Mandel asks officials to post spending online
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Republican state Treasurer Josh Mandel sent letters Tuesday to more than 18,000 school-board members, county commissioners, township trustees and other local officials, hoping they will agree to post details of their public spending online.
It’s the next step in Mandel’s efforts to provide greater public access to such information after the launch late last year of OhioCheckbook.com, a website that enables searches of spending by state offices.
Users can search the site by individual or company name or agency for checks issued since fiscal 2008. A “popular searches” feature allows review of spending for travel, food, lottery prizes, sick leave and other areas.
Mandel said he has invited the state’s 3,962 local government offices — school districts, counties, townships, sewer districts and others — to post their checkbook information online, at no cost to them, thus expanding the scope of public spending details readily available to taxpayers.
“We believe this is the first time in the history of the state of Ohio, and also anywhere nationally, where local governments at all levels will in one place be able to post their information for taxpayers to be able to see it,” Mandel said.
“This fulfills a vision for citizens throughout the state of Ohio to be able to hold public officials accountable.”
A half-dozen or so local offices already have agreed to participate, including the city of Findlay and a Cincinnati-area school district.
“We want folks to actually know and understand what we’re doing,” said Findlay Mayor Lydia Mihalik.
Republican state Auditor Dave Yost supports the initiative.
“I don’t think it’s too much to say that if local governments will accept ... this invitation, that this could be the most-important initiative for transparency and public access since the Public Records Act,” Yost said.
OhioCheckbook.com cost more than $800,000 and about a year and a half to develop.
Mandel said the new local government database should be active by midyear.