its not compelling to spend my time to go to a Solano County Board of Supervisor meeting. In the case when I can get the time to go at 9:00am on a Tuesday morning, my participation is limited to a public comment, timeboxed to 3 minutes.
A much more effective use of my time is to watch the meetings at a time and format of my convenience, then respond at the next meeting regarding what was previously discussed.

If government built these "open windows" into an open platform, where competition could form to fill individual needs, government procurement may be improved.

A Tungle-like RFP system. This "window of need", can be filled by contractor's through a single state or federal, OR NONPROFIT run IT system. A single system would help streamline away non-value adding administrative red-tape (for more examples see "Forming a Nonprofit in Vacaville, California").