The Project Sunlight for Dutchess County Petition

The New York Times strongly editorialized in support of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's new innovative Project Sunlight website initiative with Blair Horner (formerly of NYPIRG) December 6th; a Daily Freeman editorial October 13th also strongly praised the Project Sunlight website as follows:

"a single Internet site at which Empire State residents could track campaign contributions, identify legislative patrons of pork barrel spending, monitor lobbyists, keep tabs on state contracts and call up legislative voting records; such a site could mobilize the power of the Internet by putting a centralized database at the fingertips of each of New York's 18 million residents; it's more than a good idea; it's a mandatory adaptation of the principles of open government to the Information Age."
[see NYTimes.com/2007/12/06/opinion/06wed3.html?ref=opinion;
[DailyFreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18907691&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=82701&rfi=6]

Question: Do you think our County Legislature should follow the Attorney General's good example on a local level-- and ask our county's Department of Public Works, Central Services, Comptroller, Board of Elections, Board of Ethics, Economic Development Corporation, Empire Zone, Industrial Development Agency, and Office of Computer Information Services to put together a task force with representatives from each of those departments to evaluate the feasibility and cost of a county-level Project Sunlight for Dutchess County-- so local residents can be much more easily informed with easy internet access to county contracts, campaign donations, voting records, ethics filings, Empire Zone records, Industrial Development Agency records, and meeting minutes for all county boards, including the County Legislature (this task force to report back to the Dutchess County Legislature in March 2008)?

The Poughkeepsie Journal has repeatedly documented conflicts of interest in our county government, linking large county contracts with large county donations-- many of them from county vendors from outside Dutchess. The Poughkeepsie Journal has also strongly editorialized twice (9/16/00 and 5/29/04) that our county government should move to end such massive conflicts of interest by following the example of Rockland County and instituting a $100 limit on campaign donations from companies who do business with the county to countywide officials or candidates; public records at our county's Board of Elections and Comptroller's bear this out.

[For more evidence on this-- as well as more information on legalized kickbacks and massive conflicts of interest re: large campaign donations to top county officials from far-away special interests who "just happen" to get into our county's Empire Zone, see petitiononline.com/cleangov.]

Those of us who have been closely watching our county government for the past ten years have discovered over and over again that far too much information that shouldn't be secret is; we shouldn't be forced to individually file Freedom of Information Act requests over and over again to learn the common-sense information about our county government that we as taxpayers have a right to know in a true participatory democracy.

Let 2008 be the year that the sun can finally shine in on our government here in Dutchess County; see just below the resolution submitted by yours truly December 10th for a county-level Project Sunlight website to be reality-- if you agree, sign on to this petition, email [email protected] and [email protected], and pass it along to all you know.

Joel Tyner
County Legislator
Clinton/Rhinebeck
324 Browns Pond Road
Staatsburg, NY 12580
[email protected]
876-2488

More information:

-- SunlightNY.org;
-- OAG.state.ny.us/press/2007/jan/jan31a_07.html;
-- Brandeis.edu/investigate/sunlight/;
-- NorthCountryGazette.org/articles/2007/022207Sunlight.html.

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WHEREAS, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis stated that "publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases; sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman"; James Madison, the Founding Father of the Bill of Rights observed that, "knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives", and

WHEREAS, a Daily Freeman editorial October 13th strongly praised our state's new Project Sunlight as "a single Internet site at which Empire State residents could track campaign contributions, identify legislative patrons of pork barrel spending, monitor lobbyists, keep tabs on state contracts and call up legislative voting records; such a site could mobilize the power of the Internet by putting a centralized database at the fingertips of each of New York's 18 million residents; it's more than a good idea; it's a mandatory adaptation of the principles of open government to the Information Age"; the New York Times also strongly editorialized in support of Project Sunlight December 6th, and

WHEREAS, through Project Sunlight, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Public Integrity Bureau is also publishing state data on corporations and charities onto a single website; the current disclosure system is balkanized and unconnected; the state now only provides scattered dots of information; Project Sunlight will be connecting the dots to show the full picture to increase New Yorkers' trust and accountability in our state government and empower citizen activists, journalists, and public interest groups to monitor government; 2007 is the 30th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act; it is fitting to mark it by launching Project Sunlight, and

WHEREAS, Project Sunlight, up and running in November with the support of Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver by inclusion in the 2007 state budget, is an effort begun by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office to promote citizens' right to know and to monitor governmental decision-making; Project Sunlight goes well beyond the existing systems in making public information accessible; by combining multiple databases into a single, easy-to-use Internet resource, New Yorkers will be able to quickly examine elected officials' voting records and campaign contributors, and find out which entities may have benefited from their actions, and

WHEREAS, Project Sunlight promotes transparency and accountability in government; advanced searches on the website are possible examining seven different datasets or follow simple search options to easily explore governmental information; while some databases are currently public domain, they are difficult to navigate, and the current process of accessing public information can be burdensome and time-consuming, and the website also offers educational videos and materials to inform citizens about the basic laws governing official conduct as well as an instructional video on how to use the website, and

WHEREAS, Project Sunlight is also conducting a civic dialogue with New Yorkers on ways to improve Project Sunlight; the website is designed to receive thoughts and comments from New York residents and will be incorporating these ideas to further strengthen the website, and it is only by revealing as much as possible about our county government that Dutchess residents will believe that they are being told the truth about what's really happening in our county government, and therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature ask our county's Department of Public Works, Central Services, Comptroller, Board of Elections, Economic Development Corporation, and Office of Computer Information Services put together a task force with representatives from each of those departments to evaluate the feasibility and cost of a county-level Project Sunlight for Dutchess County so local residents can be much more easily informed about county contracts, campaign donations, voting records, ethics filings, Empire Zone records, Industrial Development Agency records, and meeting minutes for all county boards, including the County Legislature, this task force to report back to the Dutchess County Legislature in March 2008, and be it further

RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to the County Executive and our county's Department of Public Works, Central Services, Comptroller, Board of Elections, Board of Ethics, Economic Development Corporation, Empire Zone, Industrial Development Agency, and Office of Computer Information Services.

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From http://www.Brandeis.edu/investigate/sunlight/ ...

"Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.
--Justice Louis Brandeis, Other Peoples Money, and How the Bankers Use It, 1933.

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From the Daily Freeman October 13th...

http://www.DailyFreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18907691&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=82701&rfi=6

Editorial: "Project Sunlight"

Imagine a single Internet site at which Empire State residents could track campaign contributions, identify legislative patrons of pork barrel spending, monitor lobbyists, keep tabs on state contracts and call up legislative voting records.

Such a site could mobilize the power of the Internet by putting a centralized database at the fingertips of each of New York's 18 million residents.

That's exactly what Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has in mind with an initiative he has dubbed "Project Sunlight."

Blair Horner, the man Cuomo put in charge of Project Sunlight in February, said last week that a version of the one-stop Internet site should be running within a couple of weeks.

It's more than a good idea - it's a mandatory adaptation of the principles of open government to the Information Age.

It's also a measure of the cynicism of New York state government that it hadn't happened earlier and that it will take the independent action of the attorney general, rather than the state Legislature, to accomplish.

That would be the state Legislature whose members so stubbornly insist the institution is not dysfunctional, merely misunderstood by everyone who is not a member.

Well, it's understandable - the centralized database promises a kind of digital proctology exam of Albany World, getting voters up close and personal to how things really work up there.

We are not so naive as to think that even digitizing essential public information and making it easily searchable from a single site will cure the multiple ills of New York's cynical political culture.

For one thing, the citizenry has been beaten hopeless by a political class that ceaselessly elevates its selfish concerns over those of the public.

For another, the political class in New York has so putrefied that perhaps no amount of sunlight can begin to disinfect.

And, then, there's the boundless imagination of politicos to evade every measure intended to open up the process. We well remember, for instance, the shamelessness of then Gov. George E. Pataki, who filed a required campaign finance statement with donor names alphabetized - by first name. We also remember how easily he got away with it, with barely a peep out of the public.

Still, Project Sunlight is a good idea that potentially could give new impetus to Albany World reform that has so sadly stalled under Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who quickly has fallen prey to closed-door syndrome.

As Horner, who spent nearly 25 years with the New York Public Interest Research Group, put it, "Albany needs work. It needs a culture of openness, not a culture of secrecy."

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From http://www.NYTimes.com/2007/12/06/opinion/06wed3.html?ref=opinion ...

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL
Theres Sunlight in Albany?
Published: December 6, 2007

So seldom is there good news out of New Yorks state capital that when something like the new Project Sunlight Web site emerges, the instinct is to wonder how soon before the forces of darkness will try to kill it. Until they do, the new site from Attorney General Andrew Cuomos office gives ordinary New Yorkers the ability to see information about their state that should have been easily accessible in the first place.

Over the years, New Yorks lawmakers have found increasingly artful ways to make it hard for anybody outside the capital to know what theyre doing. Campaign records were kept in different counties. One governor listed donors by their first names. More recently, data about which legislator doled out which goodie to the home district from a ball field to a cheese museum was given out strictly on a need-to-know basis. And when journalists finally took legislative leaders to court to get these lists of member items the information was released in ways that blocked most computers from using it. The rule was that any public information had to be extremely difficult for the public to get in most cases, one had to file a Freedom of Information request and start knitting a very large sweater.

If that changes with this new Sunlight Web site, it is because Mr. Cuomo had the foresight to pick Blair Horner, one of Albanys best activists, to take on the project. Mr. Horner and his team have attempted to knit campaign finance data to lobbying data to legislative data. They have included information about contracts and corporations and charities. In theory, that means a member of the public could look up a bill or a contract, and see which lawmaker pushed it, which lobbying firm helped and how much campaign money was involved.

At this point, the site is just a start. The public is invited to ask for more data, and already we can see that it should include information from authorities, those quasi-public agencies that work quasi-underground. The ethics filings of state legislators should be on the site, as should the comptrollers payouts for management fees for the state pension.

More transparency can only help, although the old guard wont see it that way. As Mr. Cuomo argues correctly, it is only by revealing the good, the bad and the ugly that New Yorkers will start believing that somebody is telling them the truth about how their state really works. Project Sunlight is at: www.sunlightny.com.

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From http://www.SunlightNY.org ...

Project Sunlight is an effort by my office to promote your right to know and to monitor governmental decision-making. This website - the first of its kind in New York - allows you to easily access statewide government information that until now has been scattered and difficult to retrieve.

Of course, Project Sunlight would not be available without the support of Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Their agreement - and the support of the entire legislature - ensured that start-up funding for Project Sunlight was included in this year's state budget.

Currently, we are working on the first phase of this project: collecting and standardizing different data and making it available to you on a comprehensive, easy-to-search website. During this initial phase, you have the ability to search the Project Sunlight website to examine information related to campaign finance, legislation, lobbying activity, and recipients of state government contracts.

Our goal is to promote disclosure as well as to increase government's transparency and accountability to you. As James Madison, the Founding Father of the Bill of Rights observed, "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

We look forward to receiving your comments or suggestions, and any requests for additional information you would like to see made publicly available. We will incorporate your ideas into a more robust version in 2008.

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From http://www.OAG.state.ny.us/press/2007/jan/jan31a_07.html ...

January 31, 2007

ATTORNEY GENERAL ANDREW CUOMOS STATEMENT ON GOVERNOR SPITZERS EXECUTIVE BUDGET

Governor Spitzer and I were elected with a broad mandate to reform Albany. We promised to make government more open and accountable, and bring integrity and sound management to vital programs. In ways large and small, Governor Spitzers first executive budget puts these broad themes and values into concrete programs. I encourage the legislature to embrace these programs and demonstrate their commitment to reform and accountability.

In particular, I am pleased with those provisions of special importance to my job as Attorney General.
Let me first thank Governor Spitzer for funding Project Sunlight, a proposal I advanced to bring new transparency to state government. Through Project Sunlight, my offices Public Integrity Bureau will publish state data on legislative activity, campaign finance, lobbying, state contracts, and corporations onto a single website. The web site will be searchable, easy-to-use, and allow for cross-referencing of the data. Our current disclosure system is balkanized and unconnected. The state now provides scattered dots of information. We will connect those dots to show the full picture. In fact, not only will we bring together this disparate information we will improve it. In so doing we will increase trust and accountability, and empower citizen activists, journalists, bloggers, and public interest groups to monitor government. This year is the 30th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act. It is fitting to mark it by launching this project.

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From the North Country Gazette February 22, 2007...

[ http://www.NorthCountryGazette.org/articles/2007/022207Sunlight.html ]

Cuomo Proposes "Project Sunlight"

ALBANY---The person who has been a government watchdog for the past 25 years has now become part of the government.

Blair Horner, who served as the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) has been named by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to be a special advisor on policy and public integrity where he will oversee the development of "Project Sunlight", the state's first-ever comprehensive Internet database tracking donors, lobbyists, special interests, state contracts and elected officials and the links between them.

NYPIRG is a non-partisan, research and advocacy organization.

While many databases are currently public domain, they are difficult to navigate, Cuomo claims. Additionally, the current process of accessing public information can be burdensome and time consuming, he says. "Project Sunlight goes well beyond the existing systems in making public information accessible. By combining multiple databases into a single, easy-to-use Internet resource, New Yorkers will be able to quickly examine elected officials' voting records and campaign contributions.