Transparency

What should government transparency look like?

If residents in Kenosha wanted to stay up to date with what is happening in city government and policies that are being considered that directly affect them, they would need to monitor the Kenosha dot org website, find the schedules meetings, read through each meeting agenda, try to understand what the agenda points were and what each meant, maybe search some terms from the agenda online, read attached pdfs for the agenda. To stay informed, each resident would be required to do this each week, indefinitely… and it’s a lot.

There has to be a better way to keep residents briefed on the details without requiring them to understand all the terminology as well as spending several hours reading every single document. It’s inefficient and seems unnecessary.

If the city could provide breakdowns and summaries that was digestible in 10 minutes, this could help solve the problem.

In 2024, the city of Kenosha signed an NDA (non disclosure agreement) that kept plans to build a data center here in the city a secret. Land was annexed from Paris, WI and the land was rezoned. It seems like many people didn’t know about the plans until November 2025 when it was reported in the news. This data center stands to negatively impact our environment, our utility bills, and our health, so why wasn’t more information shared with the public earlier? Whether the omission was intentional or accidental, investing in more transparency in governmental operations can ensure that people are able to stay informed so they can provide timely feedback on the policies that will impact them.

In addition, the city and the common council should not be allowed to sign NDA’s with corporations which effectively prevent them from sharing vital information about projects with their citizens. Elected officials are representative of the constituents they serve, and NDA’s are a barrier to effectively fulfilling the obligation.