Category: Access to Info

The debut of TAP MN

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Eagle-eyed Todd Kruse brings this to our attention. The Minnesota Management & Budget Office launched its long-awaited web site to track state spending: the Transparency and Accountability Project for Minnesota (TAP MN) . TAP MN can also be used to track Minnesota’s use of federal stimulus dollars. State agencies and the public can request spending reports by agency, fund, category or vendor. Look for updates often. It will be interesting to compare this to the federal version of this database, www.usaspending.gov/.

Helen Burke, MNCOGI Chair

Peter S. Popovich Award

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We want to say congrats to the Peter S. Popovich Award winners this year – especially to our own Robbie LaFleur.

Mary Flister, who has been recording Maplewood city meetings and making them available to the community, despite rebukes from to stop, and Robbie LaFleur, director of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, who has been an unyielding advocate of information accessibility for the general public, both received the Peter S. Popovich Award.

Peter S. Popovich Award is awarded by the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists.

What’s the holdup for Minnesota’s database?

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Todd Kruse’s crusade to have the sun shine in on Minnesota state government spending got some ink in a 5/16 Star Tribune editorial, “A blogger’s quest: Where’s the database?” Kruse seeks to have the Minnesota Department of Administration fully implement last year’s State Government and Omnibus Act. To comply with the 2007 Act, the state needs to create a database to track spending on contracts and grants.

Kruse is not alone in his quest. The National Taxpayer’s Union is one of several groups tracking similar developments on the state level on its site, www.showmethespending.com. Good for Todd Kruse and the National Taxpayer’s Union for their diligence in pursuing transparency in government.

What’s the holdup for Minnesota’s database? It’s not lack of software; it’s readily available. The Minnesota Department of Administration estimates the cost at $1 to $1.5 million, and cites lack of dedicated funding. The cost of such a database is not as high as the Department antidicpates. The federal government implemented software that tracked spending for ~$200K last year – a fraction of the state’s estimate.

Here’s the evolution of the database tracking software. In 2006, OMB Watch devised fedspending.org. In 2007, the federal government found it to be so compelling that it adopted it as its own. And so, usaspending.gov was born. The same software the feds use is – and has been – available to Minnesota. The mandate from the legislature is almost a year old. Only the data appears to be lacking. Could 2008 be the year MN gets its database to track its own spending?

Helen Burke, hburke@hclib.org

Keeping an Eye on MN Legislature

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How and where Minnesota’s Congressional delegation working on Internet issues. Some interesting stories linked to each legislator’s name and locale. (Save the Internet)

A quick glimpse at legislative, judicial and regulatory realities in Minnesota, published by Free Press.
Note that Free Press will be holding their Media Reform Conference in Mpls June 6-8 2008. – Just as the title suggests, a look at who owns TV, radio, print media, the web, films and more.

LISTEN: TRUTH TO TELL – NOVEMBER 7 at 11AM – KFAI

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GOVERNMENT SECRECY: YOUR GOVERNMENT IS HIDING FROM YOU

More and more public information is being withheld from the public. This is not about security, it’s about secrecy in state and local government – reports and activities kept behind an opaque veil of bureaucracy and political expediency. MnDOT’s engineering and administrative reports on the I-35W bridge are merely one example of public employees refusing to disclose information that could save lives, injuries, and money. Contracts and deals are struck without bidding or scrutiny and reports of dangerous infrastructure flaws are kept under wraps. Who will break open the political cocoon that is becoming our government and let the butterfly free to allow citizens to access and control their government once again? Join TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen for a discussion with Minnesota’s most prominent advocates for open government, access and a free press.

GUESTS:
JOHN R. FINNEGAN, retired Editorial Page Editor, St. Paul Pioneer Press

DON GEMBERLING, Attorney and Retired Administrator, Minnesota Data Privacy Office
OTHERS TBA

2007 Awards: Data, Information and Knowledge Management

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The state of Minnesota recognizes that it is critical for taxpayers to trust in the overall honesty and integrity of public assistance programs for the state’s neediest citizens. Minnesota’s Family Investment Program (MFIP) is the state’s primary vehicle for helping low-income families with children make the transition from poverty into the workplace.

(Read more…)

Notice of Intent to Collect Stakeholder Input on Preservation of Electronic Documents

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The following announcement was published in the Minnesota State Register September 24, 2007

Office of Enterprise Technology
Chief Information Officer
Notice of Intent to Collect Stakeholder Input on Preservation of Electronic Documents

Under the provisions of Minnesota Laws 2007, Chapter 148, Article 2, Section 77, the state’s Chief Information Officer, Gopal Khanna, is to undertake a study related to preservation of electronic documents. The pertinent legislative language reads:

The chief information officer of the state, in consultation with the state archivist and legislative reference librarian, shall study how electronic documents and the mechanisms and processes for accessing and reading electronic data can be created, maintained, exchanged, and preserved by the state in a manner that encourages appropriate government control, access, choice, and interoperability. The CIO must report back through the CIO to the Legislature on findings and recommendations by January 15, 2008.

The law further requires that: The chief information officer shall solicit comments from stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the legislative auditor, attorney general, librarians, state services for the blind, representatives of the Minnesota Historical Society, other historians, and the media. The chief information officer shall also solicit comments from members of the public. To allow all citizens and stakeholders equal opportunity to submit comments, a web-enabled process will allow for structured input by use of an electronic survey accessible from the Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) website:
http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/home.do?agency=OETweb
or directly from the URL below.

The survey instrument will be available from Monday, September 24, 2007 until Monday, October 15,2007. At the conclusion of the survey period, all comments will be published on the OET website. To use the survey, go to http://survey.oet.state.mn.us/surveys/eds_stakeholder.htm