The Grassroot Institute is proud to be doing its part to improve government transparency and accountability in the state.
With the launch of OpenHawaii.org, we are making critical data more publicly accessible. Getting this kind of information into the hands of voters is an important step towards a more active and engaged citizenry.
This week, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser picked up on our new project with a short article highlighting the transparency portal. You can view the blurb here, or see below. We hope that this will be just the first in a long line of articles that explore how the institute is shining the light of transparency on the workings of our state government.
Government data from Grassroot
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii describes itself as a nonprofit research and educational organization with goals that include promoting “limited and accountable government.” So its latest venture, OpenHawaii.org, seems to fit neatly within that mission.
The new website is a selective repository of public information the institute has culled. Some of its favorite focal points have been the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission. The site already includes a check register from OHA, so visitors can see who got what money.
The group is filing a lawsuit to compel the release of the names of enrollees, who must be Native Hawaiian to qualify.
Mostly what’s on the website is government salary data. There’s also a top-10 annual pension list: It doesn’t give the department, but No. 1 gets a maximum allowance of $195,108.62.
