LA parish websites lack information
27 August, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2008
For more information:
Isabel Santa, (305) 431-8381
Tackling Parish Websites Can Enhance Transparency
A new website helps Louisianans know more about their parish websites
Chicago, IL – In an effort to ensure good government across the country, the Sam Adams Alliance launched Sunshine Review, a new, wiki-style website focused on evaluating the accessibility of government information and data on government websites. Recently, Sunshine Review users evaluated all 64 parish websites, finding a lack of transparency in over a third of them.
“Sunshine Review was created to make sure citizens nationwide have access to the information they need on government websites,” said John Tsarpalas, vice president of the Sam Adams Alliance.
According to a parish evaluation report on Sunshine Review, many Louisianans are in the dark on who is spending their tax dollars and where it is going. Currently, 25 parish websites don’t provide details about elected officials or their contact information, 33 don’t list meeting schedules or minutes, and 33 don’t post yearly budgets.
“Sunshine Review is performing a vital service to the citizens of Louisiana by identifying the shortcomings of local government websites,” said Kevin Kane, president of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. “How can we become informed voters without access to such basic information? These wiki-style websites will play an important role in the movement to reform state and local government and Sunshine Review is leading the way.”
Launched in July 2008, Sunshine Review wants citizens everywhere to easily be able to locate basic facts about local governments on city, county and school district websites. The “My Government Website Project” on Sunshine Review has already initiated ratings of local government websites in 10 states. The website evaluation project is part of Sunshine Review’s No Taxation Without Information campaign.
“Technology should be used to make government more transparent than ever. We need to break this informational iron curtain between government and the people,” Tsarpalas said.
During the legislature’s ethics special session earlier in the year, Governor Jindal passed legislation that would increase transparency by creating a searchable database of state spending online.
About Sunshine Review
Sunshine Review is a Wikipedia-like website that enables people to find and share information about whether state and local governments are effective, easy to reach, open, honest and responsible with taxpayer money. Sunshine Review is a project of the Sam Adams Alliance, a national non-profit organization that strives to educate and inform citizens about political issues through new media tools.
For more information about Sunshine Review or to request an interview, please contact Isabel Santa at (305) 431-8381 or izzy@samadamsalliance.org
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NDPC Podcast Hits the Information Superhighway
22 August, 2008
As a part of its “No Taxation Without Information” National Campaign, the Sam Adams Alliance recently conducted an interview with Brett Narloch, Executive Director of the North Dakota Policy Council (NDPC). The NDPC has been at the forefront of government transparency with the development of its Sunshine on Schools website that was discussed on this site.
The North Dakota Policy Council (NDPC) is a liberty-based think tank focused on North Dakota solutions to North Dakota’s problems. They provide credible nonpartisan expertise and research to help North Dakotans advocate policies that are based on individual liberty, individual responsibility, and limited government.
The NDPC seeks to broaden policy debates beyond the belief that government intervention should be the avenue of first, rather than last, resort. They believe that:
* Government can only give to one person what it takes away from another, and that the power to give presumes the power to take.
* Policies intended to affect one person or one group can affect all people and all groups, and that these unintended consequences often cause more harm to the many than any good done for the one.
* Freedom requires responsibility: where government largesse replaces individual foresight it destroys responsibility and, therefore, freedom.
* All times matter. Long-term consequences are as or more important than short-term impacts. Emotional reactions are not suitable substitutes for rational solutions.
