in Houston, Texas
Campaign reports will be posted online in Bexar County
Friday, Nov 28, 2008, 09:09PM CST
By Lee Ann O'Neal
Bexar County will begin posting campaign finance reports online, the San Antonio Express-News reports. The newspaper's Josh Baugh writes that the county is the last in the state to comply with a 2005 state law requiring large counties to make the information available on the Web. Read more here.

Baugh's article continues with this amusing glimpse into county deliberations:
During the court's Nov. 19 meeting — when (the elections administrator) was directed to immediately begin working on posting the documents — County Judge Nelson Wolff asked Ed Schweninger, the district attorney's civil section chief, to look into the legality of posting campaign finance reports for other county officeholders, including the sheriff, district attorney and judges, as well as all candidates for those offices.

“My gut feeling is, of course public records can be put online,” Schweninger said. “I can't even imagine why we wouldn't be able to.”

Hmmm. That's our gut feeling, too.

We're glad when any public information is made available on the Web. With so many homes, schools and libraries connected, putting records online just makes them that more accessible to the average Texan.

We've put reams of public documents on the Texas Watchdog site that were previously only available in dusty government file cabinets. Others we've made more searchable by mapping them.

Here's a sample:

-- Letters by the state attorney general's office written in response to public records requests.

-- Financial disclosures for top Houston officials.

-- Financial disclosures for state legislators and other state officials.

-- Campaign finance reports in the recent Dallas County sheriff's race.

What else should we put online? What records would you like to take a look at, if only you could do so from your PC? E-mail us your tips and ideas at news@texaswatchdog.org.
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