Evaluation of Florida state website, 2008-2012

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MyFlorida.com is the website for the state of Florida.

Website evaluation

B
Budget Usability P Elected Officials Administrative Officials Ethics Audits Contracts Lobbying P Public records Taxes Transparency grading process

• See also: Evaluation of state websites

This website was reviewed on January 13, 2012.

The good

• The state has an "Online Sunshine" section.
• Lobbyist lists and ethics information are posted.
• Information is available on the state's public records law, and individual departments have instructions and contacts for making records requests.
• Tax information is posted.
• Elected officials are listed with contact information.
• Administrative officials' contact information is available.
• Audits are posted.
• Contracts are posted in a searchable database.
• Budgets are posted (access previous year's budgets by selecting the year on the specific budget output).

The bad

• The site has a search function, but is somewhat difficult to navigate, particularly regarding financial information.
• No information is available on Taxpayer-funded lobbying.

U.S. PIRG rating

The U.S. PIRG rated the state website a "D" on providing online access to government spending data, with a score of 59 out of 100.

The scorecard that U.S. PIRG uses has 13 items and focuses on a separate state website that is searchable at the checkbook level. Sunshine Review, on the other hand, focuses on the availability of separate spending-related items; they do not need to be in a central database.

Item	Possible points	Notes
Checkbook-level website	30	Detailed expenditure information, including individual payments made to vendors.
Search by vendor	8	Ability to search checkbook-level expenditures by contractor or vendor name.
Search by keyword of activity	8	Ability to search checkbook-level expenditures by type of service or item purchased, category, or government fund.
Search by agency or departments	8	Ability to search checkbook-level expenditures by branch of government.
Contract or summary information	10	A copy of the contract or detailed summary information is included for the expenditures.
Historical expenditures	5	Checkbook-level expenditure data from previous fiscal years.
Grants and economic development incentives information	10	Awardee-specific grants and/or economic development incentives are included in the checkbook tool or elsewhere with specific award amounts.
Downloadable	3	Information can be downloaded for data analysis.
Tax expenditure reports	10	The state's tax expenditure report is linked on the website.
Off-budget agencies	2	Expenditures from quasi-public agencies are included on the website.
City and county budgets	2	Financial information for some local governments is accessible.
ARRA Funding	2	A link is provided to the state's website that tracks funding related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Feedback	2	Website users are capable and encouraged to give feedback about the site.

There are several similarities between the checklists. For both checklists, the searchability of information factors in to how usability is rated. Both checklists have an item relating to contracts, tax information, and the budget. The U.S. PIRG requires information for quasi public entities; Sunshine Review requires information on lobbying, which includes quasi public entities' lobbying activity.

Unlike the Sunshine Review checklist with each check worth one point, different items on the U.S. PIRG checklist merit more or fewer points, depending on the item.

State Integrity Investigation

The 2012 State Integrity Investigation graded state ethics laws according to an "Integrity Index." The index was created by researching 330 "Integrity Indicators" across 14 categories of state government. The report assigned grades based on what laws are on the books, and whether or not they were effectively enforced. The report was a project of The Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity, and Public Radio International.

Florida received an overall grade of C, or 71%. It ranked 18 out of the 50 states.

Category	Grade
Public Access to Information	D+
Political Financing	D-
Executive Accountability	C-
Legislative Accountability	C-
Judicial Accountability	D-
State Budget Processes	C-
State Civil Service Management	D-
Procurement	B-
Internal Auditing	A
Lobbying Disclosure	D
State Pension Fund Management	D
Ethics Enforcement Agencies	F
State Insurance Commissions	C-
Redistricting	A

Transparency Legislation

• See also: Florida transparency legislation

Resources

Resource	Run by	Includes
Transparency Florida (CFO)	State of Florida	Spending, budgets, contracts, financial reports
Transparency Florida	State of Florida	Operating budget and reports
Recovery Reports	State of Florida	Federal stimulus spending
Florida Has a Right to Know	State of Florida	Contracts, state spending, regulation, rulemaking, state payroll, pensions
OpenSecrets	National Institute on Money in State Politics	Campaign contributions
Florida Open Government	Foundation for Government Accountability	Spending and payroll data

Other

• The James Madison Institute publishes research on Florida state government transparency.

Salaries

• See also: Florida state government salary

State and Local Employees

According to 2008 Census data, the state of Florida and local governments in the state employed a total of 1,049,028 people. Of those employees, 832,252 were full-time employees receiving a net pay of $3,302,955,436 per month and 216,776 were part-time employees paid $213,151,877 per month. More than 51% of those employees, or 539,321 employees, were in education or higher education.

As of 2009, the three state employees earning the most money were:

Eric Smith, the Commissioner of Education, made $275,000

Kenneth Keck, the Executive Director of the Department of Citrus, made $206,000

Willis Holcombe, the Chancellor of Community Colleges, made $189,999

State Government Employee Salaries- Select School Superintendents

District	'08 Salary	Total Compensation	Current Superintendent
Brevard	$204,941.00	$265,613.00	Richard DiPatri
Dade	$275,000.00	$330,502.00	Alberto Cavalho
Hillsborough	$257,958.00	$297,231.00	MaryEllen Elia
Jackson	$99,554.00	$130,897.00	Lee Miller
Palm Beach	$249,999.00	$315,000.00	Arthur Johnson
Sarasota	$179,620.00	$266,207.00	Lori White

Benefits

All full-time employees of the state receive benefits on top of their salary, including health care and life-insurance. Additional benefits such as dental coverage are available for reduced costs.

Time Off

Full-Time employees of the state of receive vacation based on years of employment.

• less than 5 years: 8.667 hours a month
• 5-10 years: 10.883 hours a month
• Over 10 years: 13 hours a month

All full-time employees received 8.667 hours of sick leave per month, usable for personal or family illness. Other reasons for paid leave include:

• Jury Duty
• Voting
• Disaster Service Volunteers
• Death of Immediate Family
• State Office Building Closure

Paid Holidays

The official paid holidays for state offices are:

• New Year's Day
• Martin Luther King's Birthday
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Veterans' Day
• Thanksgiving Day and day after Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

In addition, each employee can designate one day a year as a personal holiday.

Insurance

Health insurance Employees can choose between a State Group Health Self-Insurance Plan, or several different HMOs. Dental insurance is also available at a reduced rate. Employees can also purchase dental and have access to the Flexible Spending Accounts Program.

Life insurance is provided at a discount for 1.5 times the base salary for regular employees. Senior Management and Select Exempt Service employees receive life insurance at no cost for 2 times their base salary.

Teachers

The average salary paid to a Florida public K-12 school teacher for the 2009-10 school year was $46,696, a decrease of $242 (-0.52%) over the average salary of $46,938 for the 2008-09 school year.

Pensions

• See also: Florida public pensions

Florida state employees and teachers participate in the Florida Retirement System (dead link) (FRS). In the FRS, the employee selects from a pension plan and investment plan. Only the state pays into the plan, employees do not contribute.

The state has made at least 90% of its required contribution each year since 2000. Although the state did not make the entire contribution in four of the past 12 years, it over-contributed in other years, averaging 102% of what it was required to pay. The state has legally mandated that pension surpluses of less than 5% of total liabilities will be reserved to pay for unexpected losses in the system.

Plan	Current Value	Percentage funded	Unfunded liabilities	Total state employees	Avg. pension
Florida Retirement System	$124.2 billion	87.9 percent	$16.7 billion	655,000 active members	$23,000

A new report released by the Florida legislature's policy analysis arm shows Florida's public pension is better funded, incurs lower investment fees and...investment returns are average compared to other states. The report indicates the plan is 87.9 percent funded as of June 30, 2010, which is higher than Gov. Rick Scott has suggested. The report notes that under actuarial rules, the state has 30 years to make up the shortfall through investment earnings. In his campaign for governor, Scott ran ads claiming that the fund had lost $24 billion. At the time he ran the ads, the fund had recovered all but $6 billion as a result of the Wall Street collapse, and has since restored almost all of its 2007 value, which the governor used as a benchmark.

Public Records

The Florida Sunshine Law is a series of laws designed to guarantee that the public has access to the public records of governmental bodies in Florida. The law was first enacted in 1995. The original statutes state:

The Florida Open Meetings Law (Fla. Stat. sec 286) governs the extent to which public meetings are open to the public.

The Florida Public Records Law (Fla. Stat. sec. 119) governs the inspection and copying of public records.

To learn more about how to make a public records request in Florida, please see: Florida FOIA procedures.

Recent news

Florida has a Right to Know

Florida Governor Rick Scott has created a new web site for transparency in Florida which includes: state spending, contracts, regulations, state payroll, pensions, and more. He also re-established the Office of Open Government on March 3, 2011 with Executive Order 11-03.

Gov. Scott also launched "Project Sunburst" which will give the public access to his e-mails and the e-mails of his top 11 staffers.

External links

 

• MyFlorida.com
• Florida House
• Florida Senate (dead link)
• Attorney General
• Contact the Governor (dead link)

• Florida on State Budget Solutions