Sunshine Week is in full swing, and when it started on Monday, we reported that the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit, nonpartisan group that focuses on government transparency, flunked both Massachusetts’ and Rhode Island for the lack of ease and ability to get information from the websites of state lawmakers.
Rhode Island lawmakers say their failing grade is undeserved, and like any student who feels unfairly graded, Larry Berman, spokesman for the Rhode Island Speaker of the House, called the Sunlight Foundation and asked, “What gives?”
“So we contacted them, said where did you get this information?” Berman said. “They said, ‘Oh, well, we called someone over there and they said they update it on a weekly basis.’ And that’s totally untrue. We update things on an hourly, even several minute basis, we’re constantly updating things.”
James Turk of the Sunlight Foundation admits there was an error
“They will be going from a negative 1, which will raise their score a little bit,” Turk said. “They will go from an F to a D.”
A D is better than an F. But Turk says one area where the General Assembly needs some major improvement is making data permanently linkable.
“Right now there is no way to link to a specific bill anywhere on RI’s website, which for a researcher or journalist trying to talk about a specific bill, is incredibly frustrating,” he said. “And for us, who are trying to access individual bills and try to provide information to the public is incredibly frustrating.”
Berman concedes that Rhode Island’s website could provide better access to data, and that they are in the process of making more information available and plan on rolling out live web streams of house and committee sessions within the next few weeks.
“There are certainly things that we can look into that will improve our rankings and we certainly welcome their suggestions, but I think those that are more familiar with our website, those that understand how to navigate our website will find that it’s much more worthy than an F grade,” he said.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts is still stuck with an F, and state Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton, who has been pushing for more online transparency of the state’s inner workings, said although he thinks Massachusetts deserves a slightly better grade, he won’t dispute this year’s report card.
Since the release of their reports, the Sunlight Foundation has heard from other state legislatures, including Pennsylvania and New York who received a C and B, respectively. Turk said they are eager to perform better and are already asking for advice on how to ace next year’s report.
