Sunshine Review was an American nonprofit organization that advocated for increased government transparency. Sunshine Review was a website prior to becoming its own nonprofit organization. The wiki-based website was launched in July 2008 as a project of the

Sam Adams Alliance Sam Adams Alliance (SAM) was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 2006 and disbanded in 2012. The president was Eric O'Keefe. SAM launched three wiki-style websites: Judgepedia, Ballotpedia, and Sun ...

. In 2010, Sunshine Review separated from the Sam Adams Alliance and launched its own organization with a mission of educating the public about proactive disclosure of government data and other

open government Open government is the governing doctrine which sustain that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state an ...

initiative In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular initiative or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a ...

s. Sunshine Review addressed several areas of transparency, including state spending, state sunshine laws, and rating local government websites on transparency. Sunshine Review worked with the

National Taxpayers Union The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is a fiscally conservative taxpayer advocacy organization and taxpayers union in the United States, founded in 1977 by James Dale Davidson. NTU says that it is the oldest taxpayer advocacy organization in th ...

to develop information on state spending, and with the Lucy Burns Institute which runs the WikiFOIA project. Sunshine Review developed a ten-point transparency checklist to evaluate if government websites proactively and voluntarily disclose information to the public and media. On July 9, 2013, Sunshine Review was acquired by the Lucy Burns Institute and merged into

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

Website evaluations

In March 2010, the organization reported that it had evaluated over 5,000 government websites, including 3,140 counties, 805 cities, and 1,560 school districts. In March 2010, Sunshine Review launched the Sunny Awards just prior to Sunshine Week to recognize the 39 local government websites that had score an A on their checklist. By the time of the 2011 Sunny Awards, those who qualified had more than doubled, with the organization handing out 112 awards to state and local government websites. In 2012 the number of awards had increased yet again, with the organization handing out 214 awards to state government and other localities.

Response

St. Charles Parish, Louisiana reported redoing its website partly in response to the critique on Sunshine Review. Dupage County, Illinois promised to add county contracts to its website.

Champaign County, Illinois Champaign County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, its population was 205,865, making it the 10th-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Urbana. Champaign County is part of the Champaign–Urb ...

was recognized by a local newspaper for its informative website based on Sunshine Review's evaluation of the county's website. Other local government has also upgraded their websites to receive perfect grades on Sunshine Review's checklist including

Tulsa County Tulsa County is located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 669,279, making it the second-most populous county in Oklahoma, behind only Oklahoma County. Its county seat and largest city is Tulsa, the secon ...

, Owasso City, Carbondale and Anderson County. School districts in Florida including St. Johns, St. Lucie Public Schools, and School District of Palm Beach County upgraded their websites to address Florida Sunshine Laws as well as to receive perfect grades contributing to Florida coming out ahead in 2012. Sunshine Review was credited with inspiring

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 2 ...

to post its checkbook register online.

Salary records project

In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically): 1.

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties, and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens. The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state sunshine laws requests sent out to the governments. The report found that California had the most employees earning over 150k, with Illinois a close second.

FOIAchat

In an effort to create a conversation between public records advocates, Sunshine Review launched FOIAchat on Twitter. The weekly conversation has included

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

–winning journalists, including Ryan Gabrielson, to answer questions about

public records Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the optio ...

requests.''International Journalists Network'', From Tip to Story: Chat with Pulitzer winner Ryan Gabrielson (Worldwide), March 10, 2011
/ref>

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Profile
at GuideStar Non-profit organizations based in Alexandria, Virginia Politics and technology Transparency (behavior) American political websites