In what may be (is probably?) the first such development for a town of its size in the nation, Tiverton now has its own state-grade transparency application, housed on the new Web site of the local Tiverton Taxpayers Association, TivertonFactCheck.org.  The local group plans to expand the site to include forums, online debates, analysis, and other resources necessary for representative democracy to function, but its first offering is a payroll app allowing taxpayers, voters, and other people with an interest in the town to see how much employees have taken home for the past three years.

The payroll application (but not the larger site) was put together in cooperation with the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity as the next phase of its transparency project. The Center — with the Ocean State Current, its news and commentary site — has made waves many times over with such data at the state level.  Its popular RIOpenGov.org site has helped bring out stories about high-paid laundry workers, legislators working as outside contractors for the state, and everything between.

Tiverton Fact Check (for which this author is the editor) plans to add other data, such as vendor payments, to the site in the future, and the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity plans to pursue similar applications in every city and town in Rhode Island.  The Center’s Competitiveness Report Card shows that Rhode Island is way out of line with other states when it comes to local government, even more so than for state government.  Individuals and local groups interested in helping provide residents of every city and town with the same level of accessible transparency in government should contact the Center at info@rifreedom.org.

In Tiverton, the payroll app can help residents keep an eye on trends, such as the top 3 highest paid employees in fiscal year 2014, showing those making over $100,000:

• William J. Rearick, School Superintendent: $128,869
• Timothy R. Panell, Police Lieutenant: $119,072
• Stephen M. Fezette, High School Principal: $104,437

Users can search by department or title to find information like the fact that the town employs 29 people with the title of Clerk, who collectively earned over a million dollars in 2014.  Additionally, from 2013 to 2014, the number of people working for the school department increased by 49, from 333 to 382.

They can also investigate controversial employees, like Maintenance Foreman Robert Martin, who “retired” after a Channel 10 report tracked him working on his own projects while on the clock. Martin took home $39,332 in “other pay” in fiscal year 2014.  Of that, $28,809 was reimbursement for “unused” sick and vacation time.

The transparency data can also shed light on town politics and help voters understand what the interests might be of the people who advocate for political campaigns or budgets.  For instance, two of the three “co-coordinator/chairs” of the Tiverton 1^st political action committee (PAC) receive payments from the school department.  In 2014, Gloria Crist received $1,845 as a drama instructor, and Linda Larsen received $18,988 as a “school to career coordinator.” Larsen received her position the first fiscal year after Tiverton 1st helped elect a majority of the school committee members.

Arguably, the greatest value will come as other towns and cities follow Tiverton and residents can compare numbers and trends from one municipality or school department to the next.  “Open local government is good local government,” said Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center.

With that as the measure, Tiverton Taxpayers Association and the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity hope to bring Rhode Islanders the best government they can get.