up with face-to-face interactions with department staff.

In one hour, live tweeting the grants workshop from @Culture_LA produced:

50 Tweets

18 Retweets

20 Favorites

12,419 people reached

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Recommendation:

Work with DCA divisional staff to coordinate live tweeting at informational events. Identify workshops based on their content and potential audiences. Gather workshop materials before and after the event to complete the information loop. Whenever possible, work with divisional staff to feed questions from Twitter to the physical workshop space to create continuity between the digital and face-to-face interactions.