Archive for the ‘Alabama’ Category

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The governor of Alabama signed an executive order that creates an online database of all state government spending and legislators’ relationships with lobbyists. This will go online later this year, but many other states have already made available government spending, salary and revenue databases, often in a site dedicated to issues of transparency in government.

Review the Nevada state budget by general revenue, expenditures, departments or function at Nevada Open Government. Also, lookup vendors with state contracts.

Open Georgia includes a searchable database of state employees and their salaries.

South Carolina gathers together links to their various online databases including, state expenditures and salaries.

Similar sites have been assembled by Kentucky, Rhode Island (also see, Transparency Train) and South Dakota.

Transparency rankings and states with spending online are listed at Sunshine Review.

Track transparency in government spending issues reported by independent organizations in Colorado and Illinois.

Legislation, citizen activism and current news on state government transparency can be found at the Center for Fiscal Accountability.

Some states, counties and towns list current registered voters on a Web site. But you might also look for databases and PDF files that voter registrars and town clerks compile of formerly registered voters. States and local agencies variously refer to these non current registered voters lists as purged, inactive or excluded. Use advanced search operators at a search engine to search by different phrases, file types and site domains to identify inactive voters lists. Here are a few I found.

Darien, Connecticut roll of inactive voters.

Voter Purge List, Madison County, Alabama residents.

City of St. Louis Inactive Voters List.

Knox County, Tennessee Purged Inactive Voters is available as of 2005.

Inactive Voter Status – Barnstable, Massachusetts

And, just to remind us that easy come, easy go…In 2000, People for the American Way published a Central Voter File Exclusions List of registered voters Florida planned to purge from the rolls as purported felons. The list was never used and People for the American Way has since removed it from their server.

The well established may disappear overnight in the realm of online government records. Visitors to the Jefferson County, Alabama Probate Court online records search – the site for images of land records, personal property and probate recordings – were recently greeted by an unwelcome message.

Due to privacy concerns, this site is unavailable until further notice. Data is still available at the Jefferson County Probate offices.

A reporter alerted the county to the availability of Social Security numbers in some document images – mostly older UCC filings – which were not properly redacted. The site is completely down until all the SSNs can be removed.

California legislation that would have restored the public’s right to view police disciplinary information has apparently been derailed before being heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. The California Progress Report gives a detailed review.

The San Mateo County, California Court site has posted a Standing Order restricting personal data in court filings, in accordance with the California Rules of Court. Personal identifiers should be limited to the last 4 digits of the Social Security number, the year of birth, and initials for minor children.

Adoptees received some good news in a bill signed by the governor of Maine. Starting January 1, 2009 anyone adopted in Maine gains the right to their original birth certificate. Only 3 other states have unlocked adoption records that were formerly closed.

In the ever new species of state registries the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has sprouted the Dangerous Dog Registry!

The Dangerous Dog Registry provides a mechanism for consumers to determine if dangerous dogs reside in their neighborhoods and for local animal control officials to post information about dogs that have been declared dangerous by the local court.

The North Carolina Sex Offender Registry has added email notification and mapping. Search by partial name, city, county, address or physical coordinates to retrieve a list of offenders. Select a profile, then click on the mapping symbol. Expand the view to include registrants within a 1, 3 or 5 mile radius. Hover over the icon to view the other nearby registrants’ photos and addresses. Then request email notification whenever a sex offender is registered at an address within that radius. The search function also covers sex offenders who are incarcerated.

Montana driving record histories and vehicle license information can now be obtained from the State of Montana Web site. Both are only available with with an account, subject to a permissible reason, outlined in the subscriber agreement.

…Personal Information may be requested as a part of Agreed Data only for the following purposes:
A. By any insurer or insurance support organization in connection with claims
investigation activities, anti-fraud activities, rating, or underwriting.
B. In the normal course of business by a legitimate business or its agents,
employees or contractors:
1. To verify the accuracy of personal information submitted by the individual
who is the subject of the record to the business or its agents, employees
or contractors; and
2. If such information is not correct, to obtain the correct information, but only for the purposes of preventing fraud by pursuing legal remedies against, or recovering on a debt or security interest against an insured or applicant.
3. To verify vehicle information.
C. By an employer or its agent or insurer to obtain or verify information relating to a holder of a commercial driver’s license required under the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (49 U.S.C. Part 383)
D. For use in connection with any civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitral
proceeding in any Federal, State, or local court or agency or before any selfregulatory
body, including the service of process…

[Via TVC]

Booking photos of those who are arrested but not charged or found not guilty must be removed from Web sites maintained by county Sheriff offices, according to an opinion issued by the Alabama Attorney General.

Plot parcels and geographic features on the Tucson Arizona Department of Transportation GIS parcel viewer. Search by address, real property owner name, name of school or intersection. Mastering the map functions can take some time if you’re not versed in the Autodesk program (which requires the Internet Explorer browser), so you might want to consult their map viewer guide. The easiest way to plot a parcel is to search by the owner name, address or parcel number from this page. Then select the link, “zoom to parcel”, which highlights the parcel on the map. Select “detail information” to link directly to permit history for that parcel and recorded documents.

Print and save maps with the features you specify. The Tucson Department of Transportation also produces other maps related to traffic and geographic land characteristics.

Alabama Governor Riley finalized legislation that will redact social security numbers from some newly filed public records. Read the press release.

Under the new law, if a person does not give consent to reveal their Social Security number on a state government document, the state must redact, remove or cover the number before making the document available for public inspection. The law does contain exceptions for certain documents including liens, records of judgment such as convictions, and bankruptcy filings.