Did you know that some people question the point of transparency? Some think that Wyoming is not a "corrupt" state. While everyone in government surely is not corrupt, there is noted fraud, waste and abuse in Wyoming. We need to know where our tax dollars are going and why, before spending cuts can be made fairly.
Yet, a city of Casper employee, pled guilty to stealing nearly $20,000 from the city. She was responsible for maintaining records of money transactions.
After a four-month investigation, evidence showed the theft went unchecked since May 2016. The Defendant was not charged until two years later. Other city employees later told investigators that, "…they'd noticed irregularities in payments for permits. Specifically, receipts had been written for cash payments to the city. However, those payments were not recorded on another city document..." 1
A supervisor with the Wyoming Department of Transportation ("WYDOT") was sentenced to ten days in jail for stealing $3,000 in property from WYDOT. The notable link – the thefts began in 2008, yet charges were not filed until 2015. 2
A Big Horn County employee pled guilty to embezzling more than $16,000 from the county. Again, these acts dated back to 2008 yet there were no charges until 2011. Moreover, the Department of Crime Investigation ("DCI") had previously closed their investigation and falsely exonerated the employee of any wrongdoing. Big Horn County Sheriff Blackburn explained, "Wyoming DCI did not do anything wrong, things like this are difficult to catch." 3 Eventually, the Deputy County Clerk found inconsistencies in invoices submitted for reimbursement. Unfortunately, DCI refused to even investigate the crimes initially. Other jurisdictions had conflicts of interest. A private investigator had to be retained; then evidence was collected and a guilty plea to the crime resulted.
What if the citizens on the ground could be investigators through empowered public records law? If Wyoming possessed an updated website system, where records were readily available with the click of a button, we could avoid lengthy criminal investigations so far attenuated from the actual events that they are difficult to prove or "catch".
Tax dollars are valuable and in short supply. Now, the legislature is kicking around the idea of increased taxes. But, when your child asks for money, you ask what it's for and where the last $20 you gave them went. If they stole it from you last time, you probably aren't going to give them more.
Open data provides critical citizen oversight and trust in where their public money is going. The news articles discussed above show these concerns are real and more than "political propaganda". In today's society, trust in institutions is collapsing.
Trust is an elusive concept, yet we depend on it in our lives in function. I trust the guy at McDonalds won't spit in my cheeseburger, the pilot won't crash the plane, and the Uber driver isn't a serial killer.
Before engaging in trust, risk assessment occurs. How likely is it that things will go right? The legislature keeps contemplating the notion of efficiency – that it may take money to make money. That systems and websites needs to be created and modernized to ensure access to documents and that may be costly and take time. But, the risk-reward of open data is clear.
Trust enables change and innovation, and in turn transparency and efficiency in government.
The model of "government knows best" where we need not question decision makers subsides when increased taxation is on the horizon. Scrutiny of inefficiency must progress and the only way to conduct that in a thorough and consistent manner is through open, accessible data.
Trust has evolved throughout the centuries. The local, institutional model is now distributed. Until the mid 1800's trust was built in tight-knit relationships. If I borrowed money from you and didn't pay it back, you would know not do business with me. Trust was local and accountability based. In the mid 19th century society changed. The local banker was replaced by large corporations who didn't know us as individuals. People placed trust into black box systems of authority, such as contracts, regulations and insurance. Instead of trust in people, trust became institutional and commission based.
We now see another revolution in trust that has a direct correlation to expansion of open data. Institutional trust was not designed for the digital age. This is exciting and frightening because online trust will change our behaviors in the real world and make us accountable in ways we've never seen before. Trust is no longer top down.
A new recipe for trust is emerging that is distributed among people and is accountability based. This will shift with emergence of block chain and other technological forms. Now instead of trusting institutions, we have to trust the idea, the platform and the human elements that citizen oversight allows. When fraud, waste and abuse of public money is present in even small the need for transparency is prevalent. If we embrace human elements to transparency, accountability will naturally follow.
1 Former Worker Accused of Stealing Thousands of Dollars from City of Casper. Shane Sanderson. Casper Star Tribune. February 1, 2018. Accessed at https://trib.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-worker-accused-of-stealing-thousands-of-dollars-from-city/article_d30edb0c-1fae-54b8-a6ed-5e386f9a27b1.html.
2 Employee Jailed for Zip Tie Theft. A World Report U.S. News. November 21, 2018. Accessed at https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wyoming/articles/2018-11-21/wyoming-transportation-employee-jailed-for-zip-tie-theft.
3 Sheriff Employee Charged With Embezzlement. Jennifer Butler. December 1, 2011. Basin Republican Rustler Accessed at http://www.basinrepublican-rustler.com/2011/12/01/sheriff-employee-charged-with-embezzlement/