Keeping tabs on government spending

By Kelly Carr on Mar 11, 2010 in IRE, IRE Blog, TrendingTopic

A few years ago I was a municipal reporter at The Arizona Republic. Although I tried my best to follow every dollar, sometimes identifying the exact document to request or the best tactic for writing a FOIA morphed into a daunting experience.

That’s just one of the many reason this afternoon’s NICR 2010 (Computer Assisted Reporting Conference) session, “Watchdogging government spending,” was high on my list. In less than an hour, I learned some great tips for extracting information from local municipalities.

One of my favorites suggestions from Rob O’Dell, a reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, was on mixing documents and sources.

“Document can’t talk to you,” O’Dell said. “They are pieces of paper. They can’t tell you that you are on the right track. But documents don’t have biases, past histories or the other issues sources do. Combine both to be effective.”

Here are some other top takeaways from O’Dell:

On requesting records: “FOIA early and often. You get them used to the fact that you will be asking for information. Try to use small requests to lock the government into a system to distribute records…It’s all about the mindset, about showing them that you are going to FOIA all the time.”
On following the money: ” When you are trying to figure out what’s going on financially in government, get the e-mails for the people who are making the decisions. Use specific people and specific search terms and lay out why you want them.”
On creating your own databases: “Use government stats to make your own records. It puts it in a useful form for readers and allows you to frame the story rather than some insane government reporting system. Nothing is more infuriating to the government than when you take stuff that they have given you and put it in a format where they (your audience) could read it.” He also added to make sure you have experts review your data.
On learning the lingo: O’Dell reminded reporters that knowledge of excel is vital. Also he suggested learning the concepts of accounting and finance so you can speak the language when requesting and reviewing documents.

About the Author

Kelly is the Reynolds Center's Senior Online Producer. She has worked as a reporter for several newspapers, most recently The Arizona Republic, and has been an adjunct professor at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College and holds a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from West Virginia University. Kelly also was a fellow at The Poynter Institute and a contributing writer for "Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss & Hope."