A few moths later in July 2009, the filed suit in the Cook County Circuit Court saying the Stroger administration is in violation of the for “stonewalling” the organization’s cellphone records request. The BGA had requested the cellphone records of Stroger and key staff connected with a scandal involving the hiring of an ex-convict to see how much taxpayer money was involved in resolving the scandal. The county has argued against releasing the documents saying it would be “” and interfere with an ongoing criminal investigations related to the cases.
That may have been true. Regardless, the frequent hits at the legitimacy of Stroger’s work would have benefit from a little sunshine. In the information age, public figures cannot afford to keep taxpayers in the dark: we won’t stand for it.
February 3, 2010 by
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to compare enrollment, academic performance, number of teachers and attendance ratings.
The website has had a fair amount of controversy, either form bad websites to angry school districts. I believe that Australia took an important step toward disclosing data to parents, one I hope to see mimicked by America.
I’m might also add there are a fair number of other details the school could publish to let parents know the general health of the school district. Some might even put it in a checklist form, like SR did .
February 2, 2010 by
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Millions of average Americans made history in 2009 by launching a non-partisan burst of activism demanding more accountability from Washington and more transparency about Wall Street bailouts, stimulus spending and health care reform. In 2010 and beyond, that same energy is urgently needed closer to home.
State and local governments across America are broke. At least 10 states, including California, Florida, New Jersey Michigan, Arizona and Illinois, face bankruptcy, according to a recent study by the Pew Center for the States. New York, Georgia and Colorado are also in the race to the bottom. In total, states in imminent danger of going belly up account for one third of the U.S. population and economic output.
The weight of collapsing real estate values, joblessness and vanishing real wealth that crushed American families last year now buckle the fiscal structures of state and local governments. Costs spiral up as revenues spiral down. Observers are calling this crisis point “the cliff.”
At “the cliff,” however, there is hope for change.
Reform is needed now, state by state and community by community, to fundamentally transform how taxes are raised and spent and to reduce the costs, structure and scope of government. Jobs, quality public schools, police and fire protection, roads and streetlights, trash collection, health and safety regulation can be preserved without massive tax increases, if, and only if, an informed and energized group of citizen engages.
Without citizen scrutiny and action, officials may resort to budgetary tricks and tax hikes that will only exacerbate the fiscal problems. According to the General Accountability Office, many state and local governments are stalling reform–using federal stimulus money to temporarily plug holes in operating budgets. According to the Wall Street Journal, some states, including California and New York are formulating schemes to sell debt to foreign investors.
Just as citizens marched for transparency and accountability in Washington, they must also now demand ready access to state and local government budgets, regulations, contracts, and contacts. The quest for information too often requires overly complex open-records requests and the time and savvy to navigate a bureaucratic maze. But absent transparency, there is far greater risk of continued failure, corruption, fraud, waste and regulatory abuse.
The Sunshine Review () developed a Transparency Checklist to evaluate and score the Web sites of every city, county, school district, and state agency in all 50 states. The Transparency Checklist measures what content is available on government Web sites against what should be provided. The evaluations produce credible data easily accessible to citizens, journalists and activists.
The old bureaucratic dodges that transparency is too expensive, too time consuming, too taxing of government copy machines just don’t hold up in the age of the Internet and social networking.
Long before Google searches, the Founders crafted the Bill of Rights precisely because freedom of information and an informed, engaged citizenry is essential to self government. In the coming weeks and months, citizens can forge truly historic change in state and local government by; reforming the budget process, privatizing services, returning professional full time legislatures and councils to more traditional part time bodies, among many other worthy initiatives.
Citizen engagement is crucial. Success depends on transparency, accountability and the ability of informed citizens to secure the information they need to participate in reform and hold elected officials accountable.
February 2, 2010 by
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Chetly Zarko, a Michigan citizen, filed a in 2007 asking for thousands of Howell teacher e-mails in order to investigate the occurence of .
The Michigan Court of Appeals determined in January that the messages under the state Freedom of Information Act, overturning a decision from a Livingston County judge in 2008.
The court’s logic is , stating that the nonexistence of e-mail at the time of the drafting of the public records law confuses the issue. Although e-mail did not exist at the time, the spirit of the public records law remains the same. The Basic Intent of the law :
The Freedom of Information Act regulates and sets requirements for the disclosure of public records by all “public bodies” in the state.
No where is there a mention of the type of mediums this information will be created or sent through, nor does it have a paper-specific definition of “public record,” nor is there any reason to believe that new technology will confuse the law or create a need for clarification. The law is clear: public bodies must disclose public records.
The Howell Education Association teachers’ union leadership stated that the case is not an issue of open government, but one of privacy:
“We believe the protection of privacy rights is fundamental to the American way, and we were confident our understanding of the law would be upheld [...] Rights of this sort are too important to leave undefended.”
The HEA filed suit against in 2007 after the district released some of the e-mails Zarko requested. Apparently, the content in the e-mails that makes the HEA so sensitive to privacy matters relates to “.”
Privacy in the lives of private citizens is important. But when it comes to employees of the state, there is no privacy—there is either secrecy or transparency. If the e-mails are to be considered private, then they should have happened outside of the teachers’ working hours and from a non-work address.
The interests of taxpayers are more important than the interests of a school union. Here’s hoping Chetly Zarko’s appeal is heard through ears more sympathetic to the public good and open government.
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