Cumberland County’s latest attempt to use incentives to create jobs has hit a stumbling block. The effort is called “Project Starch” and is aimed at attracting the U.S. arm of a Chinese company that wants to make biodegradable tableware out of cornstarch. The Fayetteville Observer explains the difficulty:
County Manager James Martin said Project Starch has [...]
Amid a weak bunch of Super Bowl ads, the “green police” bit for Audi stood out for the wrong reasons. What was it trying to sell me, exactly? Smug conformity with an out-of-control police state?
New from Audi, the Collaborator Coupe. Selling out your fellow humans never felt so right.
Seriously, what the hell is this [...]
That’s right, the results are in for the 2010 Portland-Sacramento Test. No, this isn’t something that Mary Newsom’s heart go pitty-patter. Rather, it’s a measure of US Airway’s strength on transcon flights from its CLT hub.
The airline has year-round nonstops from CLT to seven destinations in the Mountain and Pacific time zones: Los Angeles, San [...]
Finally getting out in the open that the property valuations now being made by the county tax assessor are the hoped for cash cow for both city and county officials. Without a cut in the property tax rates most homeowners will see an increase in their annual property tax bill of anywhere from 10 to [...]
Black got sweetheart deal As jailed former state House Speaker Jim Black mounts a campaign for early release, critics contend that the state justice system did favors for Black regarding the settlement of his $1 million fine.
Questions about Black settlement Wake County officials say imprisoned former House Speaker Jim Black satisfied a $1 million fine by surrendering some Mecklenburg County real estate, but questions remain about the real market value of the property.
Black settlement may not add up Imprisoned former House Speaker Jim Black used undeveloped land with a tax value of less than $150,000 to pay off an outstanding $500,000 state fine.
Fat CATS Colleen Calvani writes that the Charlotte Area Transit system will scale back some routes in an attempt to counter three major decreases in funding.
McCrory’s failure Jeff Taylor argues that Pat McCrory failed to carry Mecklenburg County because he failed to move its conservatives.
Lynx And Exploding Pipes Jeff Taylor says there may be another factor to blame for CMUD’s recent series of water leaks.
Charlotte wins fast-train funds RALEIGH — Federal railroad officials plan to spend more than $100 million to create a railroad superhighway through Charlotte. The money will build a bridge and redesign tracks uptown, clearing the way for both high-speed passenger rail and a future CATS commuter rail line. Plus, it will uncork the path for freight trains. “It’s a win, win, win,” said Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, “not only for Charlotte but the entire state.”
Mecklenburg commissioners all will seek re-election CHARLOTTE — Filing for elected offices starts today, and all nine members of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners have told the Observer they will run for re-election. But they’ll face challenges. Democrats hold a 6-3 majority on the current board, and Republicans hope to change that balance. Some have said they blame past Democratic-led boards for rapid spending when the economy was healthier.
Charlotte says raises, more police unlikely this year CHARLOTTE — Tight budgets dominated the Charlotte City Council’s discussion at its planning retreat Thursday, with police chief Rodney Monroe saying he doesn’t plan to ask for more officers and Mayor Anthony Foxx saying raises for employees may be out unless the economy improves. “If the (economic) picture today is the way it is in the summer, then I don’t see raises,” Foxx said Thursday at the retreat in Tryon.
GMAC is eliminating 115 more jobs in Charlotte CHARLOTTE — GMAC Financial Services is downsizing in Charlotte once again. The Detroit-based lender this week told state officials it was eliminating 115 jobs as it closes offices in SouthPark and near Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. In the latest cuts, GMAC is laying off 44 employees at a SouthPark call center that had lost about 45 employees in cuts announced in December. Those workers handled customer service tasks for the company’s troubled Residential Capital mortgage business.
New York AG filing civil charges against Bank of America CHARLOTTE — In a tale of two legal actions on Thursday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed civil charges against Bank of America and two top officers, while the Securities and Exchange Commission sought to reach a $150 million settlement with the bank over allegations related to its Merrill Lynch acquisition. Cuomo’s charges mean more legal battles for the Charlotte-based company even as Bank of America was moving to end long-running investigations by the SEC and the N.C. Attorney General’s office.
Issue of Charlotte city raises looms large CHARLOTTE — The city of Charlotte’s tentative budget estimates for the upcoming fiscal year predicts at least a $9 million shortfall - and that’s without giving city employees a raise. If the next budget doesn’t include a pay hike, city employees will have gone two years without an increase. The pay increase is expected to be one of the most contentious issues at this week’s City Council retreat in Tryon, N.C., which began Wednesday.
Trust But Verify: Open government is better government Executive Summary
Governments have been seeking ways to adopt or advertise their efforts at open government, sunshine, and transparency. Recent history is rife, however, with examples of how they have failed – such as Gov. Mike Easley’s financial dealings and the hole in the state health plan.
Open government helps build trust with taxpayers. Tools that improve openness with taxpayers have also helped government officials and managers better use their resources. Some state and local governments found ways to save money through improved transparency.
Financial transparency is an important step toward open government. Online budgets, contracts, salaries, and check registers make information more accessible. Corporate financial statements provide a model in clarity and accessibility. Too many government documents are not searchable in any way. When tied to outcome measures such as test scores in education, this greater accessibility can provide better insight about which government programs work and which ones do not.
Process transparency opens the closed doors elected officials try to hide behind when drafting laws. Putting bills online 72 hours before debate and voting begin, instead of in the middle of the night the day of a vote, would leave fewer surprises in legislation. Five-year fiscal projections for state and local budgets would also make clear the impacts of program changes over time, not just for the year or two a budget is in effect. Governments should also take further steps to publicize their meetings beforehand, record their proceedings, and make minutes or archived recordings available online.
Regulatory transparency means making the proceedings of non-elected bodies as open as those of the legislature, county commissions, and town councils. Proposed regulations should be easier to find and understand for those with an interest. The state auditor or an independent body should perform any audits or performance reviews. Reviews should cover not just how well an agency or program accomplishes its mission, but also whether the mission is appropriate for government.
Why Transparency Matters
Open government is needed for a healthy democracy. Yet much of how government operates is unknown. Carolina Journal first reported on Gov. Easley’s financial dealings in 2006, but it took until Bev Perdue took office and opened state police records for details to emerge.
The state spent as much as $226 million in excess cost for mental health services over three years. It took months for the costs to become large enough to gain attention and the full extent of the problem was not realized until the legislature’s Program Evaluation Division presented its findings in July 2009. The $250 million hole for 2009 in the state health plan also caught legislators by surprise.
Open government builds trust and improves government operations. It can even save money, as witnessed in Texas, where the state comptroller found $73,000 dollars in savings just through cutting the number of contracts for toner cartridges.
There are many facets of open government. The John Locke Foundation created the web site NCTransparency.com to improve online fiscal transparency, and the response from local governments has been very promising. The Greensboro News & Record complained that Guilford County commissioners work behind closed doors too much. Guilford is not alone. Few governments broadcast their meetings online or on television. Fewer still post proposed ordinances, rule changes, or even agendas online in advance of their meetings. Open contracting with competitive bidding is another essential element of open government.
Making information accessible is about more than making it available. Citizens need to be able to understand it. Elected and unelected officials need to change their approach to information. It is not simply about responding to citizen requests for information. The problem is that government documents are often difficult to understand even for those who use them on a daily basis. Is it any wonder that few citizens ask for budget information when that information comes in a form that is almost unintelligible?
Asheville, for example, has its budget available in twelve sections plus a glossary. Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk voted against putting information online because he worried about both the cost of putting data online and the effect on county employees who would “be bombarded with so many requests for information … that they will spend too much time dealing with frivolous inquiries.”
The answer, however, is neither to avoid making the information available nor just to put it online in any format. The answer is to present the information online in a way that can be easily understood.
The remainder of this paper will examine the three aspects of open government – fiscal transparency, process transparency, and regulatory transparency. Each section will provide examples of what transparency means in that area, steps governments are taking to become more transparent, and opportunities to improve transparency.
Why Transparency? Creating trust in government Open government is just as important in a modern republic as it was two centuries ago. Larger bureaucratic states threatened to overwhelm the ability of citizens and their representatives to keep track of government. Revelations of corrupt government officials, fraud in various programs, subsidies to chosen groups or companies, and laws written by lobbyists still surface. Fortunately, more tools are available every day to make more information available from more governments to more people.
The John Locke Foundation is taking steps to help governments become more open. Our NCTransparency.com site helps taxpayers find government information online and gives grades for a quick check of how much is available for a state agency, local government, or school district. Our latest policy report on transparency provides three areas for improved transparency and some examples of what is already available.
This guide has four sections:
How to think about transparency
How to increase financial transparency
How to expand transparency to the process of governing
Crucial Questions: A Checklist for School Board Candidates and Citizens According to the North Carolina General Statutes, school boards have three broad functions: 1) to maintain general control and supervision of all matters pertaining to the public schools, 2) to enforce and execute the school law, and 3) to ensure that the administration of schools is efficiently and more economically accomplished.
Within the scope of these broad functions, state law outlines hundreds of guidelines, recommendations, and requirements related to the work of the state’s 115 school boards. Even seasoned school board members often find the work to be laborious and complex. Unfortunately, these challenges often discourage parental involvement, as well as deter competent members of the community from pursuing a seat on a local board of education.
To simplify the process of understanding the work of school boards, the John Locke Foundation has developed a checklist for school board candidates and citizens. Checklist items are not direct quotes of state statutes, although several include key language used in them. Instead, this checklist applies existing statutes to five fundamental principles about the work conducted by local boards of education.
School board members must adhere to the powers and duties granted to local boards of education by state and federal law.
School board members must ensure that the public school system spends as much of its taxpayer dollars as possible on classroom instruction.
School board members must ensure that the public school system minimizes wasteful bureaucratic and programmatic expenditures.
School board members must work to best meet the educational needs of children, families, and communities in which they live. To this end, school board members should collaborate with charter, private, and home schools, as well as post-secondary institutions in their jurisdiction. Public school systems exist for the benefit of families; families do not exist for the benefit of school systems.
School board members must ensure that the school system is fully transparent. The school board must guarantee that the public has easily accessible, searchable, and timely information about all aspects of the operation of the school system, except those subject to confidentiality statutes.
Each question on the checklist is followed by one or more references to the applicable statute. The appendix provides a list of education resources from the John Locke Foundation Research Division.
