In the past month or two, the City of Brady has made great strides toward releasing much more information about City government to the public at their official website. Information that was closely held at city hall in the past is now appearing online in a timely manner. If continued, this trend should reduce citizen hostility and suspicion. It will lead to more efficient and harmonious local government.

This came to our attention when we began looking for budget information for the "2014 Budget Process" article. To our surprise we found comprehensive budget planning documents freely available at the "Document Center" under the Finance heading. Similar planning documents were not readily available to the public for previous budget hearings.

This definite move toward open local government has occurred with no fanfare or personal claim for credit that I am aware of. It is just happening. Take notice and give credit to those responsible.

The document center appears to be newly organized, with few older documents available. Among the most interesting and useful are:

• "Council Packets" under the government heading. These are prepared by City Manager Dale Brown to provide background information and recommendations for each item on the coming agenda. They appear to be posted a day or two before each meeting. Also included in these packets are the minutes of the previous meeting.
• An Electric Rate Study with its' own heading

Hopefully, the "Document Center" will continue to expand. Someone deserves a lot of credit for getting it moving in the right direction.