Transparency in government is a great and rare thing.

It’s rare enough that it’s unmistakable to journalists who usually have to cultivate sources and find alternative routes to information because the powers-that-be are constantly erecting barriers to it. Oh yeah, we know when someone is being transparent.

That’s why it’s so easy to see that Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach’s administration is about as transparent as a 20-ton block of granite.

This has been discussed in this space before and the Colorado Springs Business Journal and Colorado Springs Independent have weighed in, too. A defiant (some say arrogant) City Hall is trying to keep a lid on everything.

Consider these examples:

— media are forced to file requests under the Colorado Open Records Act for routine information.

— the mayor’s office wouldn’t even release the names of applicants for vacancies on the Urban Renewal Authority, then relented under pressure.

— Bach has publicly chided City Council members for talking to the media.

— Bach has refused to release the names of more than half of the people he talks to in official business meetings and he dared the meida to file a lawsuit over it.

All of this makes a mockery of Bach’s campaign promise to “engage with the community to restore trust in City Hall through openness, transparency, and regular two-way dialog.”

Who has the mayor’s ear? He doesn’t want you to know.

Bach has said most people he speaks with don’t want it known that they have done so. This is hardly believable — most people brag when they have access to powerful elected officials.

Besides, if there are people who don’t want us to know they are talking to the mayor, the obvious question becomes “Why is that?”

Bach’s supporters will rally around him and criticize the snoopy news media.

Just remember, it was The Gazette that blew the lid off a City Hall plan to build a grandiose visitors center with a 350-car parking lot in the middle of Garden of the Gods in the 1980s. In the 1990s, The Gazette’s dogged coverage of El Paso County’s pension fund uncovered malfeasance and felonies.

A decade later, The Gazette uncovered a government plan to ship radioactive waste to Canon City.

Remember also the United States Olympic Committee scandal and the foibles of local police agencies in connection with the Hooters liquor enforcement case.

When it came to these stories officials were uniformly uncooperative. It was because they had something to hide.

If you assume the Bach administration’s veil of secrecy is all for the best, you are ignoring history and being incredibly naive.

Transparency is great. The Colorado Springs media would love to see it.

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Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on twitter and Facebook.