A libertarian-oriented group out of Chicago that focuses on freedom of information and watchdog advocacy says Arizona’s 15 counties are the best in the United States when it comes to posting vital details about government operations on the Internet.
The 2-year-old Sam Adams Alliance maintains a wiki site called the Sunshine Review, which seeks to track how quickly state and local governments are moving into the 21st century by posting public records on-line so people can monitor government spending around the clock. On Monday, the Sunshine Review posted a state-by-state comparison of counties, boroughs and parishes, and Arizona came out on top.
Efforts by Arizona’s counties to keep the public informed are mixed, according to the comparison. Arizona ranks well for Internet postings of current budgets (100 percent), tax rates and other government fees (94 percent), and names of top administrators and their email addresses (93 percent). But Arizona’s counties do a much poorer job of posting contracts of more than $10,000 (54 percent) and of listing which officials people should contact to request public records (47 percent). And apparently none of the counties spell out what kind of lobbying associations they belong to and how much they spend on lobbying.
Overall, Arizona receives a grade of 65.5 percent, which doesn’t sound that good at all. It’s closest competitors include California at 64.35 percent and Florida at 56.28 percent. The bottom states include Arkansas and Mississippi. Oddly, three states (Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut) received grades of zero percent because they aren’t organized into counties.
Another way to view Arizona’s record on open government and the Internet came during Sunshine Week in March. A survey of state records posted online found Arizona offers Internet access in 14 of 20 specific categories. That was good enough to land at 10th best among the 50 states. (The list includes Arizona a second time with 13 of 20 categories. I have asked for clarification from Sunshine Week’s national coordinator).
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