Daily Memo: Stimulus:

Nevada jeered, American Samoa cheered for stimulus Web sites

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Clark County roads wait for stimulus while rurals get work (6-10-2009)
Stimulus flow starting here as a trickle (6-8-2009)
Report: State's tax hike will bring stimulus to economy (6-8-2009)
State gets $25.7 million in stimulus funds (6-5-2009)
NLV Airport to get $7.8 million in federal stimulus money (4-8-2009)

Archive of Sun politics stories

State of Nevada Web site (Nevada Recovery)

Nevada and American Samoa both launched Web sites in the same week of early March to keep track of the massive amounts of money that Congress had just approved under the so-called stimulus act.

Unfortunately for the Silver State, a watchdog group compared the two. Speaking of American Samoa, an investigative journalist at ProPublica, a Washington, D.C., group, concluded, the “tiny U.S. island territory that’s home to about 65,000 people appears well-poised to bare its projects to public scrutiny” — “(in) contrast” to Nevada.

Last week another group pointed out that Nevada’s site was peppered with “Coming soon!” links and hadn’t issued a news release since March 25.

The bill authorized $1.45 billion for Nevada, so there certainly has been something to track.

The Nevada site, however, is “less-developed than other states’, with less of an effort to present information in a compelling, usable way,” said Phil Mattera, who works with States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery.

The nonprofit organization reviews each state’s stimulus Web site as part of its effort “to ensure that the implementation of the (stimulus act) is transparent, accountable, fair and effective.” The Obama administration urged states to develop sites for the same reason.

Asked about the critiques, Mendy Elliott, Gov. Gibbons’ deputy chief of staff and overseer of all things stimulus in Nevada, said, “I can’t disagree ... that our Web site is deficient.”

In an initial conversation, Elliott blamed the state of the state’s site on a lack of time, as officials had been so busy with the Legislature. The four-month session ended June 1. But Mattera said other states have held legislative sessions in recent months and still developed more comprehensive, user-friendly sites.

“I don’t think we’ve heard this excuse before,” he said.

In a second conversation, Elliott pointed to the lack of money. “The state has finite resources,” she said. How much would it cost to hire a consultant to build a better Web site? “About $35,000.”

“We don’t have an extra dime,” she said.

When it was noted that other states have also tightened budgets this year but found resources for keeping track of stimulus money online, she said, “I think it’s great that other states have had this luxury.”

This month state Budget Director Andrew Clinger told Elliott there might be money available from the original federal appropriation, but she still doesn’t have a timeline.

Mattera and colleague Leigh McIlvaine laid out a short list of features to look for in a good site:

• Information on contracts: who is getting the money and for what.

• “Some kind of mapping.” Mattera said. “This is important so people in different parts of the state can see if they’re getting their share.”

• Information about money available to nonprofit organizations and people who may be interested in applying.

• Interactive, easy-to-find and easy-to-search formatting, rather than, say, links to large PDF files, such as the 60-page guide to the stimulus prepared by Sen. Harry Reid’s office on Nevada’s site.

Data on needs, particularly in social services, would also be useful, and so would data on funding at the city or county level.

Elliott said she wants to get information out to the public, and soon. “I’m used to seeing things working. I come from the private sector,” she noted. The state’s stimulus czarina came out of the banking sector to join Gov. Gibbons’ staff.

Still, until the public can easily follow the money online, Mattera said, nagging questions will hang in the air. “Is the Web site behind others because the (appropriation) procedures are behind? Or is the state dragging its feet on disclosure because it doesn’t want to?”

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By mar100

6/30/09 at 6:10 a.m.

Suggest removal

What a bunch of nonscense Ms Elliott! The State of Nevada has an entire department that deals with information ie: computers/software/web pages its called the NV Department of Information Techonology.
Every state agency has a web page, here's a novel idea, how about borrowing one of the state workers responsible for creating and maintaining an agency web page and tell them to fix the stimulas web page. God, whats so difficult about fixing this?
By Judy

6/30/09 at 7:33 a.m.

Suggest removal

The State of Nevada has plenty of people on staff to update and keep up the website. All the folks there in the Governor's office just got their salary doubled, why not appoint one of them to handle this?

And what kind of idiotic statement is this:

"I'm used to seeing things working. I come from the private sector," she noted. The state's stimulus czarina came out of the banking sector to join Gov. Gibbons' staff.

Was she with AIG, or maybe WaMu or Countrywide? How could she come from private sector banking and expect things to work? She has been a state employee AND friend of Gibbons for quite a while now.
By ADifferentPerspective

6/30/09 at 8:54 a.m.

Suggest removal

The excuses by our state officials reflect the overall poor quality of the State of Nevada's web pages. Nevada lags far behind other states in this area. I think the state obviously has never placed a priority on using the web to communicate with the people of Nevada, which is amazing in this day and age -- especially since so many Nevada residents live in rural areas and would probably appreciate being able to access information and services via the web.

It's true that private-sector companies "get this" -- but so do many government agencies. The City of Las Vegas revamped its website several years ago and does a much better job, for example. The state's websites, on the other hand, contain little more than photos and news releases about elected officials -- reflecting a mindset about what constitutes web content that's about 10 years behind the times. Creating and maintaining useful web content doesn't require consultants. It requires a commitment to communicating with the people of Nevada.
By jim-nevada

6/30/09 at 11:49 a.m.

Suggest removal

The lack of transparency with the stimulus funds is extremely troubling, especially considering our economy and what is at stake. Why doesn't the state or local workforce board want to share their economic recovery plan with the citizens of Nevada? Don't they want people to be aware of the resources? Or do they even have a plan??

$1.45 billion dollars is an awful lot of money to hide away in a time when our unemployment has reached historic levels. We must remember that this money is meant to stimulate Nevada's economy, not to simply be wasted by incompetent government agencies.
By bdm

7/1/09 at 10:08 a.m.

Suggest removal

This isn't really surpising - if you go to the state unemployment website - you will find they say the maximum benefit is 360. or something per week. Its actually 393.00. People out of work need CORRECT information. If you then go to other state pages to get information about foreclosures - you will find no updates about Obama's Housing Recovery Bill, including the new law about renters in foreclosed properties. Some of these pages have not been updated in months, or years! Its amazing the state cannot manage these most basic of IT tasks and keep information current.
By stevem

7/1/09 at 2:19 p.m.

Suggest removal

just spend a few minutes poking around the clark county courts website. it's one broken link or "page not available" after another.

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