San Diego Government Jobs Recognized for Transparency

Those with San Diego government jobs are being recognized for their willingness to share information with the public.

The Sunshine Review recently named the City of San Diego's website as one of the most transparent government sites in the nation. The city received a "Sunny Award" for getting an A+ score and ranking among the top 100 government websites on the Sunshine Review's Transparency Checklist.

"This award recognizes our effort to engage our citizens through electronic media," Mayor Jerry Sanders said in a statement. "Our web team redesigned the city's website last year to modernize the look and to enhance accessibility and usability for our citizens. We're proud that people have noticed."

The Sunshine Review, a non profit organization that supports open government, reviewed more than 6,000 local and state government websites to see how well they share information with the public. With 20 websites on the list, Florida received the most Sunny Awards, followed by Texas with 12, Utah with 10, Illinois with seven, Virginia with six, and California with five.

The sites were ranked using a 10-point transparency checklist that includes:

• Budgets
• Open meeting laws
• Elected officials
• Administrative officials
• Building permits and zoning
• Audits
• Contracts
• Lobbying
• Public records
• Taxes

"We hope the city of San Diego website will continue to serve as an example of transparency in the future," Sunshine Review President Mike Barnhart said.

San Diego Government Jobs Benefit from Statewide IT Bill

Those with San Diego government jobs may benefit from a new bill that focuses on technology efficiency. Visit http://sandiego.jobing.com/cat/government to learn more.

State officials recently passed a bill that will improve the information technology infrastructure throughout California, increase government efficiency, and save costs. The bill will further help define targets and timelines for IT consolidation across the executive branch and create a permanent structure for IT governance.

"Since the beginning of my administration, I have been a strong advocate for rebuilding the state's technology systems to make them work better and more efficiently for the people of California," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "This legislation tops a list of strategic changes made to California's IT program to further improve the state's IT operations. This action will strengthen project oversight, increase transparency in spending, promote greater cost savings and define specific targets to reduce energy usage in our IT systems and further consolidate services."

Part of the bill was based on the Governor's Reorganization Plan 1, which realigned IT resources, including the Office of Technology Services, under the leadership of the Office of the State Chief Information Officer to enhance efficiency, which has now been renamed the California Technology Agency.

The goal of the reorganization was to create more accountability and provide a framework to enhance the IT workforce that supports computer systems. The effort is expected to save $1.5 billion during the next five years.

The bill requires state agencies to:

• Reduce the total amount of energy utilized by IT and telecommunications equipment by 20 percent by July 1, 2011 and by 30 percent by July 1, 2012.
•  Reduce data center square footage by 50 percent by July 2011.
•  Host all mission critical public facing applications and server refreshes in a Tier III data center and close all existing data centers and server rooms that house non-network equipment by June 2013.
•  Begin migrating from their existing network services to the California Government Network no later than July 2011.
•  Begin migrating to the state's shared e-mail solution no later than June 2011.
•  Develop and maintain enterprise architecture plans in compliance with the statewide enterprise architecture policies and standards as established by the OCIO.
•  Participate in activities coordinated by the Office of Information Security for response to security incidents and cyber security threats.

Keep in mind that anyone applying for a government job will most likely have to partake in a California criminal records (Click here) check.