A smart man once said what gets measured gets improved.

The good folks in Santa Rosa County government certainly took that to heart recently in regards to findings from the First Amendment Foundation about their accessibility to the public.

In May, the First Amendment Foundation issued a statewide transparency scorecard for government websites.

On average, such websites earned 52 out of 100 possible points on a transparency scorecard created by the Foundation. The websites were evaluated by journalism students at the universities of Florida, South Florida and Miami, who were asked if they could find specific information – ranging from budgets to neighborhood crime information – through a reasonable search.

Local governments saw above average scores: The City of Pensacola scored 74, the third-highest total of the 47 cities scored by the Foundation; Fort Walton Beach, (the closest neighboring city scored) earned 70.

Santa Rosa County scored 64, and Escambia County’s site scored 58 out of 100 points.

The city scorecard is here. The county scorecard is here.

Recently Santa Rosa spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka let me know that in response to the scorecard, some features on the county’s website have been changed, including:

· Adding a page on public records/FOIA requests http://santarosa.fl.gov/bocc/PublicRecords.cfm

· On the individual commissioner pages, adding on the individual commission pages linked here http://santarosa.fl.gov/bocc/

o The current term of office dates

o A link to the state’s ethics site for online financial disclosure records

o Four years of conflict disclosure statements (Commissioner Lane Lynchard is the only sitting commissioner who has abstained, so see his page).

· Posting the quarterly check register and have included the last two fiscal years at http://santarosa.fl.gov/budget

· Adding a blurb on our lobbyist to our FAQ at http://santarosa.fl.gov/bocc/faq.cfm. We’ve also tagged it so it will come up in the search function

· Added a link to crime reports under our “services” drop down on the main page

“These changes were pretty simple and will hopefully help us score an additional 16 points to an 80 on the next scorecard,” Tsubooka said. “I am hoping we are in the top five next time they review.”

Some of the other items are not as easy of a fix, she said.

“For example we have our agenda packets, minutes and archive info online currently (for a total of nine points) – so we need to take a hard look at how we can make the information more user-friendly so it is easier for the average person to find.”

Kudos to Tsubooka and her team for taking the public’s right to know and find information seriously. Small steps toward improvement can add up to big changes.

[progresspromise]