Steve and Jane's Big Adventure

How much will this little junket cost?

What do the taxpayers of Kentucky get from Steve and Jane’s vacation?

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. Joining the Governor and Sec. Hindman will be First Lady Jane Beshear who is Secretary of the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation, Governor’s Executive Cabinet Secretary Larry Hayes, Commissioner J.R. Wilhite, of the Department for New Business Development, and Commissioner George Burgess, of the Department for Existing Business Development. Joining the delegation is Alston Kerr. Ms Kerr is Chair of the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the World Games 2010 Foundation, Inc.

In Japan, the Governor will work to establish relationships with businesses considering new investments in Kentucky, and to continue to strengthen relationships with firms that are operating and growing in the Commonwealth.

Working to establish relationships?

Puhleeze.

Free the Documents

Here is an example of what currently goes on in Frankfort. The Commonwealth Office of Technology maintains an online document system called GotSource.

The public can search GotSource as a Guest user. The words I searched for and some of the results are listed below. The searches were limited to 100 responses sorted by date.

“Expenditures”

20070914_PMIS_Governance_Board_Agenda.doc
Copy of att6.8_payroll.xls
Financial Report
YTD Expenditure 1-31-01
Section III - 09b - GOT IT Overview- Expenditure Comparison Chart
Revenue Expenditure Summary

“Contract”

Copier CONTRACT.doc
Alabama contract
Section III - 10 - GOT IT Overview - Major Enterprise Contracts
RE: Panasonic Toughbooks on contract

“Contractor”

Time Tracking Business Rules.xls
IT Contractor Report (january06).xls
Training for Purchasing Professionals ITN#3-908-660-B Revised 8-14-2006.doc
NIC Contract Final 2-21-03.doc

“Telephone”

Kentucky Revenue Cabinet Locations and Telephone Numbers.doc
Kentucky State Telephone Directory Tutorial
2003 NASCIO Nomination NoCall.doc

If you click on any of the links above you get this:

Not Authorized

You are currently listed as Guest, which means you are not logged in. Guests are allowed to freely browse the publicly-readable portions of this server, but do not have permission to add content, make revisions or view restricted information.

I’m sure there is some Home Land Defense security reason for restricting the access to the Kentucky State Telephone Directory Tutorial and the 20070914_PMIS_Governance_Board_Agenda.doc. I’m just confused at what the reason might be.

Now here is the real problem. The Governor has created a Task Force that is charged with finding ways to create more transparency in State Government. He has put Jonathan Miller in charge and appointed Steve Dooley to the Task Force.

The problem?

Steve Dooley is the Commissioner of Commonwealth Office of Technology and Jonathan Miller is his boss. Either one could remove a lot of the secrecy built into GotSource with one direct order to their staff.

Opening up GotSource doesn’t take a Task Force recommendation, an order from the Governor or Legislative approval.

All it takes is for either Dooley or Miller to make a management decision. So guys, it’s time to walk the walk.