TRANSPARENCY AND OPENNESS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

By Paul Angulo

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Much has been said about transparency but almost nothing about openness. Openness is the government's capacity to provide meaningful information to the public. Transparency and openness increases the quality of decision-making, increases confidence and participation in government, and reduces the opportunity for corruption.

As your next County Auditor-Controller, I will work with the Board of Supervisors to implement the following 8 principles to promote transparency and openness.

Specifically:

1) Completeness --All raw information should be released to the public, except to the extent necessary to comply with law.

2) Primacy --All released information should be primary source information including details on collection methods.

3) Timeliness--All information should be made available as soon as it is collected.

4) Ease of Access --All information should be made as accessible as possible either physical or electronic.

5) Machine Readability--All information should be stored in file formats that easily lend themselves to personal computer processing.

6) Non-discrimination --All information should be available without restriction on who can access it.

7) Permanence--All information should be archived in perpetuity, remaining online with appropriate tracking methods.

8) Usage Costs--All electronic information should be available without imposing fees.

For government to be accountable and fiscally responsible, transparency and openness must be a top priority. I will promote these principles as your County Auditor-Controller.