By Matthew Hirsch

Sup. Chris Daly introduced the Open Government Ordinance May 25 and forwarded it to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee, setting up what will fittingly be one of the most transparent reviews of any city legislation.

The ordinance, which would provide greater public access to government meetings and records, was drafted and revised over several months of public discussions between community activists and members of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. After the proposed amendments are on file for 30 days at the City Clerk's Office, the Rules Committee will hold another hearing on them before the Board of Supervisors considers sending them for a vote in the Nov. 2 general election.

"I could have just sent these changes to the ballot with four votes [from supervisors], but I thought this item warranted sunshine through the open committee process," Daly said as he introduced the ordinance.

Up on the fourth floor of City Hall where the sunshine task force was meeting that same day, the need to strengthen local government access laws, known as the Sunshine Ordinance, was evident. Each month the task force attempts to resolve complaints about city departments withholding information from the public. Under current laws, however, the task force can only cite violations of the Sunshine Ordinance; it can't actually enforce them.

The Open Government Ordinance would change this by granting a newly formed open government task force or commission the power to compel city officials to appear at its meetings and to disclose documents to the public. Among other changes, it would also expand public access to cover nonprofits receiving more than $100,000 of city funding a year.

Library watchdog Peter Warfield told the task force its inability to enforce prior decisions has allowed the Library Commission to avoid complying with a recent ruling against it. The task force determined last month that the Library Commission failed to give Warfield a draft of the minutes of its March 4 meeting in a timely manner.

To illustrate his point, Warfield distributed a letter with remarks from Library Commission president Charles Higueras, who lambasted the task force at a May 20 commission meeting for not being "fair and balanced." At the meeting, Higueras said he considers it fortunate that the task force lacks authority to enforce its decisions.