Opening Doors to Transparency
Expanded Detail on Ohio Checkbook.com
The Government of the State of Ohio is still not as transparent as it could be with its finances. The State Government is very large and we should welcome watchdogs auditing our operations. We should invite them to help make us better, more efficient, and miserly with tax-payer dollars. Much more detailed information can be made available without breaking current laws. This information must not only be available but must easily be able to be put into a form that is easy to use for auditing. Citizen auditors should be able to place alerts on accounts so they get an email message when a condition is met. This means creating APIs, Plugins for websites and analytical tools, and database access through various online packages.
If, for example, we have a group of citizen auditors that want to focus on education spending. We should make it easy for them to find the data and connect it to a live website. This will allow them to give the public real time updates and send out alerts to their members if a set condition is met.
Expanded Access to All of Ohio's Databases
Ohioans are met with frustration everyday to view detailed data that the State can legally share but goes out of its way to restrict access to. A great example is the public health data relating to COVID-19. Yes, we believe personal information should never be shared and it would be illegal to do so. With that being said the information and its easy accessibility needs to be made available to those other than just health professionals. Ohio can be sharing much more granular detail on all of its databases than what they are currently.
State and Local Bar Investigations into Legal Professional Misconduct and Criminal Behavior
We cannot "trust" if we do not have the ability to "verify" or audit criminal, ethical, or moral misbehavior by the legal profession. The due diligence of a local or State Bar or that of the State Supreme Court must be made publicly available. Unlike with law enforcement, there is no division of internal affairs and it is important to be transparent. Local and State Bars and even the State Supreme Court of Ohio are not immune to corruption and being paid to look the other way.
