Editorial: Westmoreland County controller serves public by putting audits online
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The idea of putting public information in the hands of the public isn’t one of those things that was enshrined from the beginning of the United States — not like freedom of speech or freedom of assembly. The founders knew early on that they wanted people to have the right to not incriminate themselves or the right to a speedy trial, but it took almost 200 years for government to realize that there were other issues that were important.
Namely, the government’s data is the people’s data. With few exceptions — such as national security or laws like HIPAA — what the government has should be accessible. But for some reason, that concept wasn’t enshrined until the Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1966.
That was a great start. But like a lot of great efforts, it needed more work. The concept has been fine-tuned at the state and federal levels. Lower levels have found their own ways to address the issue, with varying degrees of success.
FOIA requests and open records officers are now part of the landscape of city halls and school district administration. But sometimes the process is more of an obstacle course than a straight path. There can be forms and hurdles and rejections and resubmissions before the information that is supposed to be free is actually freed.
Which is what makes the recent decision by Westmoreland County Controller Jeffrey Balzer such a laudable move.
If you want the results of an audit from the controller’s office, you no longer need to follow that path through the jungles of red tape. You just need to go online.
The office is making the audits available openly on the county website. That’s about 50 to 70 audits a year, looking at records from district courts, municipal tax collectors and county offices.
“I have been wanting to do this for some time. Our only reservation was that, oftentimes, reports include accounting jargon that may not be properly understood by the public. But, in the end, the benefits of full disclosure far outweigh any risks of misinterpretation,” Balzer said.
That is exactly the point of open records. Bravo to Balzer for making this move, and thanks to his staff for carrying it out.
Rights are not predicated on education or ability. We do not impose tests to decide whether someone understands the issues before we let them vote. In fact, previous attempts to do so have been deemed illegal. We don’t create that threshold for cruel and unusual punishment or unreasonable search and seizure.
If government data is the people’s data, the people shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get it.