Today, Opaque Equals Scandal

Excerpt from recent Economist article:

...the real push for transparency has come from the scandals that often breed in opaque government. The most notorious example, uncovered last year, is Bell, a tiny blue-collar city near Los Angeles, whose leaders paid themselves exorbitant amounts and, in effect, used the city coffers as personal banks."

The article goes on to admit that today's technology has made putting government data online easier. I would go further to say that today's technology makes putting data online so easy that a government really has to put more effort into NOT putting the data online. That entity really has to contort themselves, their reasoning, and their decision to NOT publish, into some really convoluted and shallow positions. Further, given that a government entity has a responsibility to be transparent, its decisions to NOT publish data online strongly suggests ethics lapses and even criminal activity.

And given that American citizens have a duty to hold their representative and democratic government accountable, there should be no tolerance for Board or council members who do not know the true or factual details of their governing body's finances. Virginia Minnich, do you know what the Borough's liability will be for Bill Care's retirement annuity? Did you know that he will receive more than a career, top-level and distinguished, Central Intelligence Administration officer? Charles Allwein, do you know that the Borough's "real" budget is around $600,000 each year?

Municipalities all over this nation are using their websites to provide as much data as possible, and the world has not ended for any of them. For example, residents of Alberquerque, NM, are even able to follow their mayor's expense charges and their government staffs' earnings. Vendor contracts, expense reports, salaries and benefits--its all there for the taxpayer and constituent to follow--as it should be in a country, commonwealth, and community that is founded on transparency and accountability, and that has nothing to hide.


*excerpt from The Economist, Nov. 19th, 2011, page 36.