Katy ISD Strives for Less Transparency in Government
Katy ISD wants less transparency and public scrutiny. Watchdogs, beware. This from the Houston Chronicle and our friends in Katy: The Katy school board on Monday backed off a plan to propose a law requiring those who want access to public records to first explain why the information's release would benefit the community. Katy officials say they're trying to stymie a flood of what they consider frivolous requests for open records. To that end, the school board intended to ask the Texas Association of School Boards to push for a new law to make information requesters justify themselves.
Is this not one of the most power grabbing schemes you have ever heard of with regards to local government. The Katy ISD actually thinks it owns the public information! Guess these school officials have persuaded the school board that the local taxpayer is a problem and is not entitled to the information they paid for with their tax dollars. Frivolous requests - the people only want to know what is going on with regards to the business they own and continue to pay for on a yearly basis. They pay for this through state taxes and local property taxes. NO TAXPAYER SHOULD HAVE TO JUSTIFY THEMSELVES FOR INFORMATION THEY ALREADY OWN!
School boards need to quit listening to the hired hands and start listening to the people who voted to put them in the seat they occupy on the board. The only thing frivolous is the wasteful spending by school districts across this state.
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http://www.examiner.com/a-1470721~Make_transparency_city_s_policy.html
Editorial
Make transparency city’s policy
The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper
2008-07-03 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 423 of 7,488
BALTIMORE -
Trying to find a city contract in Baltimore City is like trying to find one in a black hole. You need the contract number or some other specific information, like the date it was approved. Forget about asking how much money, for example, a particular city contractor has received in the last 10 years from taxpayers. And since no records are digital, you must show up in person to ask.
Want to listen to a City Council hearing? Go to Goodwill and try to find a Walkman, because the only way to do so is via cassette tape. We’re not kidding. It is 1980-something in Baltimore City.
So City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway’s (D-7) proposal to make available all city disbursements online in an easily searchable database is something revolutionary only in Baltimore. Other jurisdictions are way ahead. The state just passed legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support to put all state spending above $25,000 online on a searchable Web site starting in January, and other counties are following suit, including Howard, whose version will come online in 2010. The federal government makes its spending available online at www.usaspending.gov, thanks to legislation co-sponsored by Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
Some people have asked Conaway if the legislation is aimed at hurting Mayor Sheila Dixon, under investigation for allegedly taking bribes from an ex-lover who received tax breaks while she was City Council president. It’s not. It’s about ensuring that “taxpayers know they are being represented well by their elected officials,” as Conaway said.
Conaway should ask Del. Warren Miller (R-Howard), who sponsored the state legislation, and Howard County Councilman Greg Fox (R-5), who sponsored Howard County’s legislation, for help in drafting the bill and outlining how to pay for it and to set up the technology to make it happen.
Ensuring taxpayers have easy access to city spending will make it easier for residents to understand and participate in local government, deter fraud and help our elected officials to save money. As Del. Miller noted in an opinion piece earlier this year, “After Texas passed a transparency law in 2007, state Comptroller Susan Combs estimated a savings of $2.3 million in her office alone. Much of the savings came from combining multiple contracts for the same services and from eliminating contracts for products the office no longer needed but was unaware it was purchasing. The vast size of state government often means the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. The greater oversight created by transparency laws effectively eliminates this problem.” The same is true of city government.
City Council members should wholeheartedly endorse her legislation at the July 22 meeting and pass it at the earliest possible date.
Examiner
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