Local government reporters no longer have to dig through dusty files in their search for records. Almost everything—from payrolls to response time for medical emergency calls—is in a database, available quickly and easily.
Jeff South of Virginia Commonwealth University, who worked on many computer-assisted reporting projects, says the first step is to find out what kinds of data local agencies collect. "If necessary, submit an open-records request for the list of databases," he says.
"Look at the reports produced by the bureaucracy and see if there is underlying data: Do they contain such specific numbers that it's clear somebody distilled them from a computerized file? Reports frequently contain computer printer printouts, like a list of new hires with their names, titles and salary."
State agencies also collect and store local data that can be used to make city-to-city comparisons.
Building permits: Get the database of permits issued and look for trends. Has there been an increase in permits for commercial buildings or single-family homes? Which areas of town are seeing the most construction?
Restaurant inspections: The typical American eats out 213 times a year, according to the National Restaurant Association. So there probably will be high interest in a story about restaurant inspections conducted by your city or county Health Department.
Traffic tickets: Who are the biggest parking violators in your city, and what spots are ticketed most often? From your state auditor, get budget data on each municipality and see which ones depend most on traffic violators. Maybe they're running a speed trap on out-of-towners. (If you get a good lead, check the Web site http://www.speedtrap.org .)
Zoning variances: Get a list of all variances requested, along with actions taken by the board that handles such matters. What percentage of applications is granted? Does the percentage vary from neighborhood to neighborhood?
Salaries: See who the highest-paid employees are. In many cities, they're police officers, thanks to generous overtime. Look at salaries for different demographic groups. Is overtime a perk mostly for good ol' boys?
Employee residency: Payroll or other databases should say where local public employees live. This could be a concern if a city is losing its residents and tax base to the suburbs. What percentage of the city employees live in the city? Does living in the suburbs diminish their effectiveness working for the city?
Nepotism: How many employees are related, and do they work in the same department? You may find that many summer youth employees are the children or relatives of city administrators.
Sick leave and absenteeism: For privacy reasons, you probably can't get how many times each employee has been absent. But you should be able to find out the number of people who've called in sick each day (especially if an agency, like a school, must hire substitutes). What's the absentee rate on Mondays and Fridays?
Cellular pbone usage: Get the records for each cellular phone your local officials have. Find out how many calls they make, and to whom. Do they make a lot of calls unrelated to government business?
Property assessments: Compare assessments to sales prices. You may find that expensive homes are being assessed at a lower percentage of their actual value than are modestly priced homes. Or that homes in certain neighborhoods or homes owned by government officials are getting a break.
Exemptions: Look at property that doesn't get taxed: property owned by churches, nonprofits and governments. Identify properties that get agricultural tax exemptions. How did they qualify, and who owns them? In Texas, the biggest beneficiaries of agricultural exemptions often are developers, contractors and high-tech companies.
Distribution of city facilities: Use mapping software to plot the location of parks, swimming pools, libraries and other public facilities. Does one side of town have one swimming pool for every 20,000 residents, and the other side one pool for every 100,000?
Code enforcement: Analyze complaints and citations involving housing code violations, junk cars, trashy yards and other signs of blight. How many of the violators are absentee landlords? How often are they punished?
Program evaluation: The Star Tribune recently analyzed Minneapolis ' Neighborhood Revitalization Program, which has provided millions of dollars to fix up residential areas. City officials said the program had raised property values. But the Star Tribune found "no link between NRP investments and rising single-family home prices. The analysis shows home prices dropping in some neighborhoods that received a lot of NRP money and home prices rising in some areas where little or no NRP money has been spent."
