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Putting Teeth in Transparency

Wed, 2011-11-23 14:25 — pgessing

 

“Transparency,” when it comes to government, it is certainly the ideal. Taxpayers – the ones who pay government’s bills – deserve nothing less. The good news is that New Mexico governments have made great strides in recent years.

To name just a few improvements, records of legislative floor sessions are now online, as are all floor votes. New Mexico’s new “Sunshine Portal” includes an expanding collection of payroll data, revenue lists and contract amounts. A growing number of cities, counties and school districts across New Mexico now post complete or at least partial payroll information online. Albuquerque Public Schools recently joined the fast-growing list.

Rio Grande Foundation Re-Launches User-friendly Legislative Tracking Tool, NewMexicoVotes.org

Thu, 2011-09-08 08:49 — pgessing

(Albuquerque) The Rio Grande Foundation is again tracking all the legislation introduced in the 2011 legislative session through its recently launched NewMexicoVotes.org Web site. RGF launched the site with the opening of the 2008 special session in order to provide a more transparent window for New Mexicans to follow what happens in state government. The site www.newmexicovotes.org is free and open to the public and will be updated with votes from the 2011 special session.

With plain English bill information, the site also reveals the missed votes of every legislator; links that show everyone who has donated to each legislator and the amount of each donation; and a whole host of features that those who want to track what happens in Santa Fe will find useful. It even features House floor votes, which are not available online at the state legislative Web site.

Users of the site will be able to interact with each other, commenting on legislation as it moves during the session.

Paul Gessing, President of the Rio Grande Foundation, said of the new public service, “With more alleged corruption in New Mexico making national headlines, the need for more transparency in state government is becoming ever increasingly important. ‘Votes’ is part of our organization’s efforts to bring more transparency and accountability to New Mexico state government.

We want everyone to be able to find out, with a few clicks of a mouse, what his or her legislator is doing, to be able to sign on and read plain English descriptions of what each bill does in a way that the average person can understand, and know immediately what our tax money is being spent on, or whether the bill increases or decreases taxation, regulation, or government transparency.”

Gessing noted that among the most important features of the site is its “missed votes” report which allows users to determine how often their elected official is missing votes in Santa Fe. This report is available here: http://newmexicovotes.org/MissedVotes.aspx Said Gessing, “There are potentially-legitimate reasons for legislators to miss large numbers of votes (such, but not limited to, the family illness that caused Sen. Kernan to miss 180 votes in 2011), but it is something voters should be aware of and follow up with their legislators on.”

Gathering city payroll information

Wed, 2011-08-10 13:07 — pgessing
The Rio Grande Foundation believes strongly in government transparency. To that end, we are submitting information requests to, and collecting payroll information, for all major cities -- and eventually all counties -- throughout New Mexico. The list of cities is below. Albuquerque already has a transparency site with payroll information available, so a link to that is provided. Links will be activated as information is received.
 
Sunland Park
Las Vegas
Los Alamos (Los Alamos is both a City and County, so it will be posted in both)

Updated Bernalillo County Salary Data Posted

Thu, 2011-08-04 08:50 — pgessing

Bernalillo County is still not posting employee names with their salary information online. Therefore, the Rio Grande Foundation has taken upon itself the task of collecting and posting the information online. Of course, as with any major enterprise, the payroll constantly changes, so we re-requested the information and have posted it here.

As you'll see in looking at the data, the annual salary figure is not directly found in the document. To calculate that, multiply the number by 8*5*52 (8 hours per day, 5 days per week, and 52 weeks in the year). So, someone at a rate of 17.4337 is making $36, 262 annually.

Posting of Bernalillo County pay results in needed reforms

Wed, 2011-06-08 16:06 — pgessing

Our posting of the Bernalillo County payroll online has resulted in exactly the kind of transparency we hoped for. Commissioner Art De La Cruz is calling for an employee pay study to make sure that the County's pay structure makes sense. The story is available here.

Multiple KRQE Stories on Posting Publicly-Available Salary Information

Wed, 2011-06-01 10:56 — pgessing

The Rio Grande Foundation recently posted Bernalillo County workers' salary information (which is publicly-available upon request) on this website. KRQE Channel 13 took an interest in the issue and subsequent controversy at the County. The reports have been posted below:

Rio Grande Foundation makes Bernalillo County salary information available online

Mon, 2011-05-23 09:15 — pgessing

Taking up where the Bernalillo County Commission left off with its recent transparency website initiative, the Rio Grande Foundation has made Bernalillo County payroll information available online (click here).

To publicize this information, the Foundation has called a press conference at Civic Plaza at which Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing will speak along with Commissioner Wayne Johnson, a transparency leader in Bernalillo County government, and Sarah Welsh of the Foundation for Open Government. The press conference will take place at 10am on Wednesday, May 25th.

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