I’m a frequent driver of I-85, I-40 and the Durham Freeway. Based on looking into the cars who regularly drift toward my lane and/or speed up and slow down at odd times, it is clear that children pose the greatest distraction to a driver. Not cell phones – children.
Even with that in mind, we [...]
More convoluted logic from defenders of the public education monopoly, which leaves huge numbers of kids largely unprepared to pursue their dreams and become productive and successful. JLF’s Terry Stoops has the story over in The Locker Room.
As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger begs for you and me to help bail out his state’s outrageous, decades-long spending habit that’s led to a $20 billion deficit, we find out there’s no end to government bureaurcrats’ irresponsible actions.
Even as the state grappled with a budget crisis last year, bureaucrats spent nearly $45 million on [...]
In Defense of (Most) Photojournalism Regardless of the recent examples of unethical photojournalism, most photographers have very high standards.
Will TTA Use Eminent Domain? Many in the Triangle fear the TTA will resort to Kelo-style eminent domain condemnations.
The Joke's on U In the new movie, "Accepted," a group of friends make up their own college after being rejected by real ones. The real joke is, the hoax college isn't any more outrageous than many real ones.
Donations to universities plunge RALEIGH — The sour economy has eaten into charitable contributions to colleges and universities across the Triangle, stalling construction projects at some and cutting the amount of money available for scholarships. The downturn mirrors a national trend, with gift-giving down an average 11.9 percent, according to a report released this week by the Council for Aid To Education. That’s the sharp est fall in at least three decades, the report said.
Durham cracks down on nonprofit paperwork DURHAM — City administrators have taken a hard line on nonprofit groups in recent days, docking two that missed deadlines for submitting financial reports and telling a third they have no money to give to help it pay rent. Budget and Management Services Director Bertha Johnson confirmed this week that officials had withheld a combined $6,077 in payments to the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition and Preservation Durham.
Triangle struggles to regain lost jobs DURHAM — This recession has affected workers of all kinds, from the corporate manager with decades of experience to temp workers barely scraping by. Some of those workers have gone back to school and launched their own businesses, charted a new path for themselves that they hope will lead to more stable work. Others have sought and received help from organizations with new federally funded programs. But where are the jobs?
Durham officer faces felony charges RALEIGH — Wake sheriff’s deputies charged a Durham police officer last week with breaking into a Wake County home and telling the people there that a person he was seeking would be dead by the end of the day if they did not reveal his whereabouts. Stephen Patrick Commander Jr., 31, of Oxford, has been charged with one felony count each of breaking and entering, and extortion, according to an arrest warrant filed at the Wake County Clerk of Courts Office.
Wake dogs get a fair shake RALEIGH — It may soon be OK to go to dinner with your dog again. North Carolina health officials are proposing a rule change that would let pets come to the table at outdoor restaurants as long as they don’t go inside or do anything else that might contaminate people’s food. Terry Pierce, director of the Division of Environmental Health, said current rules are unclear about whether pets are allowed at restaurants.
Trust But Verify: Open government is better government Executive Summary
Governments have been seeking ways to adopt or advertise their efforts at open government, sunshine, and transparency. Recent history is rife, however, with examples of how they have failed – such as Gov. Mike Easley’s financial dealings and the hole in the state health plan.
Open government helps build trust with taxpayers. Tools that improve openness with taxpayers have also helped government officials and managers better use their resources. Some state and local governments found ways to save money through improved transparency.
Financial transparency is an important step toward open government. Online budgets, contracts, salaries, and check registers make information more accessible. Corporate financial statements provide a model in clarity and accessibility. Too many government documents are not searchable in any way. When tied to outcome measures such as test scores in education, this greater accessibility can provide better insight about which government programs work and which ones do not.
Process transparency opens the closed doors elected officials try to hide behind when drafting laws. Putting bills online 72 hours before debate and voting begin, instead of in the middle of the night the day of a vote, would leave fewer surprises in legislation. Five-year fiscal projections for state and local budgets would also make clear the impacts of program changes over time, not just for the year or two a budget is in effect. Governments should also take further steps to publicize their meetings beforehand, record their proceedings, and make minutes or archived recordings available online.
Regulatory transparency means making the proceedings of non-elected bodies as open as those of the legislature, county commissions, and town councils. Proposed regulations should be easier to find and understand for those with an interest. The state auditor or an independent body should perform any audits or performance reviews. Reviews should cover not just how well an agency or program accomplishes its mission, but also whether the mission is appropriate for government.
Why Transparency Matters
Open government is needed for a healthy democracy. Yet much of how government operates is unknown. Carolina Journal first reported on Gov. Easley’s financial dealings in 2006, but it took until Bev Perdue took office and opened state police records for details to emerge.
The state spent as much as $226 million in excess cost for mental health services over three years. It took months for the costs to become large enough to gain attention and the full extent of the problem was not realized until the legislature’s Program Evaluation Division presented its findings in July 2009. The $250 million hole for 2009 in the state health plan also caught legislators by surprise.
Open government builds trust and improves government operations. It can even save money, as witnessed in Texas, where the state comptroller found $73,000 dollars in savings just through cutting the number of contracts for toner cartridges.
There are many facets of open government. The John Locke Foundation created the web site NCTransparency.com to improve online fiscal transparency, and the response from local governments has been very promising. The Greensboro News & Record complained that Guilford County commissioners work behind closed doors too much. Guilford is not alone. Few governments broadcast their meetings online or on television. Fewer still post proposed ordinances, rule changes, or even agendas online in advance of their meetings. Open contracting with competitive bidding is another essential element of open government.
Making information accessible is about more than making it available. Citizens need to be able to understand it. Elected and unelected officials need to change their approach to information. It is not simply about responding to citizen requests for information. The problem is that government documents are often difficult to understand even for those who use them on a daily basis. Is it any wonder that few citizens ask for budget information when that information comes in a form that is almost unintelligible?
Asheville, for example, has its budget available in twelve sections plus a glossary. Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk voted against putting information online because he worried about both the cost of putting data online and the effect on county employees who would “be bombarded with so many requests for information … that they will spend too much time dealing with frivolous inquiries.”
The answer, however, is neither to avoid making the information available nor just to put it online in any format. The answer is to present the information online in a way that can be easily understood.
The remainder of this paper will examine the three aspects of open government – fiscal transparency, process transparency, and regulatory transparency. Each section will provide examples of what transparency means in that area, steps governments are taking to become more transparent, and opportunities to improve transparency.
Why Transparency? Creating trust in government Open government is just as important in a modern republic as it was two centuries ago. Larger bureaucratic states threatened to overwhelm the ability of citizens and their representatives to keep track of government. Revelations of corrupt government officials, fraud in various programs, subsidies to chosen groups or companies, and laws written by lobbyists still surface. Fortunately, more tools are available every day to make more information available from more governments to more people.
The John Locke Foundation is taking steps to help governments become more open. Our NCTransparency.com site helps taxpayers find government information online and gives grades for a quick check of how much is available for a state agency, local government, or school district. Our latest policy report on transparency provides three areas for improved transparency and some examples of what is already available.
This guide has four sections:
How to think about transparency
How to increase financial transparency
How to expand transparency to the process of governing
Crucial Questions: A Checklist for School Board Candidates and Citizens According to the North Carolina General Statutes, school boards have three broad functions: 1) to maintain general control and supervision of all matters pertaining to the public schools, 2) to enforce and execute the school law, and 3) to ensure that the administration of schools is efficiently and more economically accomplished.
Within the scope of these broad functions, state law outlines hundreds of guidelines, recommendations, and requirements related to the work of the state’s 115 school boards. Even seasoned school board members often find the work to be laborious and complex. Unfortunately, these challenges often discourage parental involvement, as well as deter competent members of the community from pursuing a seat on a local board of education.
To simplify the process of understanding the work of school boards, the John Locke Foundation has developed a checklist for school board candidates and citizens. Checklist items are not direct quotes of state statutes, although several include key language used in them. Instead, this checklist applies existing statutes to five fundamental principles about the work conducted by local boards of education.
School board members must adhere to the powers and duties granted to local boards of education by state and federal law.
School board members must ensure that the public school system spends as much of its taxpayer dollars as possible on classroom instruction.
School board members must ensure that the public school system minimizes wasteful bureaucratic and programmatic expenditures.
School board members must work to best meet the educational needs of children, families, and communities in which they live. To this end, school board members should collaborate with charter, private, and home schools, as well as post-secondary institutions in their jurisdiction. Public school systems exist for the benefit of families; families do not exist for the benefit of school systems.
School board members must ensure that the school system is fully transparent. The school board must guarantee that the public has easily accessible, searchable, and timely information about all aspects of the operation of the school system, except those subject to confidentiality statutes.
Each question on the checklist is followed by one or more references to the applicable statute. The appendix provides a list of education resources from the John Locke Foundation Research Division.
