Bill would post county contracts on Web site
by Jason Flanagan
The Baltimore Examiner

Doing business with Anne Arundel will become public if the County Council approves posting all contract information on the Web.

“People deserve the ability to jump on the computer and get a decent look on how we’re spending money,” said Councilman Jamie Benoit, D-District 4, who is co-sponsoring a bill requiring all contract awards to be published at aacounty.org.

Published would be:

All contract awards for capital improvement projects — school expansion, trails, new county buildings — costing more than $25,000;

The funding source for the project;

The name and address of the contractor and any connections the contractor has with a county employee or elected official.

“There always has been this low-level rumbling that only certain people get contracts,” said Council Chairwoman Cathy Vitale, R-District 5, the bill’s other sponsor.

The information is available to the public, but access requires coming to the county’s offices in Annapolis.

County Executive John R. Leopold said his administration supports the measure.

Posting fiscal information online is a new government trend, said Ryan O’Donnell, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a group that advocates government transparency.

He pointed to Howard County Council, which is undertaking a similar move with a proposal that would list all contracts $30,000 and higher.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t need to penetrate the smoky back rooms to see how money is spent,” O’Donnell said.

Benoit also said the bill is a prelude to “more meaty legislation” that will deal with transparency and ethics of the county government “to give people more participation in government.”