County’s checkbook is now open

peterjohn3Good for Sedgwick County and commissioner Karl Peterjohn (in photo) for creating a new Web feature that allows the public to examine how the county gets and spends money. Data can be searched by function, category, fund or vendor. As Peterjohn noted, it can sometimes be difficult to get financial information from governments. The new “county checkbook” database helps create more openness and transparency.

8 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 6:17 am | Permalink

    Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn is finally bringing accountability to the county’s business operations. For too long, holdover county commissioners, Tim Norton, Dave Unruh and former fellow travelors have tried to block the county’s taxpayers from access to this important information.

  2. Regular
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 8:55 am | Permalink

    Thank you Commissioner Peterjohn – your bonus for this year will of course, be displayed on the ‘open checkbook.’ :)

  3. lindainks55
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 9:16 am | Permalink

    I’ve been impressed with Commissioner Peterjohn — a politician who acknowledges that it’s our money and we should be able to see how its spent. City Council, are you paying attention to this excellent example?

  4. TomPaine
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 9:46 am | Permalink

    I’m a little disappointed he didn’t follow his gut and vote to ax the airtran handout

  5. okobserver
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 10:11 am | Permalink

    Sometimes Peterjohn can be very abrasive but he is always open about where the money goes. Hope this catches on with the city also. Accountability and open books should be the taxpayers right.

  6. StevenEDavis
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 11:30 pm | Permalink

    Sorry to take a contraian view, but PeterJohn is a prick. His short political life will be our virtue.

  7. Monkeyhawk
    Posted July 11, 2009 at 12:33 am | Permalink

    Books to all governmental agencies’ budgets have always been subject to public scrutiny. Putting them on-line is merely more convenient.

    Pettyjohn seems to be milking the media announcement in some sort of pseudo-populism.

    Meh…

  8. BobChi
    Posted July 11, 2009 at 7:04 am | Permalink

    I think any organization benefits from having one Peterjohn challenging assumptions and proposing alternatives. I suspect with five Peterjohns the county would never get anything done, but with one it has some worthwhile accountability. He’s smart and a worthy adversary of those who go into deals too blindly.