Promote transparency via video- Win cash and prizes!

The Sam Adams Alliance’s Voter Integrity Project is offering $1,000 in cash plus flip cam prizes for shockingly good videos that demonstrate citizen activists’ efforts to protect the integrity of the voting process. From VIP’s Ballotpedia page…

The contest’s scope is broad. VIP is looking for both ideas and action, both theory and practice. Acceptable submissions include (but are in no way limited to):

* Rants or demonstrations on how election fraud threatens the democratic process
* Documented instances of election fraud in practice or other suspicious election-related activity
* Any combination of the two

Thinking outside-the-box, being creative and showcasing talents are all highly recommended. One might dress up, go out in public, dance, sing a song, or present a short narrative. Those with more serious personalities may video their vote, ask voters questions about the election process, or document a poll-watching experience. Perhaps even some real investigative work. Ultimately, anything that helps protect the integrity of voting.

The deadline is November 25, 2008. Now get to work on those videos!

Good luck!

Investigate Chicago Vote Fraud, receive a zeroed-out budget

Apparently, Chicago Ward 50′s alderman Bernie Stone is going public with his lust for political payback against Inspector General David Hoffman. At a recent budget meeting, Stone threatened to zero-out Hoffman’s department budget in response to his prosecution of Stone’s ward superintendent for issues relating to vote fraud.

The Tribune reports:

Hoffman’s office started to investigate 50th Ward vote fraud after getting tips following Stone’s narrow 2007 runoff re-election over challenger Naisy Dolar.

The probe ended up with Cook County prosecutors charging Stone’s 50th Ward Supt. Anish Eapen with official misconduct, absentee ballot fraud and mutilation of election materials. Prosecutors alleged Eapen, a member of Stone’s political organization, used his influence to manipulate absentee voters and, in one instance, mark a citizen’s ballot to gain votes for Stone.

Absolutely outrageous. Of course, Eapen pled not guilty to the charges. I hope he’s working on a deal that drags more Chicago vote fraud out into the sunshine.

In other Chicago corruption news, the Sun-Times reports that 44 new investigations were started July-September 2008, in contrast to only 8 in the same quarter in 2007.

The 44 probes last quarter included 10 allegations of falsified employment records, six claims of misuse of county property, malfeasance by Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office and a complaint of bribery.
…
And the Sun-Times reported this week that an investigation found county purchasing agent, Carmen Triche-Colvin — who’s husband, State Rep. Marlow Colvin is county president Stroger’s best friend — violated county policies for awarding contracts and used a fax machine in violation of federal law.

Let’s hope that these investigations lead to punishment for any wrongdoing, fraud, and misuse of public trust, but also serve as deterrents to people desiring to continue along the old Chicago Way of doing business.

Oklahoma: Transparency in schools needed, not more cash

A friend of mine that is a school superintendent always grumps and grouses when I push him to open up his school’s books to taxpayers. He’s generally a good government guy, and has even lobbied for sunshine legislation in other areas, but seems to have a real problem with demands for school transparency. My argument to him is always this: Using our education dollars wisely, including through competitive bidding and purging wasteful expenditures, increases the value each student receives through those tax monies. More efficiency = more dollars in classrooms = better education for the next generation of leaders. Apparently, I am not the only one that feels this way.

Yesterday, an editorial titled “Money grab: Millions more won’t satisfy union” ran in The Oklahoman, calling out the Oklahoman Education Association for pushing through the HOPE ballot initiative. This initiative would, according to Ballotpedia.org, “amend the state constitution and require the Legislature to fund public education to at least the per-pupil average of neighboring states.” That would mean a huge increase in education spending for the state of Oklahoma.

More money is great, right? Well, not so fast.

Groups like Oklahomans for Responsible Government, Americans for Prosperity-OK, The OK State Chamber, and the American Federation of Teachers as well as many legislators and newspapers have come out against the initiative because they say it would bankrupt the state and put existing projects and proposals on the chopping block. Another, very important reason these groups are in opposition is because Oklahoma does not currently require transparency in education dollars, leaving taxpayers in the dark on how their money is spent now. No new transparency will be required with the new proposal- just more money.

The Oklahoman editorial sums it up well: (I’m borrowing liberally- hope the ed board doesn’t mind…)

Supporters want to raise the per-pupil spending in Oklahoma to the regional average at an estimated cost of $850 million annually. Organizers say the extra money will come from growth revenue. But it seems much more likely that the change would require tax increases, starving other public services. No doubt voters will be hearing more about that in the next two years, and they should listen.

Everyone wants public schools to have what they need. Education is vital to our state’s future well-being. But more money is not a guarantee that teachers will have needed supplies, that the best teachers are in the classroom or that students will get a better education. And no matter how much money schools get, union officials won’t ever think it’s enough.

If the OEA wants more credibility, they need to be open to taxpayers. If they need suggestions on how to do this, check out the Texas Budget Source and the North Dakota Policy Council‘s Sunshine on Schools.

Read unbiased information about the OEA HOPE ballot initiative here.

Land of the cheese, home of the brave

This past weekend I had the opportunity to meet some of the awesome Wisconsin blogging community at SamSphere Milwaukee, which was co-hosted by Americans For Prosperity-Wisconsin. SamSphere is a project of the Sam Adams Alliance, which seeks to recruit, train, and connect free-market bloggers in hopes they will work together to enact local change. Some of this change occurs through highlighting corruption or a lack of transparency.

Check out some local bloggers with a history of shedding some light on government actions:
Wigderson Library & Pub
No Runny Eggs
Badger Blogger Alliance
Badger Blogger
Wake Up America
Conservative Young Professionals of Milwaukee
Washburn’s World

There are many others… if you know of some good ones, list ‘em in comments. Thanks to everyone that participated and helped with SamSphere- can’t wait to come back up!

John Tsarpalas on Fausta’s Blog Talk Radio Show

Fausta’s Blog hosted John Tsarpalas, the COO from the Sam Adams Alliance, on her blog talk radio show yesterday. The pair had a great discussion that covered capitalism in current events, the role of bloggers in communicating the truth about today’s political environment, as well as the SAA’s projects Ballotpedia, Blogivists, Judgepedia, our very own Sunshine Review, and much more.

Go check it out here!

Victory! Local activist makes court transparent

Local Oklahoman activist David Starkey won a battle for transparency this week when judges in Rogers County will once again allow the public into courtrooms. Starkey had documented several instances of the public turned away, including where District Judge Dwayne Steidley had posted a sign that said “Only Defendants are allowed in the court room. Family and friends must stay in the hallway.” In other words, Taxpayers: I’ll send ya the bill, but don’t expect any access to justice.

Starkey, who has a long list of grievances regarding the Rogers County courts, started a website www.rogerscountygrandjury.com to document abuses of power and other court-related issues.

The Oklahoman picked up the story:

The closed-door practice isn’t confined to Steidley’s courtroom. Next door, during a criminal docket Wednesday, a sheriff’s deputy said Special Judge Erin Oquin would have to approve any party other than attorneys before entering.

The Rogers County policy left one open government advocate aghast.

“That is unbelievable,” said Joey Senat, past president of Freedom of Information Oklahoma and an associate professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University.

Presiding Judge Dynda Post ordered Judge Steidley’s sign down and scheduled a meeting to make sure judges are allowing the public into courtrooms.

Thank you, David Starkey and other activists, for helping to make these courts more transparent. One small victory for Rogers County… one giant leap for taxpayer access.

IG discovers stench in Chicago sanitation dept

Chicago is often called “The City that Works,” but according to a report by Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman, that title should not necessarily include the city’s sanitation department.

It only takes a quick review of the day’s headlines to know it’s going to be another bad, bad day for Mayor Daley, who is on the cusp of releasing a city budget that is an estimated $420 million in the red.

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial: Trashing the taxpayers

For years, the Daley administration has used city jobs in Streets and Sanitation to reward political workers. The bloating comes with a price, and now we know it — about $21 million a year. That, according to the inspector general’s report, is the total when you add up the money spent on the city wages for no work, plus other lost savings.

That’s $21 million Chicagoans pay every year for nothing.

Chicago Tribune: Your tax dollars at work

Like his father, he has bought labor peace during his 19-year tenure, in part by not demanding an end to such wasteful nonsense as the three-man garbage crew; many suburbs deploy one-man trucks. Now comes elaborate proof that the mayor’s garbage operation is a costly scam on taxpayers… With budget dollars tight and taxpayers furious with every level of government, maybe Daley finally will attack systemic cheating like this rip-off by garbage workers. He’ll never have a better excuse to downsize these three-man crews.

Shockingly (NOT!), union leaders are already crying foul, offering up a conspiracy theory that claims Mayor Daley is in cahoots with the Inspector General in an attempt to justify cutting sanitation jobs before Daley’s big red budget release.

Chicago Sun-Times: Garbage crews ‘paid to do nothing’ city surveillance finds

Lou Phillips, business manager for Laborers Union Local 1001, said it’s no accident that Hoffman issued his report at a time when hundreds of laborers are targeted for layoffs to ease a budget crunch.

“Sounds a little bit like a witch hunt to me. They’re laying off 1,080 people. Over 300 are members of Local 1001. Read between the lines,” he said. “It could be a downed truck. It could be between loads. There’s a number of different situations” that could cause down time.

Downed truck. Truck between loads. Right, right, right…

Read the full report for yourself- and prepare to be disgusted.

Buckeye starts naming names on transparency pledge

The Buckeye Institute of Ohio continues its call for transparency, asking 1,400 candidates for office to sign their transparency pledge. The meat of the pledge cites specific objectives for transparency in every level of government.

I acknowledge and state that, at a minimum, the following items must be maintained on a Web site operated by each government entity:
• Financial data shall include all contracts, the checkbook register, all budgets, collective
bargaining agreements, payroll, all financial audits, and all taxes, fees and other revenues
collected by each government entity.
• Administrative data shall include, with sufficient advance time to comply with notice
requirements and to be useful to the citizens served, notices of meetings and agendas, with
supporting documentation; minutes of meetings, both in draft and approved form; contact
information for elected and appointed officials, including email contact information;
performance audits; a database of voting records; ethics, lobbying and conflict of interest
disclosures.
• Public records process data shall include a public records policy, a record retention schedule,
contact information for public records response personnel, and any forms used, in addition to
regular reports on response times, completeness and other public records performance data
such as number of requests made.
• Jurisdiction and compliance data shall include any relevant constitutions, charters,
intergovernmental agreements, bylaws and other fundamental documents.

Check out Buckeye’s Ohio Sunshine wiki to see the candidates vowing to show you how they spend your money.

Too much of a good thing… is a good thing.

I was perusing the new and fabulous Open Illinois blog when I came upon a post describing the bullying tactics Ridgewood High School District 234 is using against Riccardo A. Mora of Norridge, Illinois. Mr. Mora’s offense? Too many FOIAs, that is, he requested 21 Freedom of Information requests since February 08.

“I decided to investigate, gather facts and quotes from reliable sources…[and present] that information to my neighbors for their consideration,” says Mora.

Mora requested numerous items from the school district, including expenditures, capital plans, audits, and notices. He is interested in seeing just how the district spends taxpayers’ money prior to a November vote that will determine whether property taxes will increase to fund the schools.

Wow- using public information gathered from the school district to become informed on a bonding-type issue seems… radical? The school board apparently thought so, as they retained the services of the Schartz, Lipton and Taylor law firm of Chicago to deal with Mr. Mora’s FOIA requests. The firm sent a letter letting Mr. Mora know they are keeping an eye on him.

Your numerous FOIA requests demonstrate that you are mis-using FOIA as a vehicle to address personal issues rather than public interest…The use of FOIA to further a personal rather than public need is clearly an abuse of the Act…We are writing at this time to make you aware that we will work closely with the District to scrutinize and future FOIA requests propounded by you upon the District to insure they are within the spirit of the Act.

Read the rest of the law firm’s letter here.

Mis-using FOIA? What is the purpose of the Freedom of Information Act? Well, in Illinois, the purpose can be found in Section 1:

Pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of government, it is declared to be the public policy of the State of Illinois that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees consistent with the terms of this Act. Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest.

(emphasis mine)

Sounds like Mr. Mora is doing exactly what the Act was designed to enable- citizen activism and oversight. Here’s an idea: Ridgewood High School District 234 should volunteer to be more open with taxpayers, so FOIAs aren’t necessary to see how their tax dollars are spent. (See the Sunshine Review transparency checklist for ideas.)

Furthermore… schools should consider teaching children how to petition their government through FOIA requests as a way to bring civics back into the classroom. This would promote citizen involvement and allow more people to keep and eye on what’s happening behind the doors of government. After all, Responsible Citizens = Responsive Government.

Feedback Needed: Kentucky Open Door

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is requesting feedback on the state’s new transparency site, Kentucky’s Open Door. Gov. Beshear created the site through executive order, but likely followed the lead of visionary Secretary of State Trey Grayson. The deadline for comments is October 17th.

Experiencing some writers block?

Shop for ideas on Sunshine Review’s Transparency Checklist or check out Americans for Tax Reform‘s outstanding proposals here.

H/T: ATR

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