Have you ever wondered how city leaders’ campaign contributions and financial interests play into their decisions? Or how your local city spending on parks, police and schools compares with other cities?
At Voice of OC, we believe key information about local government should be easy to understand and accessible in one place.
That’s why we’ve entered the Knight News Challenge and are proposing City Pages, an online tool that would give Orange County residents the ability to track in real time city council votes, campaign finance, elected officials’ public calendars and conflicts of interest, along with summaries of upcoming council meetings and breakdowns of city spending.
On any of the 34 City Pages proposed in Orange County, people would be able to read real biographies of their city council members and see real breakdowns of each official’s campaign finance, voting records, public calendars and even their economic interests.
City government agendas also would be summarized before meetings so residents have easy-to-understand road maps of what’s planned for their communities, as opposed to the largely unintelligible formal agendas circulated by local governments.
City Pages would turn residents into effective municipal lobbyists, armed with the real time information to advocate for local interests and neighborhoods.
If you think City Pages is a good idea, here’s how you can help make it become a reality:
- “Applaud” our City Pages proposal at the News Challenge site.
- Comment and ask questions about it.
- Help spread the word on Twitter and Facebook.