From the Kansas Meadowlark. Click on Kansas Attorney General to provide training on Open Records & Open Meetings for details.
Tag: Open records
Sunshine Review completes county effort nationwide
Sunshine Review, a site devoted to government transparency, openness and accountability at the state and local level, has competed an effort to evaluate all United States counties on their transparency.
The site’s transparency checklist explains the criteria used to determine the openness of a governmental body. The page county websites supplies more detail.
To view the information for your county, start by clicking on Sunshine Review. You can then find your county by click on a map of the states. Or, you could use the search feature.
How does Sedgwick County do? Not very well. Based on Sunshine Review’s evaluation: “The website does not have information on committee meetings, building permits, zoning information, audits, contracts, lobbying, or tax breakdowns.”
Articles of Interest
Government intervention, Kansas budget, open records, Obamanomics, social security
Did government or greed cause economic distress? (Thomas Sowell in the Detroit News) “An economist specializing in financial markets gave a glimpse of the history of housing markets when he said: ‘Lending money to American homebuyers had been one of the least risky and most profitable businesses a bank could engage in for nearly a century.’ That was what the market was like before the government intervened.”
Budget based on hopeful numbers (Topeka Capital-Journal) “A $13 billion-plus state budget is likely to win approval from legislators this week, but it’s built on what seems a convenient fiction.” The problem is that revenues may again fall short of forecasts. The danger is that government spending lobbies will view this as an opportunity to press for tax increases.
Exemptions from Kansas Open Records (Kansas Meadowlark) “The Kansas legislature recently extended certain exceptions to the Kansas Open Records Act to hide certain records from the public view at least until 2014.”
Obamanomics Isn’t About Big Government (Robert B. Reich in the Wall Street Journal) The former secretary of labor says public investment is the defining characteristic of President Obama’s economic policy.
Recession Puts a Major Strain On Social Security Trust Fund (Washington Post) “With unemployment rising, the payroll tax revenue that finances Social Security benefits for nearly 51 million retirees and other recipients is falling, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. As a result, the trust fund’s annual surplus is forecast to all but vanish next year — nearly a decade ahead of schedule — and deprive the government of billions of dollars it had been counting on to help balance the nation’s books. … And at some point, perhaps as early as 2017, according to the CBO, the Treasury would have to start repaying the billions it has borrowed from the trust fund over the past 25 years, driving the nation further into debt or forcing Congress to raise taxes.”
Wichita downtown arena open records failure
Yesterday, the company that manages the Intrust Bank Arena (the downtown Wichita arena) announced a lease with the arena’s flagship tenant, the Wichita Thunder hockey team. But we don’t know the details of the lease. Unbelievably, some Sedgwick County Commissioners and managers are okay with that.
The Wichita Eagle article Details of Intrust Bank Arena contract with Thunder are a secret reports the details.
I believe that the Eagle will be successful in pursuing a copy of the lease agreement from SMG (the company managing the arena for Sedgwick County) under the Kansas Open Records Act. Here’s why:
The KORA states that “‘Public agency’ means the state or any political or taxing subdivision of the state or any office, officer, agency or instrumentality thereof, or any other entity receiving or expending and supported in whole or in part by the public funds appropriated by the state or by public funds of any political or taxing subdivision of the state.”
Although immediately next comes an exception, excluding “Any entity solely by reason of payment from public funds for property, goods or services of such entity.”
I believe the exception is meant to prevent a company who, say, sells pencils to the county from being subject to KORA.
But the relationship between SMG and the county is different. Sedgwick County has outsourced the management of the arena to SMG. The county is paying SMG, too. According to the contract, $8,000 per month at this time.
The county and SMG have a broad nondisclosure agreement in their contract, although this can’t override the KORA.
Besides the legalities of this, SMG and Sedgwick County need to find a way where this lease agreement can be made available to the public. I recently obtained a copy of the existing lease agreement between the Thunder and the county in anticipation of comparing it with the new agreement, the one shrouded in secrecy.
If SMG decides to keep this contract secret, it will be a public relations disaster for them.
It’s also a strike against the Sedgwick County managers who negotiated the contract with SMG that contains this provision, and against the commissioners who voted for it. Sedgwick County Commissioner Tim Norton seems to be the prime apologist for the secret contract.
Let’s hope that SMG changes their mind soon and releases the contract.
Articles of Interest
American exceptionalism, longer school days, landfill violations, Kansas vs. Missouri, open government.
The Europe Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism (Charles Murray in The American) “Drive through rural Sweden, as I did a few years ago. In every town was a beautiful Lutheran church, freshly painted, on meticulously tended grounds, all subsidized by the Swedish government. And the churches are empty. Including on Sundays.” There’s a difference between Europe and America, Murray tells us. Another difference is work as vocation, or work as necessary evil. There are also some changes coming in our understanding of humans. For example, consider the “equality premise,” which is the basis of political correctness, affirmative action, and much of the Democratic Party’s proposed legislation. Murray predicts that within a decade, no one will be defending this premise. There’s also what Murray calls the “New Man” premise, which says that “human beings are malleable through the right government interventions.” Murray says we are learning that this is nonsense. This is just the start of what you can learn in this fascinating article.
President Obama’s call for longer school days raises questions (Suzanne Perez Tobias in the Wichita Eagle) Should kids be in school longer? No matter what decision is made, it will be one-size-fits-all.
Cornejo landfill along K-15 taller than permitted (Brent D. Wistrom in the Wichita Eagle) Is a politically-connected businessman allowed to violate agreements with the City of Wichita? Do neighbors have a legitimate complaint? I’ve been told a class action lawsuit may be in the works. The Eagle article contains links to documents. Many comments left to this article indicate that citizens are not happy with this situation.
Kansas to lose $1.4 million in taxes every year when store moves 100 feet into Missouri (Kansas Meadowlark) “A QuikTrip plans to spend millions of dollars and ‘move’ 100 feet from Kansas to Missouri.”
Open government fuels democracy (Randy Brown in the Wichita Eagle) Brown lays out the case for open government, and cites instances where Kansas governments are not being open or transparent. In particular, USD 259, the Wichita school district has problems. There will be an event: a “public forum ‘The Power of Open Government: What Citizens Can do’ Sunday at 3 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway in downtown Wichita. The forum will be telecast live on KAKE-TV, Channel 10.” I’ll be there.
Articles of Interest
Electric cars, Obama and education reform, Kansas online records, Proposition K
Could the Volt Jump-Start GM? (Washington Post) The Volt is Chevrolet’s plug-in hybrid, meaning it has no gasoline engine, running solely on electricity. The problem is that the car’s price may be $40,000. My question is where will we get the electricity to charge these cars on calm days if we don’t build more baseline electricity generation capacity?
No Picnic for Me Either (David Brooks in the New York Times) An overview of President Obama’s attitudes towards public schools in America. Can the president successfully challenge the government school lobby and its entrenched interests, those often at odds with the interests of schoolchildren? Brooks doesn’t seem hopeful: “The problem is that as our ability to get data has improved, the education establishment’s ability to evade the consequences of data has improved, too. Most districts don’t use data to reward good teachers. States have watered down their proficiency standards so parents think their own schools are much better than they are.”
Online records convenient, but cost more (Deb Gruver in the Wichita Eagle). Contains an overview of some of the sites in Kansas where you can look at government records. Kansas charges for many records that other states provide at no cost.
State tax change sought (Tim Carpenter in the Topeka Capital-Journal) “It has been denounced by state and county officials and greeted with skepticism by Democratic lawmakers.” That’s Proposition K, of course. I would say that when lobbyists for local governments are worried about their sources of revenue, that’s good for everyone else.
Articles of Interest
Socialism is Evil (Walter E. Williams) A reminder from Professor Williams of George Mason University as to why taxation is wrong, and it’s both political parties that are guilty. “The essence of socialism is the attenuation and ultimate abolition of private property rights. Attacks on private property include, but are not limited to, confiscating the rightful property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn’t belong. When this is done privately we call it theft. When it’s done collectively we use the euphemisms: income transfers or redistribution. It’s not just left-wingers and Democrats who call for and admire socialism but right-wingers and Republicans as well.”
Luck has played a key role in Sebelius’ political ascent (Steve Kraske, Kansas City Star). From 1994 to the present, how events shaped the political career of Kathleen Sebelius. This reminded me of Fletcher Bell, whose story is reported in At the Bar; Lifting a briefcase can be a terrific strain. But a little cash can ease the pain.
Exploring a ‘Deep Web’ That Google Can’t Grasp (New York Times) Naive Internet users often think that using a search engine like Google returns all available information about the topic. But that’s far from true. For example, the Sedgwick County website lets you search for property tax information by entering an address or range of addresses. But entering a Wichita street address into Google won’t find this data — you have to do that at the Sedgwick County website itself. This information is part of the “deep web” that search engines can’t access. Even though Google now has over one trillion web addresses in its database, it’s thought this is just a fraction of all information on the web.
Educational patchwork: States should cooperate on ending the glaring inconsistencies among academic standards (Las Vegas Sun). “A new study has confirmed what many critics of the No Child Left Behind federal education law have said all along, that many school districts judged as failures would be judged as successes if only they were located in a different state.” This article calls attention to the difference in standards among states.
Governors v. Congress: The stimulus sets a long-term budget trap for the states (Wall Street Journal). “Mr. Perry [Texas Governor] sent a letter to President Obama last week warning that Texas may refuse certain stimulus funds. ‘If this money expands entitlements, we will not accept it. This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs,’ he says.” The danger, of course, being that just as states get used to higher levels of spending, the federal stimulus finds stop flowing. Some Kansas legislators have expressed concern. Governor Sebelius? Her recent column says the stimulus is “the action we need to put America back to work.” She’s already put together a task force for planning how to spend the stimulus funds, and was quoted in the Lawrence Journal-World thusly ““Though the timeline for enactment of this stimulus package is unclear, it is crucial that we begin planning for implementation of the Act now, to ensure funds directed to Kansas are used most effectively within the framework of the legislation.”
States put spending details online (USA Today). Highlights that Kansas was “the first state to pass a law requiring creation of a website detailing state expenditures in 2007.” Legislators responsible for this breakthrough in Kansas are Kasha Kelly and Tim Huelskamp. Also, video at Rep. Kasha Kelly discusses transparency in government.
Should Wichita Identify Superintendent Finalists?
When USD 259, the Wichita public school district, draws criticism from the Wichita Eagle’s Rhonda Holman, you know they’ve really done something wrong.
Her column of today (Identify finalists for superintendent) requests that the Wichita school district make public the names of the finalists in its search for superintendent. Her request is likely to remain unfulfilled: “And board president Lynn Rogers was less than reassuring Wednesday when asked whether the public would have an opportunity to learn the names of more candidates than just the winner.”
What we’d really like to know if Martin Libhart, the present superintendent — interim, that is — applied for this job. Whether he did, and whether his application was considered seriously by this board, will tell us a lot about both parties.
President Obama on Government Transparency
The way to make a government responsible is not simply to enlist the services of responsible men and women, or to sign laws that ensure that they never stray. The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they’re being made, and whether their interests are being well served.
That’s President Barack Obama speaking yesterday.
In the post Obama: Transparency will be a Touchstone of this Presidency, Sunshine Week provides coverage and analysis of our new president’s attitude towards openness and transparency in government. Hopefully, this is not “the first act of ‘transparency theater.’”