Transparency Checklist
From Sunshine Review
Sunshine Review and the Sam Adams Alliance believe that you're entitled to this information.
This information is what enables you to exercise your right to hold politicians and public officials accountable.
As part of the No Taxation without Information campaign, Sunshine Review and the Sam Adams Alliance are creating ways to:
- Find out whether your local government website is adequately informative.
- Ask for change, if it isn't.
The "My Government Website" project
The "My Government Website" Project is a project of Sunshine Review, the Sam Adams Alliance and people from all around the country to collaboratively determine the extent to which government-managed websites contain the information people need.
Ranking transparency
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While steps like the Freedom of Information Act have lead to a more open government the burden should fall on the state to make this information accessible to the public. Below are some of the topics which could be covered or expanded:
- Budgets: The website should include the current budget. Bonus points if the website shows the budgets for previous years, and a graph showing increases or decreases over time to help citizens evaluate and understand trends in local government spending. The checkbook register and credit card receipts would also be welcome.
- Open meeting laws should include notices about public meetings of its governing board, and minutes of past meetings. Also check for Meeting Agendas for future and/or past meetings.
- Elected officials should include names of elected officials, and their contact information, including email addresses. Also we should be able to see an elected official's voting record.
- Administrative Officials should be listed on government websites. The website should include the names of key administrators, and their contact information, including e-mail addresses.
- Ethics Ethics or the State Ethics Commission have been established in states to foster integrity in government and promote public trust.
- Audits: The website should include regular audits of state agencies and departments, including the Governor and the Assembly; audit results posted online; scheduled financial audits posted online; and performance audits for state programs
- Contracts: The website should include rules governing contracts posted online; bids and contracts for purchases over $10,000 must be posted online; and vendor campaign contributions posted with contract
- Lobbying: If the unit of government belongs to any taxpayer-funded lobbying associations that it helps to fund by paying association or membership dues, that information should be disclosed on the government unit's website.
- Public records: The website should include the name of the person who is in charge of fulfilling open records requests, along with contact information for that person.
- Taxes: The website should include the central location for all tax information, including state "fees" such as drivers' licenses; Tax documents for all elected officials and each agency discloses all sources of revenue.
- Municipal Code: The website should include access to the municipalities ordinances (the Municipal Code Book)(1)
- User-Friendly: The website should include a search bar; the menu bar should be consistent throughout the site and architecturarlly designed to clearly identify where a user can find what they are searching for; alt-tags for all images should be in place to enable handi-cap accessibility; all links should be working properly; sound files should not be attached in the background and should be accessible through a clickable link; with downloadable materials, there should be some type of labeling of the file sizes and also what file type(s) were used (i.e. .pdf, .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.);
- Security: Web site directory structures should remain consistent with the topic (there should be no advanced encryption in the directory structure to circumvent various abuses via the search engines while properly keywording the materials); any financial transaction (such as bill paying) should be processed via a secure server;
- Privacy: The website should include a privacy policy that describes how they collect, maintain, and use the data, including notification of any cookie placement or any other tracking method; pursuant to Illinois statute, all collectors of information are obligated to notify the individuals affected by a data breach, except in circumstances where such an act would inhibit law enforcement from performing their duties;
- Public Service Announcements: The website should act as a virtual broadcasting of various types of information important to a citizen, such as information/links regarding identity theft and safety and security advisements directly related to the agency.
- Other: Some type of date/time stamping mechanism should be located at the bottom of the page along with reference to who is actually responsible for the maintenance of website and contact information; date/time stamping techniques should be in place so that a visitor can tell how recent the information is they are reviewing (especially with agendas, contracts/bidding and ordinances);
(1) With the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, it appears a number of municipalities in Illinois are still behind in transferring their Code Book to digital format for a variety of reasons and subsequently may not be available for publishing.
