Sunshine Review completes transparency evaluations for all 3,140 counties in the United States
For Immediate Release
Sunshine Review completes transparency evaluations for all 3,140 counties in the United States
Arizona counties edges out California for top transparency ranking, Arkansas holds up the rear with the worst
Chicago, April 2 – The government transparency website Sunshine Review (www.sunshinreview.org), a project of the Sam Adams Alliance, is proud to report that our community of contributors has completed transparency evaluations for all 3,140 counties in the United States. Each county was measured against a 10-point transparency checklist to determine how open and honest they are with the public they serve.
“Every county in the nation has a responsibility to make basic information easily available online to the taxpayer,” said Managing Editor, Kristin McMurray. “Sunshine Review has made it simple for counties to understand their responsibilities as we have created the standard for them to abide by.”
The checklist criteria measures if basic information such as budgets, taxes, contracts, and lobbying efforts, as well as information about public officials and administrators, can be easily accessed from the county website.
As a result of the county evaluations, Sunshine Review created a comparison chart detailing the transparency success, and failures of each state, while at the same time giving them an overall ranking. Arizona edged out California for the most transparent counties, while Arkansas is sitting in the cellar with the lowest transparency ranking.
“The Sam Adams Alliance believes that open and honest government is the cornerstone to a successful democracy,” said Sam Adams Alliance President, John Tsarpalas. “A quick look at the comparison of county websites by state chart and it’s obvious that all states have a long way to go before they can claim they are open and honest with the public. Even the states that have the top rankings need to not rest on their laurels and continue to strive for true transparency.
The Sunshine Review community will continue to monitor the transparency efforts of county governments nationwide. We are hopeful that politicians seriously consider these evaluations and if they haven’t already, create transparency projects based on the10-point transparency checklist; so they can one day proudly say they are completely open and honest with the public they serve.
“With the county reviews completed, the Sunshine Review community has begun evaluating the nearly 13,000 school districts in the country,” said McMurray. “We have created a school district transparency checklist that is similar to the county checklist. Sunshine Review believes parents should also easily be able to find information about academic performance and teacher background checks on their school districts website.
Contacts:
Kristin McMurray, Managing Editor
Sunshine Review
312-920-0080 ext 311
Paul Miller, Communications Director
Sam Adams Alliance
312-920-0080 ext 302
312-845-3501 cell
Sunshine Review, a project of the Sam Adams Alliance, was launched in July 2008. In the nine months the site has been active, over 1.5 million pages have been viewed and nearly 18,000 pages have been created. Sunshine Review is an open-wiki source with nearly 400 contributors in addition to full-time and part-time staff members.
