When the leading candidates for D.C. mayor and City Council chairman met with The Examiner‘s editorial board recently, they were each asked if they would support measures to post D.C. government’s check register online, so that residents can see every expenditure by every department, including the District of Columbia Public Schools. To their credit, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Council Chairman Vincent Gray, chairman candidate Vincent Orange and Council member Kwame Brown all unhesitatingly said yes. So, no matter which of these candidates wins the Sept. 14 primary and the general election in November, D.C. residents should be able to look forward to a new era of transparency in the District’s governance that would have been unthinkable just four years ago.
A nationwide movement to push officials to begin posting check registers began in 2006 when Texas education advocate Peyton Wolcott started the National School District Honor Roll. The purpose of the program was to honor the four school districts out of hundreds in her state that agreed to post their check registers online so parents and citizens could see exactly how their money was being spent. The idea was considered wacky at the time, but has now been adopted by hundreds of school districts and many counties and states as well. Not among those adopting the idea, unfortunately, was the city of Bell, Calif. Had the Bell check register been online, officials there would not have been able to hide from taxpayers their oversized salaries and pensions — like former city manager Robert Rizzo’s $1.5 million annual compensation package.
Transparency is one of the few truly bipartisan issues that voters of all ideological persuasions can enthusiastically unite behind. It is supported by those on the left who want to keep tabs on improper corporate influences on government officials, as well as by those on the right who are interested in making sure government spending is done efficiently and honestly. As the Sunlight Foundation’s Noah Kunin says, informed citizens need to keep track of both.
However, posting the municipal checkbook online is just the first step toward greater accountability, as Sunlight’s States of Transparency project discovered. For example, a review of Missouri’s Accountability Portal found that the information posted was timely and downloadable, but didn’t include state revenue data. In Alaska, citizens can’t find out how much state employees are paid because that information is considered “confidential.” South Dakota lists all expenditures, but citizens cannot download payroll information or budget balances. Hopefully, such problems will not appear here in the District. In any case, The Examiner will hold Messrs. Fenty, Gray, Orange and Brown to their word.
