Follow Matt on Facebook

@mattdunnevt

The Issues

21st Century Transparency

According to the BGA-Alper Integrity Index, published by the Better Government Association, Vermont continues to rank near the bottom of all 50 states in financial disclosure transparency, due largely to the fact that there are no rules or guidelines for candidates to follow.  Additionally, Vermont ranked 48^th in transparency of state stimulus funding, our state’s legislative website was named “worst” of all state legislative sites by Congress.org, and Vermont ranked 44^th in e-governance according to the Brookings Institution. These rankings show a failure on the part of our state’s leadership. In order to move Vermont forward, we need to increase transparency in state government.

Vermont is facing difficult challenges. We are losing jobs and seeing increasing deficits. If we want businesses to create jobs in Vermont, we need to offer them clear guidelines and benchmarks to progress and predictability in government operations.

To transform state government and remove barriers between agencies to solve problems, we must have transparent goals. Vermont needs leadership that sets clear measurements of success and provides an understanding across departments of what success looks like. Transforming a public enterprise into a transparent and effective management structure requires meaningful culture change.

In order to ensure the trust of our citizens and, more importantly, engage them in helping to find solutions to our growing fiscal, economic and social problems, we need to be as open and transparent as possible.

A United States Public Interest Research Group report released last month, which cites nearly 70 sources and studies, gives Vermont an “F” for transparency.  The study states that increased transparency in government can:

• Reduce costs through increased government efficiency and lower waste, including savings in procurement, contracting, and IT management.
• Improve civic trust and democratic engagement through accountability, allowing citizens to immediately evaluate how their tax dollars are being spent and empowering voters to better decide who to vote for in the future.
• Bolster robust economic development through speed, efficiency, and convenience in government services that provide the resources for entrepreneurs and business owners to start, support, and grow businesses as they identify opportunities. Improvement in government services includes reducing the need for physical travel between governmental agencies for business licenses and permits, etc., improving accounting and record keeping through computerization, and easy access to information and forms leading to quicker and more accurate processing.

http://www.uspirg.org/home/reports/report-archives/tax--budget-policy/tax--budget-policy--reports/following-the-money-how-the-50-states-rate-in-providing-online-access-to-government-spending-data

The concerns regarding transparency have grown over the past few years…and reach across party lines.  Two think tanks, the progressive Public Assets Institute and conservative Ethan Allen Institute, have resorted to creating their own joint website in an effort to share public data with the public (www.vttransparency.org/).

Recently, Bruce Lisman, retired Chairman of the JP Morgan Chase Global Equity Division and former chair of the University of Vermont board of trustees, spoke about the importance of transparent government in spurring economic development in Vermont. Lisman said in his speech that if we want economic prosperity in Vermont, we need more transparency and accountability in our state government. (http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/bruce-lisman-finding-skin).

When I served as the head of AmeriCorps*VISTA, a Federal enterprise with over 6,000 full-time people on payroll (roughly the same size as Vermont’s state workforce), we established clear deadlines and goals and then allowed people in the field to use their creativity to achieve those goals. The changes we implemented dramatically increased private sector investment, reduced attrition, and led the highest level of participation in the history of AmeriCorps*VISTA.

A 10-Point Agenda for Transparency that can lead a Nation

Next generation innovation of communication tools and platforms to enhance participatory democracy, government transparency, and civic engagement can quickly move Vermont from worst to first in terms of transparency. A culture of transparency must start with those running for office and then permeate the government structure.  This does not preclude private conversations as part of the deliberative process or protection of information related to security or the privacy of individual Vermonters.  But there are vast improvements we can make to improve our system without compromising those standards.

As Governor, my administration will focus on the following priorities to move Vermont from last to first in transparency and e-governance:

·         Increasing campaign finance disclosures, including personal financial disclosure forms for all statewide candidates and office holders, codifying campaign finance laws passed last year in the Senate, and encouraging legislation that limits spending by any corporation that directly or indirectly does business with the State of Vermont;

·         Providing all member expenses and personal financial disclosure information on-line;

·         Posting all budget information on-line in searchable format;

·         Requiring all public data not privacy or security related, including government contracts and payment amounts, to be published and searchable on-line;

·         Providing clear metrics for success and real-time tracking dashboards for accountability;

·         Opening 311 platforms for citizens to crowd source problems/opportunities/solutions;

·         Posting the Governor's 9 to 5 schedule on-line;

·         Posting lobbyist disclosures on-line;

·         Webcasting budget presentations by managers and posting them on-line; and,

·         Holding regular agency head internal meetings, or "all-hands" meetings, and making them open and transparent, including allowing questions to be posted and voted on by state employees.

Meeting the needs of Vermonters, and ensuring that government produces the public value most important to Vermont citizens, will be a priority of my administration as we work together to transform the way state government operates and to change the culture in Montpelier.