Steve Lovejoy: Burlington leads way on openness

From Wisconsin State Journal:

Recently the city of Burlington made some changes to its website, adding a feature it calls a “performance dashboard.” The online tool gives city residents a better look — much of it in real time — about what their government is doing.

As the site explains, “Users can review monthly and yearly revenue, expenditures, per capita spending and performance measurements across several departments.”

[…]

Burlington’s performance dashboard stands in stark contrast to those efforts to keep the public in the dark. Burlington residents get monthly updates of the city’s general fund revenues and expenditures for the current and prior year. Taxpayers can compare the cost of city operations to those of other communities and find details on operation spending.

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is a member of NFOIC. Steve Lovejoy, a council member, is editor emeritus at the Racine Journal Times. — eds