I think the actions of Mr. Rabhi and Ms. Kaialsapathy illustrate the difference between public officials who sit at the table with neither a sense of curiosity nor a modicum of skepticism. How many local officials have been members of the SPARK Board without questioning that entity’s secretiveness? How many local officials have voted to provide public money to fund SPARK without seeking accountability?

Council member Kailasapathy took the concerns of her constituents to SPARK and demanded release of their audited financial reports. County Board of Commissioners member Rabhi was appointed to the SPARK Board and used that position to seek change in that group’s policies. I hope their efforts with SPARK will inspire other public officials to work for transparency and openness in publicly funded organizations.

But Yousef Rabhi has shown an unusual (in elected officials) willingness to act on this information in order to effect a policy change. There was a great synergy here between citizen action and responsiveness on the part of an officeholder.

Laurels to both.

The other seldom-questioned flipside of this, of course, is the actual data showing the poor results of these public/private economic development schemes. A 2010 Free Press investigation of the MEDC’s 21st Century Jobs Fund found that four years in to that billion-dollar program, only about 1100 jobs had been created.

I’m tired of tax revenues being diverted into these crony-capitalist money pits (with their inflated salaries) or in to various TIF schemes while our school budgets are cut, our infrastructure is neglected, and services that are fundamental to the existence of government are put into the hands of private corporations that only answer to their shareholders.