Seven months after the chairman of the Nashua Police Commission said that the board’s agendas and meeting minutes would be posted on the city’s website like other city boards, it has yet to happen.

But it’s not for lack of desire, according to Commission Chairman Thomas Pappas. Rather, it’s a shortage of technology workers in the police department that is causing the holdup, Pappas said in an interview with The Telegraph, noting that two of the department’s three IT workers left in the spring.

To us, that sounds an awful lot like an excuse, more than a reason.

We could understand, perhaps, if the delay were a matter of weeks – or even a few months, perhaps. But seven months suggests a decided lack of will on the part of commissioners to make their meeting agendas and records as available to the public as they could be.

Supporting that viewpoint is the fact that the commission previously held its meetings at 7:30 a.m., which some saw as evidence that the commission was purposely trying to avoid public scrutiny. To its credit, the board has since moved its meetings to 6 p.m., which is more convenient for the public, and meeting minutes are available to anyone who requests them from the police department. It’s good to know that the minutes exist, but having to request them is so … 20th century.

Another reason the chairman’s explanation sounds kind of hollow is that posting agendas and meeting minutes online doesn’t exactly require the wholesale re-invention of the Internet. In fact, the act of putting documents out there for the world to see is usually a relatively simple, user-
friendly process accomplished by millions – millions – of people every day. (Ask any middle schooler how difficult it is, and they’ll probably laugh at you). Frankly, it just shouldn’t be that hard to get this done, and if commissioners and the police department really wanted it to happen, it likely would have by now. Other departments with considerably fewer resources than the police department have somehow managed to pull it off.

Pappas and Deputy Police Chief Andrew Lavoie told The Telegraph that the information should be online and will be, as soon as it’s practical, though that makes it sound like it could be seven weeks or another seven months.

We suggest the department stop trying to reinvent the Internet and instead take the easiest possible path to getting comprehensive minutes online and connected to the city’s website. We think they should shoot for Dec. 1 to make it happen. It is, after all, the public’s information and the meeting minutes should be more than just a perfunctory synopsis. They should reasonably reflect – in as much detail as necessary – the discussions that take place at the meetings to give people a reasonable idea of how decisions are arrived at.

If commissioners need further encouragement, perhaps they should be reminded about the importance of transparency by Gov. Maggie Hassan, since Nashua police commissioners are appointed by the governor. Aldermen should feel free to chime in here, too, since they have a say in the department’s budget.

We hope none of that will be necessary, but in this day and age, there’s no excuse for such a long delay for something so commonplace.

It’s not like they’re rolling out a new health care system or something.

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