Local Government Website Transparency Awards

It's been four days since Sunshine Week ended, but it's not too late to point out Sunshine Review's first Sunny Awards, given to state and local governments whose websites meet the organization's transparency guidelines, which consider website information on budgets, meetings, elected and administrative officials, permits and zoning, audits, contracts, lobbying, public records, and taxes.

The Sunny Awards aren't really awards, but a listing of all state and local governments that get a perfect score or a grade of A from Sunshine Review. Besides the 50 states, Sunshine Review, employing a wiki format, has analyzed the websites of 3,140 counties, 805 cities, and 1,560 school districts. Of those, 39 met their criteria. Below are the local governments.

Sunshine Review presents an interesting contrast to Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, which I wrote about in my previous blog post. Sunshine Review was founded by the Sam Adams Alliance, a libertarian organization whose blog is critical of such things as the health care reform bill. But the Sunshine Review, which broke off from the Sam Adams Alliance this year, appears completely nonpartisan and nonpolitical.

Its goal is to put pressure on all state and local governments to provide the utmost transparency. I hope that the wiki format is not abused, that is, that the information people provide is both accurate and nonpartisan.

I recommend that you check and see if your city, county, school board, and other local governments have been rated yet. If they have not, consider rating them yourself.

Perfect Scores
Anderson County, South Carolina
Carbondale, Illinois
Clayton County, Georgia
Cobb County, Georgia
Davis School District, Utah
Duval County, Florida
Harris County, Texas
Hillsborough County Public Schools, Florida
Los Angeles County, California
Owasso, Oklahoma
Seminole County Public Schools, Florida
St. Johns County School District, Florida
Tulsa County, Oklahoma

A Grades
Aiken County, South Carolina
Avon Grove School District, Pennsylvania
Brandywine Heights Area School District, Pennsylvania
Clay County, Missouri
DuPage County, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Keller, Texas
Lake County, Illinois
Marion County Public Schools, Florida
Juneau, Alaska
Palm Beach County School District, Florida
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Phoenix, Arizona
Pinal County, Arizona
Richmond County, Georgia
Salt Lake County, Utah
San Francisco County, California
Williamson County, Texas


Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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