Access to city employees have taken a 180 degree turn-around since the beginning of Mayor Ness' term. A city press release sporting the personal cell phone number of his pick for CFO is the latest example of a growingly open city government.

I began the city beat under former Mayor Bergson. In my experience, he never interfered when I reached out to employees for information and interviews. But that level of accessibility changed when Mayor Ness took office.

Follow up:

Within the first couple of months, a "media policy" was developed that basically advised employees not to talk to the press under any circumstances and report all attempts to the administration.

I can vividly remember setting up an interview with an employee in the Office of Sustainability, going to the interview, only to have it cancelled at the last minute. I was re-directed to Mayor Ness' office for comment instead.

After awhile, most of our interviews, if not all, came from the Mayor's office.

We wondered how long it would last, knowing there was a chance the mayor himself would be bombarded with media requests daily. Sure enough, a couple months ago the press was given a "Media Contact List" of all the department heads and their direct phone numbers, allowing us to call whomever, whenever, for whatever. And now, we are getting cell phone numbers on press releases. Things are looking up, at least in terms of accessibility.