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City Gets So Open It Almost Feels Wrong to Look

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The City of Bainbridge has just opened up, even more. Today, June 1, Finance Director Ellen Schroer announced the launch of a financial analysis platform powered by OpenGov.com that provides residents, elected officials, and staff with access to the City’s finances.

Looking at the data almost feels like committing a crime. For example, one of the features of the new web-based tool is the city’s checkbook (quite tidily kept). You can see from the tool that the latest check, #338559, went to the Washington State Department of Health in the amount of $318.25 for a permit. Ace Hardware got a check in the amount of $8.69 for supplies. And Budget Rooter earned $571.50 for a recent repair job. Go ahead and set filters for the data, such as by vendor name, and you can see how much money other people are making.

The tool also shows City government spending and revenue detail from 2010 to the present. You can examine historical revenue and expenditure trends over time and organize your views by fund, department, expense, or revenue type. You can, for example, determine that the big department on campus is Public Works, with a 2015 budget of nearly $17 million. City Council, by comparison, is like the Chess Club, with a budget of just $116,000. You can also see what benefits City employees get and spy on their salary increases.

City Manager Doug Schulze explained, “This is an important step in our continuing effort to create a transparent local government, and I am proud that the City of Bainbridge Island is among the early adopters choosing to leverage the benefits of the OpenGov technology.”

But it’s not just transparency to the public that’s being served. The City too will use the tool to create custom reports, manage operations to budget, and keep administrators informed.

More than 300 cities in 38 states have signed up with the service.

Want to peek? Click here.

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Photo courtesy of Robert Meeks.


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