State of Transparency in California in 2013

7/29/2019 State of Transparency in California in 2013

1/14

The State o Transparency

in Caliornia: 2013


2/14

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYDespite the massacre o acts that typically occur in presidential election years, somehow the

theme o public transparency survived and thrived in 2012. Voters experienced the rst

dividends o citizen-drawn legislative districts, and robust new tools were launched to track

compensation o public employees. At the other end o the spectrum, the scandal at the

Caliornia Department o Parks and Recreation brought the entire state nancial reporting

structure under scrutiny. A resh round o scandals hit local governments in Los AngelesCounty, and state reimbursements to local governments public notice were requirements

were a victim o budget cuts.

Last year also saw some emerging champions or transparency. State Controller John Chiang

armed that one o his top priorities is to publish data that is otherwise reported to his oce

and led away. His eort to reveal the scal workings o

governments included Public Paya website that

inorms Caliornians about how much their state andlocal representatives are being paid.

Senator Leland Yee was successul in bolstering the

states transparency laws in key ways and assessing

lobbyists to und new reporting inrastructure. But his

proposals to broaden online oerings and public access

to additional agencies both ailed in the Capitol.

Yees proposals speak to the crux o Caliornias problem:

an outmoded system.

IN THIS UPDATEWhat are the core issues shaping public access and engagement in state and local decision making in Caliornia? This

update is oered as a high level overview o recent developments and longstanding questions. Intended as aconversation starter on this critical issue in Caliornia, we also oer our perspective on vital next steps to

ostering a renewed system o governance that enables elected ocials and public agenciesto orge the best possible solutions and provide the highest quality o services.


3/14

The cornerstone o the States open government structure, The Ralph M.Brown Act, was passed beore the invention o the Xerox machine.Caliornias Public Records Act and many o the laws governing publicmeetings and communication with and among elected ocials predatethe internet by more than 20 years.

Caliornia leads the world in

innovation o inormation and

communication technology. It is an

incubator o development hardwired

to venture capital unding, maturing

best o breed hardware and sotware

development.

On the other end o the spectrum,

the States inrastructure or

communicating with citizens and

among governments is based on

outmoded legacy systems. Critical

to improving Caliornias system o

governance that is, how decisions

get made is a contemporary

inormation inrastructure and

matching requirements or that

inormation to be easily available to

everyone. To modernize one,

Caliornia must modernize the other.

This all raises a critical question: what

is transparency, and why is it

important today? Transparency

means many things to many people.

At its most basic level, Caliornia

Forward asserts that Transparent

Government is one that makes critical

inormation easily available so that itcan inorm decisions by voters as

well as their elected representatives.

At its most basic level, and or the

purposes o this update, a Transparent

Government is one that advertises

pending decisions (making key actors

broadly available beore meetings)

provides ways or the public to ask

questions and express preerences

beore and during the decision,

encourages elected ocials to

publicly discuss options and explain

the reasons or their individual and

collective decisions, broadly

communicates those decisions,

and publically tracks and reports

results.

This transparency ramework requires

a layered approach to communication

and cooperation with the public at alllevels o government. Enhanced online

resources, public engagement

strategies and improved reporting are

all aspects o badly needed

modernization o the States

governmental culture.

What is truly important is what

Caliornians believe transparency

ought to mean in their state.

This document should serve as a

starting point or that conversation.

One place the discussion can continue

is transparency.cawd.org.


4/14

Welldocumented problems with thelegislative and budget processeslinger.

The harried nature with which state budgets and indeed many

laws are passed in the Legislature is more or less a punch line

in Sacramento. But it is a pox on our democracy.

Last minute and oten major revisions to legislative proposals,

known as Gut and Amends are a longstanding, common and

controversial practice in the Capitol. One prominent example

rom 2012 was SB 901, which or most o the legislative session

was a bill on air pollution, and in the nal week o session was

amended to be the Caliornia Opportunity and Prosperity Act,

an immigration proposal. Whatever the merits o either

proposal, the practice obscures the publics view into

government.

A provision o last years ailed Proposition 31 (advocated byCaliornia Forward) would have required all legislative proposals

be publicly available or 72 hours beore an ocial vote, three

days in print in Capitol vernacular. The current requirement is

that a measure must only be in print, and even that rule is

routinely suspended.

Gut and Amends are not the only process issue that erodes

public condence, but they are emblematic o the culture thaterodes public trust.

CORE ISSUES IN STATE AND LOCAL TRANSPARENCY


5/14


A lack of valid data is preventing policymakers and the public alikefrom making informed choices.While there is much to praise in state

and local transparency eorts, there is

still an enormous decit in the quality o

available scal data: data on revenue,

expenditures and outcomes by agencies

so the public knows i they are getting

their moneys worth; and, data on

campaign contributions that can

infuence decision-making. Little i any

actionable data is available on pension

and debt obligations. Caliornians are

only now coming to understand what

public workers earn on an annual basis.

At a high level, complex unding

mechanisms or K-12 education,

property tax distribution and other stateunctions limit true comprehension o

the States nances to a handul o

Capitol insiders and watchdogs. Perhaps

the worst example o lack o inormation

is related to property tax. Depending on

the number o local governments that

provide services, a homeowners tax

payment may be split among a dozen ormore entities, including the county, the

city, school districts and a basket o

special purpose districts. From the

property taxpayers perspective, it is

dicult i not impossible to nd out

which o the many local governments

that provide services get the money.

Caliornians should care about this since

property tax is still the single largest tax

nancing local services.

More oundational, the only centralized

source or inormation on local

government spending and revenues, the

State Controllers Annual Reports, are

based on sel-reported and unaudited

data rom the very entities being

monitored. State-level inormation onpensions and even basic expenditures is

scarce and oten outdated once

available. The rash o local government

scandals, along with the state parks

controversy, is strong evidence that

enhanced reporting and oversight is

needed and that oversight in part can

be done by the public i the rightinormation is available to everyone.

Facing these shortcomings is but the

rst step in bringing Caliornians closer

to their government and our elected

leaders closer to meaningul debate on

core issues.

Whether limited byoutmoded reportingsystems or

intentionally withheldor obscured, as in the

State Parks

Department or theCity o Bell, nancial

data on state and localgovernment can be

dicult to obtain,interpret and evaluate.


6/14

Innovations abound, but adoption rates are slow.

Home to Silicon Valley and several o

the worlds most orward-looking

corporations, Caliornia has a

commendable history o

incorporating technology and other

best practices into its public

engagement strategies. Some notable

eorts aside, this trend is in decline

and many cost-eective, smart

solutions are being overlooked orignored.

The State o Caliornias online

resources have been positively

reviewed in reports issued by the

Sunshine Review and Center or Public

Integrity, and cities such as San

Francisco have implemented tools atthe vanguard o open data resources.

The state has nonetheless let certain

tools languish, and eliminated others.

The State shut down its central

transparency website in 2011

(asserting the inormation was

available elsewhere). The Stateslobbying and campaign nance

disclosure website (Cal-Access) relies


on 13 dierent programming

languages, some o which dates to

original launch in 1999. It has beenplagued by outages and is in dire

need o modernization. This system is

ortunately set to receive new

unding. However, online resources

and critical data on major initiatives,

such as criminal justice realignment,

are severely lacking.

Looking beyond the States

reporting, the campaign nance tools

that are the norm at the state and

ederal level are almost entirely

absent rom the municipal and school

district venues. Only a raction o

Caliornia cities make local campaignnance inormation available online.

And while cities o varying size have

implemented a range o transparency

tools online, local government on the

whole does not adequately or

uniormly communicate key budget

inormation.

Technology is not a cure or the

accountability issues in Caliornia, but it is

the most expedient vehicle or engagingthe public and encouraging honest

evaluation o its perormance. From top to

bottom, Caliornias public sector is lagging

in the adoption o tools that were invented

by the private sector right in its backyard.

With the internationally renownedecosystem of web developers and

technology entrepreneurs in

California, the lag on implementing

modern tools and providing good

quality data is perhaps the states

biggest missed opportunity.


7/14

Key Consideration:Performance Data is Useless without Proper Context.In the 2007 book Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise o Transparency,

Harvard Kennedy School aculty Archon Fung, Mary Graham and David Weil

explore the burgeoning transparency movement in the public and private sectors

and how increased availability o data and rising public demand or accountability

are reshaping public discourse. Among the core issues are the pitalls o disclosure

without denition.

The authors caution that Whether and how new inormation is used to urther

public objectives depends upon its incorporation into complex chains o

comprehension, action, and response.

To this point, it is insucient or a government agency to merely post byzantine

budgetary documents or inscrutable data les that ail to inorm even the mostengaged o constituents. Analogous to this would be the annual reports o major

corporations. Under ederal securities laws, publicly traded companies must

disclose inormation on an ongoing basis to the Securities and Exchange

Commission, including annual ling o the Form 10-K, providing a comprehensive

overview o the company's business and nancial condition. Just one example,

the 2011 10-K report or the Coca-Cola Company is 238 pages long, single-spaced.

The company also, however, issues a shareholder-ocused Annual Review that isjust 38 pages long and is rich with photos, easy-to-comprehend graphs, and

proles o company leadership and the corporations strength in the marketplace.

The distinction o the two documents is one o context and audience. Private

sector entities understand they must be accountable not only to their bond

holders, regulators and lawmakers, but also to shareholders and customers who

are predominantly laymen. As such, both o these documents are easily ound on

the corporation website at thecoca-colacompany.com and listed, side by side, on

the rms Investor Reports page. 1

1 http://ir.thecoca-colacompany.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94566&p=irol-nancials

What data is most important to share?Owing to layered legal and nancial regulations,and because o the unique nature o publicservices, public budgets tend to be morecomplex than those o small or large businesses.As such, many community members may notpossess the tools to understand nished budgetdocuments, or discern the critical steps in thedecision making process.

Certainly, as each city and school district isunique, so too are its budget practices. The keyquestions to ask, then, when considering a city,county or school district budget:

Availability:Is the jurisdictions Budget document online?Is it easy to nd and organized in a straight-orward, logical way?

Accessibility:Is there an explanation o the local agencysdecision-making process and how to partici-pate in it? Is there a clear timeline laid out tocity residents regarding the budget process?Is there a clear Budget Policy Statement, acentral document that lays out thejurisdictions policies on balanced budgeting,operating reserves, debt and other key issues?

What opportunities are there or public inputon budget priorities? How are theseopportunities promoted, and to whom?

Accountability:Does the budget document meet the criteriaestablished by the Government FinanceOcers Association (GFOA), which provides aset o best practices on budgeting to guidesolid nancial management?

While there are jurisdictions that excel in one ormore o these categories in nearly every cornero the state, on balance local government hassignicant ground to cover in these regards.


8/14

THE CALIFORNIA FORWARD TRANSPARENCY PORTAL

Caliornia Forward believes that Transparency in Caliornia must mean more than access to publicdocuments. State and local government agencies, and the highly trained proessionals that managethem, must strive to provide context to these documents and gures they contain. With a ocus onCaliornia cities, counties, municipalities, school and special districts, Caliornia Forward launched a

Transparency Portal in 2012 to identiy and promote best practices in the communication ogovernment activity in Caliornia to support transparency and accountability and encouragecontinuous improvement in governance models.

The Transparency Portal integrates public data on budgeting and key governmental outcomes,oers engaging and contextual portrayals o these data points, as well as identies and highlightsbest practices in these eorts across Caliornia. Ultimately, the project is designed to promote bestpractices and raise the bar or transparency in government budgeting and decision making.

While supporting a movement to redene transparency toward a more active enterprise, beyond

the passive acts o merely publishing meeting and budgetary documents, Caliornia Forward isstriving to ll the contextual void let by an abundance o raw data and a dearth o perspective oncore issues including local nance, educational achievement, public saety and other core issues.


9/14

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?Given the high stakes decisions beore ocials, rom runaway pension obligations to billion-dollar inrastructure

investments, the need and demand or expanded transparency has never been higher. While Caliornia maystill lead by example, in 2012 the commitment to inorm the public did not match the imperative. Here are a ew

areas where Caliornia Forward is engaging:

EXPANDING ACCESS TO RELIABLE DATA ON PUBLIC SPENDING, PLANNING AND OUTCOMES.One o the root causes o Caliornias underperormance is a highly complex system that makes it hard or public

ocials to deliver and even harder or voters to know whether they did or not. The public and the ocials incharge must know where the money is going and what is being accomplished, in classrooms and courtrooms, in

public works and prisons. Whether it is city budgets or the arrest rates o re-oenders, this inormation should beavailable in ormats that allow the public and policymakers to understand the real deal. State transparency laws

should be updated to refect the contemporary world and enable greater citizen engagement, and improveeciency at the state and local level.

ENDING CLOSED DECISION-MAKING PROCEDURESPutting an end to the Gut and Amend process would be a substantial step orward or the Caliornia

Legislature. Allowing a bill to travel through committee approval in one orm, only to see radical changes madein the 11th hour is unacceptable and common sense reorms are needed.

Ending the practice is a good rst step in the long road to a process that oten excludes even insiders and

public interest advocates let alone the general public.

Multiple legislative proposals are already making their way through Sacramento this year as a result o theoutcry over the $11 million in dark money unneled rom Arizona into two Caliornia ballot measure elections

in November 2012.

At the local level, less than 10 percent o Caliornia cities make campaign nance and candidate lingsavailable online. Now the standard or state and ederal government, at minimum making the scanned pds

accessible should be the norm in cities with adequate resources.

EXPANDING DISCLOSURE OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS


10/14

Local Campaign Finance

Less than 10 percent o Caliornia cities make campaign

nance and candidate lings available online. Now the

standard or state and ederal government, at minimum

making the scanned pds accessible should be the norm in

cities with adequate resources.

The City of West Hollywood has a robust systemdisplaying Campaign Finance Statements or all candidates,

incumbents and political committees regarding expenditures

and contributions.

Many o the states large cities as well as medium size cities

such as Berkeley and Huntington Beach utilize third party

tools to allow or both candidate ling as well as a public

access portal or inormation on candidates, contributions and

expenditures.

Cost is regularly cities as a barrier to this kind o transparency,but examples exist o low impact means or communicating

basic inormation. The City of Irvine or example has createda campaign nance page that includes a PDF list o open

campaign committees, a listing o the citys campaign

contribution limits over the course o the last several years as

well as a list o resources or candidates, including a ling

calendar, campaign nance orms and the FPPCs campaign

disclosure manual. The City of Santa Maria is anotherstrong example o a straightorward portal or this

inormation.

Lets Keep TalkingThe following pages outline individual

success stories in transparency from localgovernment, in both the public and privatesector. Public engagement strategies across

the state are as diverse as its communities.While certainly not a comprehensive list,these are just a few stories California

Forward has been following the past year.

Have more great examples?Want to Share yout thoughts on

Transparency in California?

Get engaged at:

transparency.cafwd.org


11/14

Public Engagement

Long Beach Launches Open Up Long BeachIn January o 2012 Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske o the City o Long Beach took public education and

transparency eorts one step urther. Her initiative Open Up Long Beach provides residents with

increased access to the citys every day aairs and includes opportunities to learn about what individual

council members are working on, what committees they sit on and what projects they spearhead. The

project combines an online resource with Open Up Long Beach community meetings.

Vallejo Trailblazes on Participatory BudgetingVallejo implemented one o the most aggressive participatory budgeting programs in the country in the

wake o its bankruptcy. Vallejo is the rst city in America to have its council adopt participatory budgetingcity-wide with unds rom a general sales tax measure rather than in just one district using discretionary

unds. Setting a new rst gave Vallejo the opportunity to move on rom a period o nancial turmoil, and it

appears the community was eager or such an opening to get involved and restore aith.

Anaheim Incorporates Spanish Translation at Council MeetingsAnaheim announced in January 2013 that it would provide Spanish translators at its council meetings. At

least 10 cities in Orange County provide some level o translation, and the demand or bilingual meetings

and materials is growing across the state.


12/14

.

Online Tools and Data SharingSan Francisco Launches App for Police Department

Last summer, the City o San Francisco announced the launch o a newmobile application to a list o already implemented technologies that havechanged the way many o the citys departments conduct business. The

application allows police ocers to report remotely rom the eld, savingtime and speeding communication.

Rancho Cucamonga Launches RC2GOIn 2012 Rancho Cucamonga joined the ranks o cities that have launchedsmartphone apps, rom Beverly Hills to Livermore. Launched in February,

RC2GO allows residents to report grati, potholes or other issues to thecity. The City also provides inormation on recycling, electric vehicle

charging and other items via the App.

Oakland Advances Open DataIn April, the Oakland City Council passed an open data policy initiative put

orth by city councilmember Libby Scha. This has led to the creation odata.openoakland.org, launched in February 2013 and allowing users to

access, visualize and download City data. In addition, programmers willappreciate the sites Application Programming Interace (API), which

enables direct access to tap into City data to build sotware applications.

Walnut Creek Launches Open Town HallWalnut Creek launched Open Town Hall, an online orum or civic

engagement. Run by Peak Democracy, the tool oers new ways to engagewith the city on key decisions.


13/14

The ollowing rms are just some o those operating in

Caliornia and leading in public engagement and

government transparency. They are listed alphabetically

and are not oered as a comprehensive list or endorsement

o any product or service.

CitySourced

Los Angeles based CitySourced is a real time mobile civic

engagement platorm. CitySourced provides a simple and

intuitive platorm empowering residents to identiy civic

issues (public saety, quality o lie, environmental issues, etc.)

and report them to city hall or quick resolution; an

opportunity or government to use technology to save timeand money plus improve accountability to those they govern.

See: citysourced.com

Delphi

Founded by Stanord technologists and backed by

prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, Delphi

is developing user-riendly, intelligent sotware to improve

government transparency, eciency, and perormance.

Delphis platorm streamlines the management o municipal

nancial data, promotes transparency, and improves policy

decisions by oering unprecedented municipal

benchmarking o perormance outcomes, visualizations to

communicate complex data, robust analytics, and intuitive

user experiences.See: delphi.us


14/14

NetFile

Mariposa, Calionira-based NetFile, established in 1998, was the rst company to e-le a campaign

nance disclosure statement in Caliornia. Today, NetFile accounts or more than hal o all

electronic lings o political disclosure documents and lobbyist statements in the State o

Caliornia.

In 2003, NetFile launched a new product built using its expertise in electronic ling that enables

local city and county governments to cost eectively set up their own Campaign E-ling and

Administration systems. NetFiles Campaign system clients include several cities (including 3 o the

largest in the state) and counties (including 5 o the 7 largest in the state).

See it in action: netfle.com

Peak Democracy

Berkeley-based Peak Democracy, Inc. develops internet sotware that augments and diversies

online civic engagement in ways that can increase public trust in government. The company hastwo fagship products.

Open Town Hall / Comments is an online orum or dialogue on specic issues. It emulates the

order and decorum o public hearings making the orums insightul and civil yet compliant with

ree speech and other legal requirements.

Open Town Hall / Ideas 3.0 is an online orum or ideation on general topics. It's modeled ater the

best practices o brainstorming workshops proessionally acilitated to optimize or collaboration(not arguments), consensus (not polarization), and broad public interest (not narrow special

interest).

See: peakdemocracy.com

Southtech

SouthTech Systems is an eGoverment and eBusiness sotware development company with oces

in Riverside, Caliornia. The companys stated ocus is to equip government oces with cost-

eective and scalable solutions that utilize robust databases, digitized document technology and

electronic workfows.

See: southtechsystems.com

Documents

State of Transparency in California in 2013