City launches portal for ‘citizen transparency’

The City of Columbia launched a portal Friday designed to give the public access to the city’s checkbook.

“Open, honest and transparent government has been a promise and a priority as my entire term as mayor,” Columbia Mayor Brian Treece said during Friday morning’s press conference.

This launch is the city’s latest effort to be transparent with Columbia citizens and will cost the city $25,000 per year for an annual license(s) and maintenance fee.

“When it comes to public records, I’ve always said it’s your information, with a few narrow exceptions,” Treece said. “The public has a right to see the information and how their money is being spent, and this citizen transparency dashboard lets them do just that.”

The portal, which can be viewed here, shows the city’s expenditures, revenues, vendor payments and payroll data. All of this was already a public record, but Treece said, “It’s just now going to be available in a more easily searchable online accessible format.”

The portal is updated every Friday afternoon.

“We’re expanding our transparency efforts by launching the citizen transparency financial dashboard,” he said. “It’s an online portal that’s going to give taxpayers unprecedented access to financial data from the city.”

Treece said he first asked for this dashboard In April 2016, days after he was elected.

“Just like Columbia families sit down to look at their own checkbook to identify maybe errors or opportunities for savings, now for the first time, Columbia families are going to be able to look at the city’s checkbook,” Treece said.

The portal allows people to track spending by category, fund, government area and by vendor.

“If it’s created on a public computer by a public employee, with a few exceptions, it’s a public record,” Treece said.

The online portal is run by Tyler Technologies, a company based in Plano, Texas, with offices in Foristell and St. Louis, Missouri.

City employees have had access to the portal for a few weeks, Treece said he has not received any negative comments from employees.

“You can see state payroll data for state employees,” Treece said. When people come to work for the city they are, “surprised that that’s a public record, it’s public tax dollars.”