States are now suing pension systems for information

Pension systems all over the nation are in crisis and they have garnered quite a bit of media attention over the past few months.

Today, Andrew Harris of Bloomberg.com reported that that the state of Colorado is suing the state's pension system to obtain information about the top 20% beneficiaries of the system. The lawsuit does not seek to obtain identities but does seek amounts paid and the ages of the retirees.

This is a huge step toward transparency and accountability for the pension system in Colorado and perhaps leaders in Kentucky should take note...it could/should happen here soon!

Atlanta cheating scandal & transparency

This is a perfect example of why transparency in the education system is so important.

McCreary Superintendent evaluation includes student achievement

The most recent performance evaluation of the McCreary County Public Schools superintendent includes a section devoted to "student achievement". This is huge step forward with regards to holding district leadership accountable for poor performance.

In the 2010 evaluation, there is no such mention. You can view the 2011 evaluation here. Both of these evaluations were obtained via the Kentucky Open Records Act. If you look closely on the "Student Achievement & Learning" page, you will notice there is an asterisk with the title. At the bottom of the page you will see that this section of the evaluation was recommended by "education support groups". Yes! yes it was!

Rewarding superintendents while the students in their district suffer through underperformance is an issue that has been plaguing Kentucky for quite sometime. For full analysis of this issue, be sure to check out Rewarding Failure: The rubber-stamping of Kentucky superintendent evaluations.

JCPS school board admits disappointment in superintendent evaluation

The Bluegrass Institute recently submitted a records request to obtain the most recent (2009-2010) performance evaluation for former Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent Sheldon Berman. You can read/ download this evaluation here. This was a follow up to a previous request that was a part of the investigative report, "Rewarding Failure".

In that report we criticized the school board for providing a glowing review for Berman's performance while failing to even MENTION the incredible number of underperforming schools in the district. This time around it was at least mentioned...

Considering very few school boards across the state even mention student performance in superintendent evaluations, the fact that disappointment was expressed by the JCPS school board is a significant step forward. Granted, it is just a couple of sentences from a multi-page document but it does represent a willingness to bring this discussion into the open and an awareness that the superintendent is the CEO of the school district.

'Rewarding Failure' on #FOIAchat

I will be discussing education open records requests and "Rewarding Failure" on FOIAchat this afternoon. FOIAchat takes place each Friday, 2pm EST on Twitter as a way for transparency advocates across the nation to share stories and best practices for open records.

You can follow me on twitter @LoganBIPPS and the hashtag for the conversation is #FOIAchat.

Mass cheating in Atlanta, need for transparency

Atlanta teachers hosting parties to change incorrect answers to correct answers on standardized tests?

This is a great argument for increased transparency in the education system as well as reason to question and verify state released scores for standardized tests.

View the SPARSE Knox Co. superintendent evaluation

Knox County Schools has been exemplary in its efforts to fill our open records requests. This week, they maintained that form and filled a request to obtain the most recent superintendent performance evaluation.

You may remember that superintendent Walter Hulett received a PERFECT score this year.

We wanted to see for ourselves what the evaluation looked like and now, you can too.

View the evaluation.

Honestly, it seems odd that the superintendent received a perfect score and that there were not any comments left about his performance. Is this really the type of accountability we want in our education system?


Knox County Public Schools were one of four schools profiled in "Rewarding Failure"

View Carter County's 2010 superintendent evaluation

We recently submitted an open records request to obtain the 2009-2010 evaluation for Carter County Public Schools superintendent Darlene Gee.

You can view/download this evaluation here.

Just as with last year, there is virtually no mention of individual school performance, specific metrics, or goals. Gee "meets" expectations in all categories. The only comment from the evaluator is in the image below:

Does this evaluation reflect the type of accountability we want to see from those responsible for our children's education?

Great LFUCG salary database

Kentucky.com has posted a great Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government salary database that allows citizens to search salaries by position, name, and department.

This is a helpful transparency tool! It would be ideal if the city would be proactive and post this information on its own website.

Check it out here!

$6.1 million in congressional staffer bonuses

If you are job hunting in the midst of our nation's financial downturn, consider this: there is an organization that, even when rumored it would experience a shutdown, is still handing out taxpayer money in bonuses!

Care to take a guess at who that might be? Yup, you guessed it.

This is exactly why transparency is so important. It is the first step toward keeping our government accountable.

Double-checking 'perfect'

We wrote yesterday about how the Campbellsville Independent School Board turned in a perfect score evaluation for their superintendent.

Today, we submitted an open records request to obtain a copy of the performance evaluation along with the criteria the board uses for evaluation.  You can monitor the progress of the request here.

Louisville mayor takes transparency step

Louisville mayor Greg Fischer is talking spending reduction and transparency in the mayor's office. This is what we need more of! While the cuts and changes he's proposing are small, they are indeed a step forward. There can be no accountability without transparency.

Transparency, accountability and cuts are easier to talk than walk

The White House has announced a new initiative to cut government waste and reduce deficit spending starting with the removal of nearly 500 websites managed by the federal government. It is certainly a nice gesture.



Toward the end of the video Vice President Biden discusses transparency and accountability and how taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent. He's speaking The Bluegrass Institute's language BUT as always, it is easier to make claims of transparency and accountability than it is to follow through on them. It reminds me of another video...



Unfortunately, Kentucky never saw that efficiency study. Wouldn't it be great if Kentucky could set the standard for reducing costs associated with government? Do you think this is possible?

New transparency feature

A new transparency feature was added to FreedomKentucky.org today. If you go to the front page you can find an icon called "help force government transparency". Just like the "be heard" link we posted yesterday this function allows you to share information about where government is wasting money and/or not being held accountable.

Remember, transparency is the first step toward accountability.

This is a way YOU can make a difference!

Kentucky should look to...Vermont?

This week Vermont strengthened its open records laws to reimburse the requesting citizen's legal fees if they win in a denial appeal. This is a small but great win for the transparency movement! There were other minor changes to the law that enhanced transparency as well.

Kentucky's lawmakers need to follow suit and continue to enhance transparency in Kentucky. For starters they could begin releasing preliminary documents so citizens can see the process behind decision making.

Contact your legislator and tell them you want to talk about transparency!

Records request for Passport Health Plan proposal

We recently submitted an open records request to obtain the proposal that was provided to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services by University Health Care, Inc. (Passport Health Plan) for Fiscal Year 2011 services including all exhibits, appendices, attachments, and other associated documentation that was part of the negotiation basis for the contract negotiated with University Health Care, Inc.


You can can up with the request process here.

This is a part of Operation: Open Records 2011

State refuses to release preliminary documents

The Bluegrass Institute recently appealed the denial of an open records request to the Attorney General's office. These requests were sent to the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet. You can read more about the appealed requests here.

Among a variety of senseless reasons for the denial was the fact that the Cabinet felt "all related documents are preliminary in nature and therefore exempt from disclosure under the Open Records Act pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(i) and (j)."

It is certainly true that the statute reads that way. You can read for yourself here.

But this does bring up a question: should preliminary drafts, documents, and correspondence be subject to open records requests? It certainly seems like all these items could provide crucial insight into how decisions are made. Open records laws in Kentucky are a good start but they could certainly be improved.

What do you think?

Interpretation gap, Patriot Act and open records laws

The renewal of the Patriot Act has been all the buzz lately. A recent interview with Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) from Wired.com poses an interesting thought that has implications for governments and legislation at all levels, not just the federal government:

"We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden tells Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands."

This "gap" is very important. For instance, when interpreting open records laws, it is very possible that private citizens and government agencies have very different ideas of how that process should work.

Here is a prime example.

Where is the check and balance on tax incentives?

In case you have not been keeping up, there has been a recent outbreak of tax "incentives". Various companies have been handpicked for tax favors incentives for expanding their operations. Most recently a theme park in-progress in Northern Kentucky received $43 million in tax breaks as well as securing an additional $11 million in road improvements.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am all for tax breaks - in fact, we should extend them to every single business in the state.  The problem lies with the origin, oversight and application of these "incentives".

Where in Frankfort is there a check and balance for this type of activity? Who decides what businesses receive tax breaks, how much they are granted, and what unfortunate entrepreneurs are stuck paying the full tax rate.

I would think that most businesses would like to have $11 million in road improvements around their operations. Why is this process not transparent?

Contact your state legislator and tell them you want this process to be more transparent!

Tax "incentive" questions, transparency

Governor Steve Beshear's office posted a press release today outlining some tax break incentives granted to a rail company for expanding their operations in Kentucky. The press release states that the expansion will create 75 new jobs.

New jobs are great, especially given Kentucky's unemployment rate.

This does bring up a couple of questions though:

1. What businesses in Kentucky are not receiving these tax incentives for expansion?
2. In an effort to make the Commonwealth as business friendly as possible, why don't we just extend these "tax incentives" to every business operating in the the state?

This is a great example of how transparency can be improved in the state. Citizens deserve to know why some businesses receive tax incentives while others do not.