Government Transparency

[Bob WoodsParticipant]

Albany, OR (pop 49,530) has as its first value statement “transparent open and honest government”. Even before the City of Bell scandalized the nation Albany has worked to be a leader in openness.

So can your residents answer the question “Where Does My Money go?“

Can they put in the address of the property they own, get a computation of their current property tax bill, see a breakdown of the portion of their taxes going to tax entities such as the local public school system, the county, the local community college, the 4-H district and the city? And, are the amounts for the city broken down so that they can see how much they are paying annually/daily for Police, Fire & Ambulance, Parks & Recreation, Bond Debt and the other city operations that use property tax money?

Can they look at revenues that come from fees and other charges, and other categories of annual revenue, and see exactly which city services receive that money and where most of it goes?

Can they access a Dashboard reporting system that allows them to see all checks written for services and products over the time period they desire, updated nightly? And can they see that sam informaton sorted by vendor/payee name, and download it into EXCEL or as a pdf?

Can they also see every department and every deparmental program in the city, the budget amounts, current encumbrances, amounts paid/received and the remainig balance for every line item in the budget, updated nightly and downloadable?

Can they also review a complex set of multi-year performance measures, from annual budget measures, through standardized national ICMA measures with comarisons with other jurisdictions, through forward looking Strategic Plan measures?

The people of Albany can, and they can get a lot more also.

Albany has been awarded a perfect A+ transparenct score by the SunshineReview.org. Through the links on that wiki site you can find other transparency resources contained on the city website such as links to officials; budgets; financial reports; salary schedules; union bargaining agreements; lobbying and more.

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