IL boosts spending transparency
Today the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) released the statement of revenues and expenditures, outlining financial activities from 2010 and the first quart of 2011. Why is this so significant? Normally we would not be seeing these figures unti 2012.
GOMB has adopted a new schedule of reporting that will make financial statements for the state budget available on an annual and quarterly basis, much like how reporting is conducted in the private sector. Illinois’ new reporting methods will not affect the way audits are conducted, however, and those will not be released until a year or more after revenue and costs are available.
Timeliness is often forgotten about when discussing transparency, but real time reporting, or just more frequent, is vital to the access of government data. Bravo Illinois for taking this step!
Cuyahoga County Council fails to keep transparency campaign promise
Six Cuyahoga County Council members-elect are already failing to uphold their campaign pledges for greater government transparency.
These six members-elect met in a closed meeting this past Friday to decide on who will serve as the new council president. This is the same behavior they promised to leave in the past prior to elections according to their own words, which was reported in the Dealer-Cleveland.com Voter Guide questionnaire. You can read them for yourself here.
Is Detroit covering for Kilpatrick?
Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s computer has gone missing. Kilpatrick hasn’t seen it, and city officials say they haven’t seen what happened to it either.
“His computer’s got legs,” said attorney Norman Yatooma, who is representing the family of exotic dancer Tamara Greene, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in April 2003, supposedly after working at a party hosted by the ex-mayor.
City officials have not made increased efforts to find the missing computer, which may store critical e-mails for Kilpatrick’s upcoming trial, and say that the e-mails would not be stored on it regardless.
Terrance Sims, who is in charge of the city’s e-mail system, reported that the city’s servers automatically purge e-mails weekly. Sims also said that e-mails are not monitored due to lack of resources or funding.
While this may not be illegal, it’s cutting it awfully close. First of all it flys in the face of the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget’s recommendations. Also, the city moves very quickly to destroy the e-mails, which are counted as public records.
I find Sims excuse to be dubious—especially when so many open source options exist that would allow the storage of e-mails. Which leaves me with the nagging question of would Kilpatrick’s e-mails have implicated himself or others still working for the city? Hopefully, we’ll find out more when Kilpatrick takes the stand next week.
Are women better at achieving Gov 2.0?
You bet. And I say that because I’m a woman. 
But in all seriousness, others—of the male gender—are willing to back me up. Mainly, Andrea Di Maio, who is VP of Gartner Research. Di Maio hasn’t conducted any official surveys, but has been spoken to several hundred people around the world for the past three years on web 2.0 and government 2.0 development. And at a recent Open Government at Gartner Symposium Di Maio observed that women tend to be “nimbler” at implementing Gov. 2.0 strategies.
My comment about women and government 2.0 is rooted in how many interactions with female CIO and IT leaders have shown a better appreciation of the potential of these technologies, but also a smarter way of striking a balance between internal vs. external collaboration and the blurring of boundaries between the two.
I do not mean to say that men do not get it. On the other hand, while there seems to be an overwhelming majority of men among the government 2.0 evangelist community (some of whom may have been offended by my observation), women on the government 2.0 implementation side (i.e. not those who preach, but those who have to deploy and use these technologies) seem to be faster and nimbler in getting to the bottom of it.
So, even without online surveys, interviews and desk research, I think I am in a position to state, sadly as a man, that women really get this more than we do. It would be interesting to figure out why, rather than fighting the evidence, and this is where I hope I’ll be able to do some research.
Apparently, some men in the Gov. 2.0 field were offended by Di Maio’s observations, saying that men are just as quick to grasp and implement the concepts.
So, I put the age-old question to you:
Alabama school districts fail transparency test
Alabama school districts earned an overall “D” transparency grade for information available on their websites according to an analysis conducted by Sunshine Review, a pro-transparency group.
Sunshine Review employs a “10 Point Transparency Checklist” to assess state and local government websites on proactive disclosure of government information. The checklist measures content available on government websites against what should be provided. Checklist items include information about budgets, meetings, elected and administrative officials, background checks, audits, contracts, academic performance, public records, and taxes.
The highest scoring districts in Alabama were Auburn City Schools and the Mobile County Public School system, each earning “B-” transparency grades. However, school districts overwhelmingly failed the transparency test, with 47 of the 132 school districts earning an “F.” Many of the school districts failed to post audits, contracts, and or academic performance.
“Well, I’m not surprised,” said Gary Palmer, President of the Alabama Policy Institute. “We have had a legislature that is not interested in transparency or accountability at any level of government. I think the new legislature is much more reform oriented.”
The President of Sunshine Review Michael Barnhart believes that proactively disclosing audits will have a positive impact on Idaho’s schools performance.
“It is crucial for parents and taxpayers to have access to complete information about how school districts operate,” said Barnhart.
TSA releases nude photos—not the gov. transparency we asked for
When we advocated for more government transparency, we didn’t mean the government releasing naked pictures citizens who passed through the full body scanners at airports. Yet, that’s exactly what they’ve done. Gizmodo filed a FOIA request and received 100 pictures in return.
Privacy advocates are already arguing that the body scanners are violations of our rights and nothing but “security theater.” It’ll be interesting to see what the release of the “unstored” photos means for FOIA as well.
IL FOIA law under attack (again)
Last year it took the Illinois State Legislature less then 15 days to limit the new and improved state Freedom of Information Act when it added exemptions for performance evaluations of teachers, administrators and superintendents.
Other public employees thought this was a grand idea, which lead to HB 5154, which would exempt all performance evaluations (even though it was allowed even the under previous version of the law). In July, Gov. Pat Quinn partially vetoed the bill, saying that only emergency personnel would be exempted.
But the bill is back from the dead, and expected to be voted on during next weeks veto session. The Illinois Press Association (IPA) is anticipating three possible outcomes:
- Representatives could approve the governor’s amendment and send it to the Senate (IPA thinks it’s unlikely)
- The House could override the veto with a three-fifths majority vote (which they need only more to do) and send the bill to the Senate (IPA believe this is possible)
- Or the House could do nothing, which would kill the bill and leave FOIA intact (IPA preferred)
I’m with the IPA, option number three please.
Who will implement transparency?
Elections are over, and as we head towards 2011, I’m wondering which elected officials will be taking a stand to implement transparency.
Literally, I’m wondering, because I can’t find the information anywhere. Here are the few leads I have found:
Obama and Biden continue their trend of showroom transparency. Earlier this week, Biden closed a meeting to discuss stimulus transparency, and the irony did not escape us. Also a new graph showing the Obama administration has not followed through with its promise to “post the bill,” posting less then half of them online.
I did manage to dig up a list of republican and democratic transparency pledges from the United States House & Senate, though I suspect they are incomplete.
But what about at the state and local level? Do you know of any officials who campaigned on transparency and plan to implement it in the new year? We’ll be discussing this and other 2011 predictions for transparency this week during #FOIAchat and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If you do know of any newly elected officials and their transparency promises please leave their names in the comments. Thanks!
San Francisco voting on Gov. 2.0 legislation tomorrow
Tomorrow, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisor’s will likely vote into law the Open Data Directive proposed by former San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom.
Over a year ago, Newsom—now the lieutenant governor—galvanized San Francisco into adopting social media and open government standards when he implemented Twitter-311 services and began sharing over 150 government data sets with the public on DataSF.org.
San Francisco’s website has already earned an “A+” transparency rating from Sunshine Review. It would be great to see a major metropolitan city cement Gov 2.0 practices for its future.
H/T: GovFresh
Illinois Press Association sues Rockford School District 205
The Illinois Press Association (IPA) and The Rock River Times are suing the Rockford School District 205 for refusing to respond to numerous FOIA requests for a letter detailing the removal of Auburn principal Dr. Patrick Hardy.
The IPA has said that Rockford is “one of the worst FOIA offenders [they] have encountered.”
The Rock River Times has been trying to attain the letter for two months, but school officials have repeatedly refused to answer the public records request. The district even refused to even make a statement about the lawsuit as well.
It’ll be one of the first cases challenged under Illinois’s new Freedom of Information Act law.