Shedding light on Cape Transit's payroll

Sunshine Week starts Sunday.

While it coincides with spring — or at least some of us hope it does — Sunshine Week refers to open government.

"Information — or transparency — is the enemy of corruption. Corruption feeds and breeds from secrecy and ignorance. It cannot thrive under the light spread by an open, informed society." Before considering the source of this quote, let's consider it the theme of this column.

Missouri State law makes it clear that open government is a value and priority. There's even a Web site, www.ago.mo.gov/sunshinelaw, that translates most of the legalese into simple text.

Basically, state lawmakers agreed that government "meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations" should be public, with few exceptions.

The Sunshine Law helps people measure the accountability of elected or appointed officials.

Every other year, the state attorney general's office offers training for newly elected officials. Next week, I'll share which Southeast Missouri governments have sent people for training.

At the most recent Cape Girardeau Transit Authority meeting, board members finalized pay for newly appointed executive director Tom Mogelnicki. The board also agreed to give some drivers a raise.

The transit authority board meets at Denny's in Cape Girardeau once a month. Each person attending pays his or her own breakfast tab. Board chairman Doug Richards was nice enough to help me move my pancakes to a table out of earshot when the board closed the meeting to discuss pay issues.

They probably didn't have to close the meeting. The results are part of the public record.

Mogelnicki will earn $50,000, but gets no health benefits.

Drivers who have been employed for a year or more are getting a 25-cents-an-hour raise. Driver pay ranges from $7 to $9 an hour and includes tips; they have not been given raises since the transit authority was formed in 2006.

The Sunshine Law allows for privacy regarding "identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment," but there is an exception for officers and employees of public agencies, such as Mogelnicki.

During the open portion of the meeting, Mogelnicki told the board MoDOT is working with the transit authority on promotional items. The state paid to produce 1,000 maps with fees and schedules. New maps will be needed soon, however, as the transit authority will add a third bus route to Cape Girardeau.

Mogelnicki is working with the Cape Girardeau-based Web design company Element 74 to create an online home for the transportation service. Web site visitors will be able to find maps, schedules, rates, employment information and news. He said the Web site could be online by the end of this month, if the weather cooperates. The recent storms have kept his staff hopping to meet increased demand from passengers who want to make grocery store runs or get home from work, he said.

The county transit authority receives funding from fares, federal and state agencies, as well as Cape Girardeau County and the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Today's quote on an "open, informed society" was taken from remarks prepared for the 2004 World Economic Forum in Switzerland by then-U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft.

Meet me at the blog, www.semissourian.com/blogs/mcnichol, for more discussion on Missouri's Sunshine Law.

Questions, suggestions or tips for Lost on Main Street? E-mail pmcnichol@semissourian.com or call 335-6611, extension 127.