Arnold re-launched the transparency in government website today, with a whole lot of virtual pomp. Laura Chick, the stimulus watchdog or something like that, has been pressing for the site to have all the details of the  various spending projects.

It didn’t really work the first time:

Chick said the intent of the governor’s original order was clear, to make government more transparent by posting online all kinds of reports, reviews and audits. But she got significant amount of push back from agencies, Chick said.

Chick accused many departments of having a culture of “resistance, sabotage and … denial.” (SF Gate 9/9/09)

But there is a bigger problem, one which Chick recognizes, the state’s IT infrastructure, really, really, really stinks. The “newly redesigned site” is straight out of 1998. It’s not totally unworkable, but really fails to use any modern web technology to make this stuff easy.

I’m not saying there isn’t resistance to this in Sacramento, of course there is. The reporting, given the IT infrastructure, is likely a huge pain. Also, it would be naïve to dismiss the claims of flat out wanting to hide the ball.  But this isn’t really a problem of just the bureaucracy. This is a problem of the entire state government.

When you build a system that is designed to fail, eventually it will break down.  And a broken government, such as we have now, will seek to hide those very real facts. Transparency (or lack thereof) is a symptom of the problem, neither a cure nor the ailment.  

If we were to build a better government, we’d get a more transparency. But building a window into a pitch black room really doesn’t give you a whole lot of information.