Does the law exist only for us in the private sector? Does government get to ignore the law?

 

In the summer of 2015, our organization at OpenTheBooks.com filed 326 open records requests with every public body on Long Island, New York. Over an 18-month period, it was a knock-down drag-out fight to preserve our right to transparency regarding basic financial information including public employee salaries and the public body’s vendor checkbook spending. Eventually, six lawsuits were filed, each one was successful, and fees were awarded by the courts. It has been two years, and all 326 local governments now comply with open records law.

 

In Wyoming, however, our experience has been the worst.

 

In 2017, our organization filed public records requests with all 800 public bodies in Wyoming for their public employee salaries and checkbook vendor spending. Just 105 governments produced a responsive record on salaries, and only 145 governments released their checkbook expenditures.

 

In 2018, our experience has been dramatically worse. In total, 85 governments produced salaries and 76 governments produced vendor-spending checkbooks. In 2017, just five school districts out of 48 sent us their salary file. Now, 23 schools want to charge us fees up to $2,000!

 

Although salaries are currently a ‘public record’ under existing Wyoming law, the Wyoming Retirement System has denied our open records request. The trustees passed an in-house resolution barring the release of member information.

 

Although pension annuity payouts are currently a ‘public record’ under existing Wyoming law, the Wyoming Retirement System has denied our open records request. The trustees flout existing law by passing in-house resolutions barring the release of member information.

 

It’s worth repeating: Does Wyoming law only apply to us in the private sector? Does Wyoming government get to ignore the law?

 

ANSWER: No. The redaction of Medicare/Medicaid payments is not a reason to slow-walk production pursuant to our open records request for state expenditures. We designed our request to be simple, straightforward, and easy to provide production.

 

We’ve only asked for information previously published by the state auditor on her own website (already scrubbed, publicly posted information) and, separately, a list of state vendors. The auditor already scrubbed the state expenditures that she posts online every 90 days. Further, state vendor information is very easy to produce.

 

Review our request for the Wyoming state checkbook here. This language was negotiated with the Wyoming Attorney General (2/28/2018). 

 

Our request is comprised of two separate parts: 1. An electronic copy of the cached information from the state auditor’s vendor payment website from January 1, 2013 to January 1, 2018; and 2. The state vendor list from January 1, 2013 through January 1, 2018. Production shall include an electronic copy of any and all vendor name; vendor address; vendor city; vendor state name; and vendor zip code. A ‘vendor’ is defined as ‘a transfer of property or service recipient,’ but does not include non-public information such as state employee addresses, payments under HIPPA, etc.

 

 

ANSWER: At OpenTheBooks.com, we have built the largest private database of government spending in the world - that is accessible to the public. Our data is comprised of 15 million public employee salary and pension records; 47 of 50 state checkbooks; and nearly all disclosed federal spending on contracts, grants, direct payments, loans, insurance and farm subsidies since 2001 or earlier. 

 

Since May 2017, we requested public employee salaries and government checkbook spending from every public body in Wyoming. We had a lot of success with 145 colleges, municipalities, counties, etc. complying with our request. In fact, the University of Wyoming (UW) is the largest unit of government in the state to comply with both our public salary and checkbook request. UW disclosed 9,300 public employee salaries and 14,000 vendors.

 

In 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, we've requested Wyoming state checkbook expenditures from State Auditor Cynthia Cloud, and her office rejected all of our open records requests. We tried to narrow our request to a listing of state vendors – but she rejected this as well.  

 

We have not asked Auditor Cloud to lead on transparency – we are simply asking her to follow the law.

 

QUESTION: What records has Openthebooks.com requested from the Wyoming State Auditor’s office? What led to the request? 

 

ANSWER: We want to know who (by name) received how much, for what service. We’ve asked for simple checkbook accounting of state expenditures. 

 

The mission of OpenTheBooks.com is to post "Every Dime, Online, In Real Time." We've successfully captured $80 of every $100 taxed and spent at every level of government – federal, state and local – across America, and we plan to complete our objective over the next 18-24 months. Since May 2017, the goal of our Wyoming Transparency Project is to take Wyoming from an "F" in transparency to an "A" in transparency. It's time to follow the money. Citizens, journalists, watchdogs, and challengers to the incumbent political class need to see exactly where every dime of their tax dollar goes. Remember, it's our money. It is time hold the political class accountable for tax and spend decisions.

 

 

ANSWER: In God we trust, our politicians we must audit. Historically, the only politicians that resist our transparency effort have been folks with something to hide. It's a big red flag for our organization when one of our open records requests is rejected or slow-walked. Our request for the state checkbook is a very basic financial record, showing who received how much and for what service. The fact that Auditor Cloud admitted that producing a clean checkbook would take "years" is very embarrassing. Citizens have a constitutional duty to give oversight to their elected officials. If all state expenditures are shielded, then we the people have no ability to exercise our rights.

 

 

ANSWER: For three years, the auditor rejected all of our requests regarding state expenditures, even for the names and addresses of state vendors. The mailing address for state vendors is not a private record. We need this record in order to map state expenditures and find out answers to important questions of public policy, i.e. how much state spending flows to vendors based in other states or countries. Even locally, we want to know what counties or cities within Wyoming primarily benefit from state spending.

 

Finally, in February 2018, through intercession from the Office of the Wyoming Attorney General, the auditor agreed to provide a listing of state vendors complete with their names and addresses.

 

We get federal vendor address information from all federal agencies because of the 2006 "Google Your Government" Act, co-sponsored by then Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL). At OpenTheBooks.com, we are able to hyper-localize the checkbook spending in our award-winning mobile app called Open the Books (free for download for Apple and Android). You can actually see the federal checkbook spending flowing into your ZIP in a one to 50-mile radius or look up a vendor by name.

In our app and on our website, for example, we display 33,000 public employee salaries from 105 units of local, regional and state government by employer ZIP code. So, citizens can see who makes how much for what job title.

 

We use the latest technology to slice, dice, and display government spending. Auditor Cloud is aware of our technologies, and we believe she is trying to forestall our transparency revolution in Wyoming.

 

 

ANSWER: The auditor's "transparency website" allows her to make the claim of transparency without being transparent. It's rhetoric without results. For example, the auditor's website only shows payments over a rolling 90-day period. It doesn't answer basic questions such as "how much money did XY vendor receive last year?" Furthermore, after 90 days, the auditor actually claims to "purge" the data, despite the state records retention policy guarding against public record destruction. 

 

 

ANSWER: Since 2015, our sole goal is to capture and post online a clean copy of state expenditures. We hope the auditor provides a responsive record to our open records request without litigation. It shouldn't take a search warrant or a subpoena to force open state checkbook expenditures in Wyoming.

 

Since we paid a nearly $8,000 fee for the records, and during a 16-week period have received only 12-days of state spending, we issued a demand letter on June 14, 2018, setting a deadline of July 15, 2018 for complete record production. 

 

• In the Town of Mills, cash payments were stolen from utility customers, the town’s credit card was abused, and over $60,000 was embezzled over a three-year period.
• In the Town of Kirby, the town’s credit card was used to make purchases for the clerk’s cosmetics business and other personal items. The town lost over $10,000.
• In the City of Rawlins, the treasurer was able to generate fictitious payroll checks to herself, with over $225,000 stolen.
• In Sheridan County, falsified daily reports were made to match the cash sheet and deposit slip, concealing over $110,000.
• The Uinta County Conservation District had a clerk who forged checks to herself. She was sentenced to restitution and probation. A few years later, she once again forged checks at Sublette County Mosquito Abatement #2.
• The Star Valley Senior Center had an employee issue additional paychecks without authorization and cashed checks for personal use. The damage was for over $123,000.
• The Town of Rolling Hills saw the town’s credit card used for personal use. Direct bills were signed for personal items with the town ultimately paying for them. Signatures were forged on town’s checks. $125,000 was lost.
• In the Town of Guernsey, money was taken improperly, and the clerk was ultimately charged with Income Tax evasion. The clerk was charged with not paying taxes on $275,000 of stolen funds.