Sunshine Review:What people are saying

From Sunshine Review

In newspapers

• The WikiFOIA portal was used as a source in the New Mexico Independent on an article discussing New Mexico's open records litigation.^[1]

• A guest column published in the Denver Post, titled No Taxation without Information, recommends Sunshine Review and encourages Colorado residents to ask for more online government transparency.^[2]

• Following up on this report on Sunshine Review, Louisiana newspaper The Advocate wrote an editorial, "Parish websites need upgrades".^[3]

• The New York Times featured Sunshine Review on its Caucus blog, saying, "[The Sam Adams Alliance representative] quoted Sam Adams..."It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds." Those brush fires also translate into a host of new Web sites and tools that the alliance hopes will gain hold. It now boasts three "pedias:" Judgepedia for vetting judges at the state level; Ballotpedia for initiatives and elections; and Sunshine Review for transparency in government."^[4]

• The Courier featured Sunshine Review's work on the evaluation of Louisiana's parishes.^[5]

• ARRA News Service in Arkansas cited Sunshine Review, saying, "But information is only part of the solution. When this information is made available, citizens should demand accountability to make sure that our taxes are spent wisely and efficiently. While I am grateful for more government transparency, it is only an important first step. Now it is up to us to use that information effectively.^[6]

• The Citizen in New Hampshire says, "Murphy said that what the Gilford Republicans are asking for is to have the current budget, meeting minutes, meeting agendas, information about elected officials, information about the administration, information about town-funded lobbyists, vendor contracts, checkbook registers, and election information made available on the respective websites. Even better would be to allow for record requests to be fulfilled online. All of those requests are derived from the suggestions on the SunshireReview website."^[7]

On blogs

• Radio talk show host and blogger Amy Oliver focused on the No taxation without information campaign pledging, "Going forward, it will be my mission to get my city — Greeley; my school district — Greeley Evans District Six, which has a “Comprehensive Accountability System” that doesn’t include budget transparency; my county — Weld County; and my state — Colorado to put their check registries on-line, in a searchable database.":^[8]

• The State Policy Network blog urged others to check out Colorado's transparency laws on Sunshine Review.^[9]

• Government Bytes wrote about The "My Government Website" Project on Sunshine Review saying it's "a wiki-style Website that hosts user reviews of local government Websites. Think about it: every city, county, and school district in the country. Pretty cool."^[10]

• The Cauldron by Caldara blog recommended checking out the Colorado pages on Sunshine Review.^[11]

• The Travis Monitor' mentioned Sunshine Review's launch, and so did Prairie Pundit and Texas Insider^[12],^[13],^[14]

• The Minnesota Center for Independent Media referred its readers to WikiFOIA's coverage of governor's responses to e-mail FOIAs.^[15]

• The Team Hammon Taxpayers Blog' encouraged its readers to check out the Transparency Checklist.^[16]

• Granite Grok, run by Skip Murphy, featured Sunshine Review's Ten-point Transparency Checklist in his blog when working to bring more transparency to Belknap County, New Hampshire. He said, "Running through the Sunshine checklist, Gilford meets only two of the 10 criteria, according to Murphy."^[17]

• The Sunlight Foundation featured the Transparency Checklist in their "Local Sunlight" blog.^[18]

Interviews

• NetSquared features an interview on how the Sam Adams Alliance is helping build Ballotpedia, Judgepedia and Sunshine Review to fight "taxation without information".^[19]

• PC World featured an interview about Sunshine Review quoting John Tsarpalas saying

"We have a lot of faith in the public," Tsarpalas said. "We saw that there was a real information gap when it came to transparency, and we just thought we needed to fill that information gap. We have a vested interest in how the government is spending our money -- I don't care what your viewpoint is."^[20]

• The Industry Standard featured an interview about how Sunshine Review is seeking voter input on a local level.^[21]

• The Fausta's Blog Talk Radio show featured an interview with the Sam Adams Alliance President John Tsarpalas about Sunshine Review, Ballotpedia, and Judgepedia.^[22]

Press room

• If you want to write or blog about Sunshine Review, check out the Press Room for an overview and contact information.

References