Another thought on putting a little electronic transparency in state government. How about this as a start?
Let the public see the purchases made on state Procurement Cards.
Procurement Cards, or ProCards are government issued credit cards. I for one would like to see what is being bought with these little pieces of plastic.
Now the cards will be rejected if someone tries to buy any of the following.
Airlines
Automobile/Vehicle Rental
Hotels and Motels
Eating Places, Restaurants
Bars, Cocktail Lounges, Discotheques, Nightclubs, and Taverns – Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages)
Quick Payment Service – Fast-Food Restaurants
Package Stores, Beer, Wine, Liquor
Financial Institutions
Security Brokers/Dealers
Insurance Sales and Underwriting
Insurance Premiums
Insurance (Not elsewhere classified)
Lodging
So I couldn’t pay for a trip to Europe with this card, but I bet I could buy jewelry, furniture, clothes, a big screen TV (I wonder if David Williams has one of these?)
The rules say I can’t rent a car, but could I buy one?
I think the public would probably get a little bent out of shape if they found a state office furnished with solid cherry furniture or antiques.
I would love to trip through these records.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Force or Farce?
Let’s give Steve Beshear credit for being able to steal a good idea even if it comes from a Right Wing Nut state legislator.
Citing the need for state government to exercise openness in how it conducts business, Gov. Steve Beshear today signed an executive order creating an eTransparency Task Force. Under the executive order, the group will bring recommendations to the governor on the creation and implementation of a “one-stop” information access tool that will include, among other things, providing information about state expenditures and state programs.
Does the following sound familiar?
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 42 to require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to create a searchable Web site to provide certain information on the expenditure of state funds; provide that the new sections shall be known as the "Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2008."
Two questions:
If this is such a great idea, I think it is, then why did it die in the legislature and who killed it? I don’t know why this died, other than most of our legislators would know a good idea if it bit them in the ass, but the guy that killed this puppy was Mike Cherry.
Cherry is the Democratic Legislator from Princeton, Kentucky and the chairman of the House State Government Committee where this bill died.
So once again the General Assembly fumbles the ball.
But I’m not so sure the Task Force will do much more than steam around in the fog and accomplish nothing.
Remember, the idea here is to recommend how to make state records accessible on the Internet. Now, this sort of thing is an unnatural act for most politicians and bureaucrats.
Take a look at the membership of the Task Force.
Chair – Secretary of Finance and Administration Cabinet, Jonathan Miller;
Vice Chairs – The Honorable Todd Hollenbach, Jr., State Treasurer, and The Honorable Crit Luallen, Auditor of Public Accounts;
The Honorable Jack Conway, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, or his designee;
The Honorable Richie Farmer, Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, or his designee;
The Honorable Trey Grayson, Secretary of State, or his designee;
The State Controller or designee;
The State Budget Director or designee;
The State Librarian or designee;
The Executive Director of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association or designee;
The Executive Director of the Kentucky Press Association or designee;
The Commissioner of the Commonwealth Office of Technology;
The Executive Director of the Office of Legal Services for Finance and Technology, Finance and Administration Cabinet;
The President of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce;
The Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees;
The Executive Director of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth; and
The Executive Director of Common Cause of Kentucky.
So, we start with 6 politicians that, to put it kindly, are pretty computer challenged.
Five of the remaining eleven members are state bureaucrats, of which only one the Commissioner of the Commonwealth Office of Technology hopefully will know what the issues are surrounding the task force’s job. Of course his job reports directly to the Chairman of the Task Force, which always fosters an open public discussion of issues.
Two members are from the main stream media. Notice they left the bloggers out, it must be a typo. While the media types may be tech savvy they are usually averse to actually working to get a story so we can’t expect a lot of effort here.
That leaves us with a business representative, I’m sure they will want all the contracts and spending records opened to public inspection.
The union representative and a couple of liberal human rights groups finish out the make-up of the Task-Force.
Oh, one final thing, eight of the appointees don’t ever have to show up. They can just designate whoever is in the office and not doing anything to go to the meetings, that is what is usually meant by “designee”.
This is a great idea, but I don’t see much chance of it working.
Citing the need for state government to exercise openness in how it conducts business, Gov. Steve Beshear today signed an executive order creating an eTransparency Task Force. Under the executive order, the group will bring recommendations to the governor on the creation and implementation of a “one-stop” information access tool that will include, among other things, providing information about state expenditures and state programs.
Does the following sound familiar?
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 42 to require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to create a searchable Web site to provide certain information on the expenditure of state funds; provide that the new sections shall be known as the "Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2008."
Two questions:
If this is such a great idea, I think it is, then why did it die in the legislature and who killed it? I don’t know why this died, other than most of our legislators would know a good idea if it bit them in the ass, but the guy that killed this puppy was Mike Cherry.
Cherry is the Democratic Legislator from Princeton, Kentucky and the chairman of the House State Government Committee where this bill died.
So once again the General Assembly fumbles the ball.
But I’m not so sure the Task Force will do much more than steam around in the fog and accomplish nothing.
Remember, the idea here is to recommend how to make state records accessible on the Internet. Now, this sort of thing is an unnatural act for most politicians and bureaucrats.
Take a look at the membership of the Task Force.
Chair – Secretary of Finance and Administration Cabinet, Jonathan Miller;
Vice Chairs – The Honorable Todd Hollenbach, Jr., State Treasurer, and The Honorable Crit Luallen, Auditor of Public Accounts;
The Honorable Jack Conway, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, or his designee;
The Honorable Richie Farmer, Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, or his designee;
The Honorable Trey Grayson, Secretary of State, or his designee;
The State Controller or designee;
The State Budget Director or designee;
The State Librarian or designee;
The Executive Director of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association or designee;
The Executive Director of the Kentucky Press Association or designee;
The Commissioner of the Commonwealth Office of Technology;
The Executive Director of the Office of Legal Services for Finance and Technology, Finance and Administration Cabinet;
The President of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce;
The Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees;
The Executive Director of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth; and
The Executive Director of Common Cause of Kentucky.
So, we start with 6 politicians that, to put it kindly, are pretty computer challenged.
Five of the remaining eleven members are state bureaucrats, of which only one the Commissioner of the Commonwealth Office of Technology hopefully will know what the issues are surrounding the task force’s job. Of course his job reports directly to the Chairman of the Task Force, which always fosters an open public discussion of issues.
Two members are from the main stream media. Notice they left the bloggers out, it must be a typo. While the media types may be tech savvy they are usually averse to actually working to get a story so we can’t expect a lot of effort here.
That leaves us with a business representative, I’m sure they will want all the contracts and spending records opened to public inspection.
The union representative and a couple of liberal human rights groups finish out the make-up of the Task-Force.
Oh, one final thing, eight of the appointees don’t ever have to show up. They can just designate whoever is in the office and not doing anything to go to the meetings, that is what is usually meant by “designee”.
This is a great idea, but I don’t see much chance of it working.
Clueless in Tokyo
WTF
He can’t pay for essential state services but he can go to Japan on a junket?
Gov. Steve Beshear and Economic Development Cabinet Secretary John Hindman will depart Sunday for an economic development trip to Japan. The trip will mark the first visit by Gov. Beshear to Japan as Governor.
And there aren’t any details. The link goes to another press release.
How many ways can I say clueless?
He can’t pay for essential state services but he can go to Japan on a junket?
Gov. Steve Beshear and Economic Development Cabinet Secretary John Hindman will depart Sunday for an economic development trip to Japan. The trip will mark the first visit by Gov. Beshear to Japan as Governor.
And there aren’t any details. The link goes to another press release.
How many ways can I say clueless?
Kentucky Democratic Convention
A few thoughts on the Kentucky Democratic Party state convention:
First, the most notable absence from the convention was Ben Chandler. Rumor was that Ben had pissed of a number of 6th Congressional Democrat players and want-a-be players by endorsing Barak Obama and was avoiding the Convention.
Given all of the excitement at this convention maybe he was just had a better way to spend a Saturday.
Second, Steve Beshear and his administration may be a total cluster-f**k when it comes to public perception, but they were pretty smooth in stacking the state central committee with Beshear loyalists.
Supporters of Gov. Steve Beshear stacked the Democratic State Central Executive Committee during the reorganization phase of the party's state convention in Lexington Saturday.
Top backers of the governor -- including his representatives such as Dick Prelopski and Wendell Cave -- handed out to the state party delegates in each of the six rooms blue pieces of paper with suggested names for committee members. Each blue half-sheet of paper said "Please Vote For:"
Third, I wish someone would give Heather Ryan a bunch of money. She has some rough edges but she managed to bring the entire convention to a standing ovation – twice – when she spoke.
Fourth, a lot of democrats still get indigestion at the sight of Bruce Lunsford. I know the guy is a millionaire with a bad case of short guy syndrome, but his speech, in my humble opinion, pretty well sucked. Anyone, (think Mitch McConnell here), could take it point by point and tear it to shreds.
The only reason I can see to vote for Lunsford is that he isn’t McConnell.
Fifth, by up close and personal observation Jerry Lundergan is as smarmy as ever.
First, the most notable absence from the convention was Ben Chandler. Rumor was that Ben had pissed of a number of 6th Congressional Democrat players and want-a-be players by endorsing Barak Obama and was avoiding the Convention.
Given all of the excitement at this convention maybe he was just had a better way to spend a Saturday.
Second, Steve Beshear and his administration may be a total cluster-f**k when it comes to public perception, but they were pretty smooth in stacking the state central committee with Beshear loyalists.
Supporters of Gov. Steve Beshear stacked the Democratic State Central Executive Committee during the reorganization phase of the party's state convention in Lexington Saturday.
Top backers of the governor -- including his representatives such as Dick Prelopski and Wendell Cave -- handed out to the state party delegates in each of the six rooms blue pieces of paper with suggested names for committee members. Each blue half-sheet of paper said "Please Vote For:"
Third, I wish someone would give Heather Ryan a bunch of money. She has some rough edges but she managed to bring the entire convention to a standing ovation – twice – when she spoke.
Fourth, a lot of democrats still get indigestion at the sight of Bruce Lunsford. I know the guy is a millionaire with a bad case of short guy syndrome, but his speech, in my humble opinion, pretty well sucked. Anyone, (think Mitch McConnell here), could take it point by point and tear it to shreds.
The only reason I can see to vote for Lunsford is that he isn’t McConnell.
Fifth, by up close and personal observation Jerry Lundergan is as smarmy as ever.
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