The Public Square Project

Yesterday, the Sunlight Foundation blog reported on a panel discussion at the recent Government 2.0 Camp about the meaning of transparency in the Obama administration. During the discussion, the participants came up with a list of the "Top 10 Measurements for Transparency".

Although the discussion specifically focused on transparency in the federal government, the list that the participants generated also seems like a terrific starting point for kicking off a discussion about setting goals for transparency success in local government too.

So, here are the first five topics on the list (the next five will come in a separate post) with my comments on how local governments in the Pittsburgh region can translate these measurements into tangible improvements in local government transparency.

1. Open Data - This is a bedrock value of The Public Square Project. Local governments must make all data available, accessible, findable, searchable, and usable. How can we expect citizens and public officials to make good decisions without the data on which to base those decisions? With all of the technological tools now available, open data is an achievable goal. Local governments must simply find the political will to make it a priority.

2. Disclosing Spending Data - Have you ever tried to read the budget for the City of Pittsburgh? It's not easy to figure out exactly where the City is spending your tax dollars. Local governments need to commit to producing high quality, user-friendly budgets. How will we know when governments are being honest in their budgeting practices? The Government Finance Officers Association hands out awards for this sort of thing and local governments should commit to meeting the GFOA standards.

3. Procurement Data (Government Contracts) - There has been some recent local press around the issue of local government contracting, and so I won't belabor the point here. Suffice it to say that all governments could do a much better job of telling all of us where tax money is being spent, who gets the money in the form of government contracts, how are they spending the money, and how we are making sure that the money is being wisely spent.

4. Open Portal for Public Information Requests - Why not create a central, online clearinghouse for Right to Know Law requests? That way, everybody could see what information is being requested, how requests are being made, and how quickly local governments respond to requests.  The newly effective Pennsylvania Right to Know Law was a huge step forward for local government transparency, but we have a ways to go in changing the culture of secrecy that too often surrounds public information in our local governments. By the way, want to know more about the new Right to Know Law? Check out the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records - it has some really terrific resources.

5. Data Security - Here's a question: if the City-County Building burned down tomorrow, could Pittsburgh and Allegheny County reconstruct critical government data sets? Could other local municipalities? The issue of local government data security isn't a sexy topic, but it is a fundamental one. If government data can't be easily replaced if lost or destroyed, then we can't really ensure that transparency will be possible in all cases.

That's all for now, check back soon for Part 2 of this post.  Do you have your own ideas about how local governments can be made more transparent? If so, post a comment below. We are drafting a Transparency Agenda for Pittsburgh and we would like to hear your ideas.