More Online Sunshine

Sunday’s editorial praises Georgetown for becoming the latest city to put its financial records online, and polls other local governments that have yet to do so about their plans.

Local advocates of open government got a double helping of good news in recent weeks. First, state Comptroller Richard Eckstrom stopped in Myrtle Beach to congratulate that city and Surfside Beach to be among the first local governments in the state to begin regularly posting a record of all their spending online. Almost immediately afterward, the city of Georgetown announced that it, too, would join the growing statewide push for a very simple form of transparency.

As the trailblazers, Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach probably share some of the credit for Georgetown's decision. Inside Georgetown, city manager Chris Eldridge credits Paige Sawyer with stirring up momentum for the idea. Georgetown's checks have not yet begun appearing online, but Eldridge says city officials are merely ironing out some final kinks in the reporting software and that the first checks should go online soon.

Transparency should be a fundamental goal of any governing body, and putting these check registers online should be a simple way of demonstrating a dedication to it. Myrtle Beach spokesman Mark Kruea has repeatedly said that the process involved almost no manpower – the spending reports were being generated anyway, so it was just a process of tweaking the finance software to create a version that could be uploaded to the Web.

For little pain, there several important gains. Most citizens may never look at the reports, but they surely have increased confidence in city leaders willing to bare their books so openly. Some city officials fear either a deluge of questions about minute items or the misuse of the data out of context to conjure misleading allegations of wrongdoing, but so far, even in a tough election season, neither problem has materialized.

Three local governments in a row (more than a dozen now statewide) begins to look like a trend, and sure enough, another city may be soon to follow. North Myrtle Beach officials are now in the process of putting their own checks online, said city spokeswoman Nicole Aiello, and a formal announcement of the plan is likely to be coming soon. When carried to fruition, this will be welcome news from North Myrtle Beach, where both we and the nonpartisan S.C. Policy Council have recently complained about other recent policies that restrict public access to records.

Further, Horry County is now taking initial steps, as county officials said this week that the technology staff is exploring what it would take to put the county's checks online. Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland, who previously was cool to the idea, said this week she will ask for a report on the effort at the county's November administration committee meeting.

Gilland remains skeptical, however, voicing concerns about the amount of labor required to set it up and saying that she plans to check first with Charleston County and see if citizens are using the service there. “If there's very little interest, then I'm not interested,” Gilland said.

We would maintain, however, that the cost-effectiveness of the effort will be undervalued by a clicks-per-man-hour comparison. All the money is the public's, and publicizing its use online is simply the right thing for government officials to do, no matter how many people look at it any given week.

 

As the trailblazers, Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach probably share some of the credit for Georgetown's decision. Inside Georgetown, city manager Chris Eldridge credits Paige Sawyer with stirring up momentum for the idea. Georgetown's checks have not yet begun appearing online, but Eldridge says city officials are merely ironing out some final kinks in the reporting software and that the first checks should go online soon.

Transparency should be a fundamental goal of any governing body, and putting these check registers online should be a simple way of demonstrating a dedication to it. Myrtle Beach spokesman Mark Kruea has repeatedly said that the process involved almost no manpower – the spending reports were being generated anyway, so it was just a process of tweaking the finance software to create a version that could be uploaded to the Web.

For little pain, there several important gains. Most citizens may never look at the reports, but they surely have increased confidence in city leaders willing to bare their books so openly. Some city officials fear either a deluge of questions about minute items or the misuse of the data out of context to conjure misleading allegations of wrongdoing, but so far, even in a tough election season, neither problem has materialized.

Three local governments in a row (more than a dozen now statewide) begins to look like a trend, and sure enough, another city may be soon to follow. North Myrtle Beach officials are now in the process of putting their own checks online, said city spokeswoman Nicole Aiello, and a formal announcement of the plan is likely to be coming soon. When carried to fruition, this will be welcome news from North Myrtle Beach, where both we and the nonpartisan S.C. Policy Council have recently complained about other recent policies that restrict public access to records.

Further, Horry County is now taking initial steps, as county officials said this week that the technology staff is exploring what it would take to put the county's checks online. Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland, who previously was cool to the idea, said this week she will ask for a report on the effort at the county's November administration committee meeting.

Gilland remains skeptical, however, voicing concerns about the amount of labor required to set it up and saying that she plans to check first with Charleston County and see if citizens are using the service there. “If there's very little interest, then I'm not interested,” Gilland said.

We would maintain, however, that the cost-effectiveness of the effort will be undervalued by a clicks-per-man-hour comparison. All the money is the public's, and publicizing its use online is simply the right thing for government officials to do, no matter how many people look at it any given week.