EAST TEXAS (KYTX) - Texas has thousands of local governments, but only a handful have been lauded by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for leading the way in financial transparency.
On Friday, the comptroller's office released its latest gold, bronze and silver medals winners from the Leadership Circle Program, designed to recognize Texas local governments that strive to meet a high standard for transparency online. The program was first introduced in December 2009, and since that time, only four cities and six school districts in East Texas have attained gold-medal status for three consecutive years.
Those East Texas governments with exemplary recognition in 2010, 2011 and 2012 are the cities of Canton, Lufkin, Mount Vernon and Whitehouse, as well as Mount Pleasant-Chapel Hill, Eustace, Malakoff, Nacogdoches, Tyler and Woden school districts.
The Comptroller of Public Accounts launched the Texas Comptroller Leadership Circle program in December 2009 to recognize local governments across Texas that are striving to meet a high standard for financial transparency online. It spotlights local governments that are:
- opening their books to the public
- providing clear, consistent pictures of spending, and
- sharing information in a user-friendly format that lets taxpayers easily drill down for more information.
Under new guidelines approved in 2011, new criteria clarifies the definitions and adds a few new criteria to offer more options and reward those local governments that go beyond the basics of posting three recommended documents — the budget, the annual financial report (or Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) and the check register — in a user friendly manner.
The Leadership Circle program designates local governments with a certificate reflecting their Circle Award level: Gold, Silver or Bronze. "Gold" highlights those entities that are setting the bar with their transparency efforts. "Silver" encourages those who are making progress. "Bronze" inspires those who are just beginning their transparency efforts.
Here are how East Texas local governments fared: Cities, counties or school districts not included in this list failed to receive Leadership Circle honors in any of the three years:
CITIES
Bullard, 2012 silver award
Canton, 2010-2012 gold awards
Henderson, 2011 gold award
Kilgore, 2010 gold award
Longview, 2010 gold award
Lufkin, 2010-2012 gold awards
Mount Pleasant, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Mount Vernon, 2010-2012 gold awards
Nacogdoches, 2010 bronze award
Quitman, 2010 gold award
Tyler, 2010 and 2011 gold awards
Whitehouse, 2010-2011 gold awards
White Oak, 2012 silver award
COUNTIES
Anderson, 2012 gold award
Henderson, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Hopkins, 2010 and 2012 gold awards
Smith, 2010 and 2011 gold awards
Trinity County, 2010 gold award
Wood, 2010 and 2011 gold awards
SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Arp ISD, 2010 bronze award, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Atlanta ISD, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Tyler Chapel Hill ISD, 2010 bronze and 2011 silver awards
Mount Pleasant Chapel Hill ISD, 2010-2012 gold awards
Eustace ISD, 2010-2012 gold awards
Hallsville ISD, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Hughes Springs ISD, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Jacksonville ISD, 2010 and 2011 gold awards
Kilgore ISD, 2010 and 2011 gold awards
Lindale ISD, 2010 bronze and 2011 silver awards
Malakoff ISD, 2010-2012 gold awards
Nacogdoches ISD, 2010-2012 gold awards
Palestine ISD, 2011 gold award
Pine Tree ISD, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Troup ISD, 2012 gold award
Tyler ISD, 2010-2012 gold awards
Palestine Westwood ISD, 2011 and 2012 gold awards
Woden ISD, 2010-2011 gold awards
