Do Something

Advocate for an open budget

“Historically, in Philadelphia, it’s been a fight around transparency,” Rhynhart says. “I think that there’s a culture of not sharing the information and of being secretive, which is sort of an old school way of governing, and what we need to do is put everything out there.”

Urge Mayor Kenney to shed Philadelphia of one of it’s many old school governing tendencies and make city spending transparent. Reach out and let him know what you think.

Connect WITH OUR SOCIAL ACTION TEAM



Listen

to this story in CitizenCast

Prefer the audio version of this story?
CitizenCast has you covered


And go here for more Spoken Editions from CitizenCast

Short on Time?

Read the quick version of this story

Several other cities have put real-time spending information online, allowing the public to peruse the database as a transparency tool. 

In Philadelphia, we need increased transparency more than ever; when there’s a crisis, every dollar needs to be spent the best way possible.

Philadelphia Controller Rebecca Rhynhart wants to have something like that in Philadelphia, and she is prepared to start working on it on her own if Mayor Kenney doesn’t take the initiative. 

Other cities haven’t quite perfected the art of putting all the up-to-date spending information online – salary, vendor payments, and other expenditures – in an easy-to-search user-friendly format, but Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and New York City have all built impressive open checkbooks that Philadelphia can look to.

LEARN MORE

About open checkbook models

Other cities are figuring out how to make government spending transparent. Check out these examples to learn how it works:

OpenBook Pittsburgh

Checkbook NYC 

Checkbook LA 

 

Ideas We Should Steal

Open Checkbook

Cities like New York and Pittsburgh allow the public to view every local government expenditure online. City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart wants to make that happen here, too

Ideas We Should Steal

Open Checkbook

Cities like New York and Pittsburgh allow the public to view every local government expenditure online. City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart wants to make that happen here, too

VideoOver the course of the past year, the Los Angeles Police Department shelled out more than $400,000 to Langlois Fancy Frozen Foods. In February the Los Angeles Fire Department paid a Wisconsin manufacturer for four aerial ladder trucks—at $1.1 million a pop. Since January, the Los Angeles Zoo has spent thousands of dollars on live crickets and mealworms from a supplier in the San Joaquin Valley.

These facts might be relevant to the public’s understanding of how that city operates, or more likely not. The point is those spending receipts and reams of others are readily available—easily pulled up with just a few mouse clicks in an online database put together by the city’s controller, Ron Galperin.

In Philadelphia, Controller Rebecca Rhynhart wants to see something similar, and she is determined to build it on her own if Mayor Jim Kenney doesn’t take the lead.

Cheat Sheet“People deserve to know how their money is spent,” Rhynhart says. “I think that the more information that’s shared, the more trust is built between people and their government. I know that sounds idealistic. I am idealistic. I think we need to build that trust.”

The concept is simple: build a user-friendly, comprehensive, regularly updated database of city spending, including salaries, vendor contracts, and all other expenditures that don’t need to be shielded from public view. The execution, at least in many cities that have attempted it before, appears to be mixed.

Los Angeles has a fabulous near-real-time compendium of outside spending, but the sister site showing payroll expenses was last updated more than a year ago. Checkbook NYC, put together by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, appears comprehensive, but it is cumbersome and seems difficult for anyone without a master’s in public administration and working familiarity with New York government.

OpenBook Pittsburgh outshines some of the efforts in larger cities in that it shows the actual contracts with many vendors—including a law firm hired by the mayor last fall to look into alleged ethical violations—but it, too, feels somewhat complicated to navigate. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of information there, including the terms of Pittsburgh’s contract for police body cameras, and agreements wherein Pittsburgh provides fire protection to outlying boroughs.

The idea of an open checkbook is not a foreign concept in Philadelphia.

The city has posted data on spending for an entire fiscal year—but that is now three years out of date.

Mike Dunn, a spokesperson for the mayor, said that Marisa Waxman, the budget director, is “very much a proponent of greater transparency,” and is working with the Open Data team to update the city’s financial information online, with updates to salary and overtime spending expected by the end of June. But it’s unclear if that update will include any real-time tracking of salary and overtime or merely provide a window into prior spending. Open checkbooks typically offer much more than just salary information.

Rhynhart has tangled with the Kenney administration before—over a roughly Do Something$33 million bookkeeping error, for example—and she sees the effort to build an open checkbook program as more than just a logistical and organizational challenge. If done right, it could deliver a blow to the doctrine that favors keeping government information cloistered away from public view.

“Historically, in Philadelphia, it’s been a fight around transparency,” Rhynhart says. “I think that there’s a culture of not sharing the information and of being secretive, which is sort of an old school way of governing, and what we need to do is put everything out there.”

A public airing of the city’s financial books would almost certainly benefit government accountability—spurring uncomfortable conversations and prompting thorny questions. It is easy to picture an investigative reporter, or an activist, spending hours perusing spending in pursuit of malfeasance.

It could also help with the bottom line. Nothing would stop a commercial supplier from scoping out Philly’s expenses with an eye toward crafting a more competitive bid.

The nationwide protests against police brutality and structural racism have focused scrutiny on city governments, and especially their police departments.

Already, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has ordered the department to reform its use of force policy, and Kenney has dialed back his proposal for increased funding the police department.

An open checkbook would allow the public to see the amount of overtime paid out in recent weeks, and it could also expose police department purchases of controversial tools for battling protesters—such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

Overtime is, among other things, expensive, and Rhynhart says the city could save $45 million per year by reducing overtime levels to what they were about a decade ago.

That brings up another issue with Rhynhart’s open checkbook idea.

As the pandemic and resulting economic collapse have gouged a $650 million hole in the fiscal 2021 budget, the mayor and City Council are busy cutting spending, and postponing projects to improve quality of life. That raises a question about whether now is the right moment to embark on an ambitious government data project?

Custom Halo“It’s always the right time to try to do something that would be such a big push for transparency,” Rhynhart says. “There is an argument that can be made that increased transparency is needed more than ever when there’s a crisis, when there is a budget shortfall, because every dollar needs to be spent the best way possible.”

But of course resources are more constrained today than they were a year ago, and Rhynhart says she is still talking with staff about the timing and cost of building an open checkbook. She declined to give an estimate of what the project would cost at this early stage, but within about six months she said she should have an answer to those questions.

The public accountability that an open checkbook would provide is arguably more necessary during a fiscal crisis for another reason as well. The mayor, under the City’s Charter, has the sole responsibility for ensuring the city does not slide into a deficit, and he is empowered to unilaterally reduce spending to prevent that from happening.

If the mayor chose not to announce those spending reductions, an open checkbook could provide a big signal that he has reduced or eliminated funding in some area. It is not only fiscal hawks who benefit from transparency.

Modern history is littered with examples of government agencies forking over huge sums for computer programming projects that wind up failing spectacularly. The numerous problems with the websites facilitating the Affordable Care Act seven years ago are some of the most high-profile examples of that, but the phenomenon is unfortunately more widespread.

If Rhynhart succeeds in opening up a window on Philly finances, people might not be happy with what they see, but that’s not necessarily a reason to avoid doing it.

“People already know that government’s not perfect, OK. So let’s just be upfront and honest: This is what we’re spending it on,” Rhynhart says. “People get upset, then let’s fix it.”

Header photo courtesy Britt Reints / Flickr

The Philadelphia Citizen will only publish thoughtful, civil comments. If your post is offensive, not only will we not publish it, we'll laugh at you while hitting delete.

Support Your Local Journalism. "With your help, we can be the antidote to the failures of big media, the bitterness of national politics, your post-election malaise and the confusion about what to do now" - Roxanne Patel Shepelavy, Executive Director, The Philadelphia Citizen. Button that says Give that leads to a donation page for end of year fundraising. Your gift will fund independent, local journalism and solutions for Philadelphia.

Be a Citizen Editor

Suggest a Story

Advertising Terms

We do not accept political ads, issue advocacy ads, ads containing expletives, ads featuring photos of children without documented right of use, ads paid for by PACs, and other content deemed to be partisan or misaligned with our mission. The Philadelphia Citizen is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and all affiliate content will be nonpartisan in nature. Advertisements are approved fully at The Citizen's discretion. Advertisements and sponsorships have different tax-deductible eligibility. For questions or clarification on these conditions, please contact Director of Sales & Philanthropy Kristin Long at [email protected] or call (609)-602-0145.