New Orleans City Business reporter Jennifer Larino wrote an excellent article a couple of weeks ago on the reforms Mayor Landrieu will need to tackle… »
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Landrieu reforms budget process
Mayor Mitch Landrieu issued an executive order yesterday in City Council chambers to create a more “transparent and accountable process” for producing the annual budget.
Responding to criticisms of the previous administration’s budgeting process, Landrieu promised to obtain community input in determining budget priorities, and to provide more informative descriptions of revenue sources and the purpose… »
Mayor Landrieu to adopt NolaStat open data recommendation
It’s become clear since his May 3rd inauguration that Mayor Landrieu will be adopting a performance management policy, like Baltimore’s CitiStat model, to improve the delivery of city services to the public.
Times-Picayune reporter Michelle Krupa has been following government reforms being implemented by Mayor Landrieu to shift away from the closed government policies of… »
Cooking the books? Or just sloppy journalism?
I don’t wish to be placed in the position of being an apologist for any public official’s misdeeds. On the other hand, sloppy journalism is equally intolerable.
Consider a Tennessee TV news report that slanted its story to make Ronal Serpas look like he was cooking the books on Nashville crime statistics. Fundamentally lacking from that… »
“To help and defend”
New Orleans citizens didn’t need any confirmation of their fear that rogue behavior was metastasizing throughout the NOPD when the Department of Justice announced investigations into civil rights violations, including a conspiracy to cover up police shootings of unarmed citizens on the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
The public already feared the… »
Seattle open data policy will improve public access to city information
Seattle is the next city to follow in the footsteps of open data reforms implemented by San Francisco, New York City, the District of Columbia, and other cities. Data.Seattle.gov is planned as a Web site that will publish city data sets to be downloaded by citizens, or used by citizen programmers to build Web-based applications… »
New Orleans 311 problems finally resolved
After spending millions of taxpayer dollars to professional services contractors, in a secret bidding and award process, on the city’s 311 system, including an “upgrade” to connect the system to departments, Mayor Ray Nagin has shut down the 311 system, blaming budget shortfalls.
Citizens should now direct their questions and complaints directly to departments:
The 311 phone… »
San Francisco improves public access to data by executive order
Inspired by President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, the D.C. Digital Public Square, and other developments around the country, Mayor Gavin Newsom made public access to electronic government data matter of official policy by issuing an executive directive on open government to all agencies (pdf). The directive is reprinted here with emphasis added to key points:
Executive… »
An engine for increasing the velocity of democracy
It’s an accepted truth that a healthy democracy requires citizens who participate in the civic life of their communities, and who engage with government institutions. But while civic participation is vital for a healthy democracy, it’s an inadequate prescription.
Government institutions also have to effectively engage and respond to citizen concerns, and by extension, government institutions… »
President Obama: A “presumption of openness”
What does President Obama think about government transparency?
The three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration form the cornerstone of an open government. Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing. Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies… »
“I can’t wait until it challenges and infuriates the bureaucracy.”
Claire Cain Miller, “Local Governments Offer Data to Software Tinkerers,” The New York Times, December 6, 2009:
“It will change the way citizens and government interact, but perhaps most important, it’s going to change the way elected officials and civil servants deliver programs, services and promises,” said Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, which is… »
