Bell (Ca.) arrests illustrate importance of open records

opinion, from Hawaii Reporter:

When Bell city officials started raking in obscene salary amounts, it’s a safe bet that they never considered the California Public Records Act. ... Eight Bell officials were arrested Sept. 21 for the misappropriation of $5.5 million. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called the Bell scandal “corruption on steroids.”

[...]

The California Public Records Act, which mirrors the federal Freedom of Information Act, requires public officials to disclose salaries, benefits and expenditures to the public. Political candidates must make similar disclosures. By law, records must be released within 10 working days barring extenuating circumstances.

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Hard times for Illinois, but not for governor's staff

from The Associated Press:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has handed out raises... to his staff while proclaiming a message of "shared sacrifice" and planning spending cuts of $1.4 billion because the state is awash in debt.
....

The overall payroll for the governor's staff and his budget office was slightly lower in May than last July — $123,000 less, or just under 2 percent, according to state payroll records. But other records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that dozens of employees reporting to the governor's office are paid by other agencies under Quinn's control.

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Wyoming School District Refuses to Hand Over Salary Information

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle filed a lawsuit against Laramie County School District 1 for not complying with the newspaper's request for the names of employees and their salaries. The assistant superintendent for LCSD1 said he would be breaking a state law if he provided the information sought, referring to a statute that requires legal advertising of school district salaries by category.

Laramie County School District 2 complied with an identical request.

For more information, click here.

Idaho organization launches salary database

The Idaho Freedom Foundation created a database on OurIdaho.com in which people can search for the names and salaries of government employees, KTVB.com reported. The IFF obtained the data via FOIA requests, and its database contains nearly 40,000 employees.

Want to know how much money your child's teacher makes? How about the police officer who pulled you over last night?

Now you can.

A group that bills itself as a think tank dedicated to limited government has launched a salary database, that allows anyone to look up the names and pay rates for a range of government employees.

More here.

Transparency portal proposed but unpopular in Ill.

Illinois state Rep. Michael Tryon is urging the government "to create a Web site with a searchable database containing information about contracts, expenditures and employee salaries," The State (Ill.) Journal-Register reported. However, the legislative director for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said some lower paid employees feel "sort of like their laundry's being aired." In other Illinois ethics news, the executive inspector general for agencies under the governor's office wants the law changed so that he and other inspectors won't have to wait for complaints to be filed in order to investigate anonymous tips.

Spurred by the Dec. 9 arrest of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, officials inside and outside of state government are studying ways to battle government corruption.

GateHouse Media’s State Capitol Bureau is tracking their work and examining the issues that arise at public hearings of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Reform. The idea is to help readers understand attempts to fix state government and make it run in a way that better serves the public.

Last Tuesday, the legislative committee focused for a second time on the topic of “open government.”

More here.

FOIA request reveals Rodriguez cost Michigan $6.6 million

When you add up the buyout, taxes, his salary and other compensation, Rich Rodriguez cost the University of Michigan $6.6 million, the Ann Abor News reported after obtaining records from an FOIA request. That amounts to $2.2 million for each of the team's wins this season.

Rich Rodriguez wasn't paid $6.6 million to coach the University of Michigan's football team last year, but that's how much he cost the school.

A Freedom of Information Act request by the Ann Arbor News revealed Michigan paid $4.1 million to cover part of Rodriguez's buyout and related taxes from his contract at West Virginia.

Rodriguez's salary and other compensation amounted to an additional $2.5 million. To give that $6.6 million figure perspective, the News noted that school president Mary Sue Coleman earns $553,500 annually and athletic director Bill Martin gets $380,368.

More here.

Public Hospital = Public Salaries

An Iowa hospital has lost its fight to keep secret the salaries of its employees.

District Judge Michael Mullins ordered the Davis County Hospital in Bloomfield to turn over payroll records that Bloomfield resident Kenneth Turner requested last year. Hospital officials declined to comment Monday.

Last June, the county-owned hospital denied Turner's request to learn the salaries of its employees. The Des Moines Register then sought access to some of the same information.

In response, the hospital sued Turner and the newspaper, seeking a court injunction that would allow the hospital to keep secret employee salaries and bonuses.

The newspaper then dropped its request for the records. Turner hired a lawyer and pursued the matter.

Under Iowa's open-records law, the wages of government employees are considered public information. A separate law dealing with county hospitals says the salaries "of all employees paid in whole or in part from a tax levy shall be a public record and open to inspection."But Iowa law also says a government agency can keep secret such information by proving to a court that disclosure is not in the public interest and would "substantially and irreparably injure any person or persons."

The hospital contended in court that disclosure of its salaries would cause embarrassment and inconvenience, discourage medical professionals from working in Bloomfield and make it harder to retain employees.

More here.