One of the first projects I went to work on after returning to St. Petersburg was to ask the city to make available online the campaign treasurers’ reports detailing the contributions and expenditures of all the candidates running for city government. I wrote an open letter to Councilman Karl Nurse asking him and his colleagues “to instruct the City Clerk’s office to develop an online system that provides all of the information found on the Campaign Treasurers’ report, including all of the contributors to each campaign, the dates when contributions are made and all of the expenditures each candidate makes. This should go beyond a posting of the Campaign Treasurers’ reports, to include an actual database that can be searched for specific information.” Well, ask and you shall receive.
I saw Karl at a meeting today and he wrote this to me on his Blackberry: “Peter, I spoke to the City Clerk, Eva. She is going to post the treasurer’s reports on the website. I realize this not everything you want. However, it is a significant step forward. I will continue to propose steps to make our government more open. My websitehas a number of things that I have been able to get done in this area. Way to go, Karl! Thank you for making this a priority.
