Silicon Valley 'civic-tech' companies driving transparency in local government

Cities from San Francisco (CA) to Palo Alto (CA) and Dublin -- even down to the financially troubled city of Bell in Southern California -- are using Silicon Valley startup technology to open a window into government spending at an unprecedented level of detail. From how much a community spends on police equipment to the amount of a check written to a contractor building the new fire station, more details of a city's budget are moving from paper or clunky software to sophisticated Web applications -- marking an information revolution that could lead to better government.

"This is something that people have wanted for a long time: the idea that we have a right to know how our government is spending our money," said Emily Shaw, deputy policy director at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for open government. "The idea is that if you have that kind of transparency, and you have concerned citizens, then you have oversight that otherwise wouldn't exist." The undertaking is only beginning and is an immense task. It requires that governments using software systems built decades ago adopt more modern cloud-based technology from startups such as Redwood City-based OpenGov, and that city leaders adjust to a new paradigm where constituents can track every nickel of spending. Water and sanitation districts, universities, county governments and the State Lands Commission are also using the software.