Making public information public is easier said than done

Information is power.

And this election season, Vindicator readers have the power to find a new level of pre-election information, especially about ballot issues. One piece of information appears in summary boxes or in the text of stories on tax issues telling the reader what the tax means in dollars and cents for a house worth $100,000. That’s a nice, round figure that allows a homeowner to determine his cost with a little math, whether his house is worth $50,000 or $500,000.

And now there is a wealth of new information available to voters on the Government Watch site that can be accessed on Vindy.com.

The heart of Government Watch is public information that should be available to anyone who requests it from any political subdivision in the state of Ohio.

In the past, printing all this information was impractical, but linking our print stories to the wealth of information that can be put on the paper’s website gives any reader new insight into how government works.

This newspaper has historically editorialized for stronger public records and open meetings legislation and has fought some historic court battles over open government issues in the last 30 years.

Loosening the grip

Perhaps the only surprising thing is how difficult it continues to be to wrest from the hands of some public officials the documents that are clearly defined by Ohio law as public information.

For instance, the initial response by the Poland Local School District for salary data was both unnerving and sad. At one point we were forced to post a scribbled list of the district’s administrators and their salaries because no electronic or printed list was said to be available.

Government Watch now contains PDFs covering five years of Poland school payroll records, which was what a reporter requested six weeks earlier.

Responding to the newspaper’s request for information should have been routine for any political subdivision. With some, it was, but Poland schools weren’t the only exception.

As time goes on and The Vindicator’s requests for data become more routine, we anticipate the level of confusion about what’s requested and what’s required to shrink. Eventually it should disappear.

The information being made available may initially produce some culture shock. But in time, news consumers will develop a better and more sophisticated understanding of what they’re paying for, what service they are getting and whether their county, local school district, township, village or city needs more income to provide the service they need or have come to expect.

To expand on our opening statement, information isn’t just power, it’s a power capable of driving better government.