(In keeping with GMD’s policy of featuring first-person diaries by candidates to statewide office on our front page, here is the latest from Matt Dunne: – promoted by Sue Prent)

Transparency is not about a policy here and a disclosure there. Transforming a public enterprise into a transparent and effective management structure requires a culture change.  Successful transformational managers in the public and private sectors are those who lead by example. This is why we need to begin, even as candidates, to be more transparent.

Currently, there are no standards or guidelines for financial disclosure in Vermont. Last week I announced I would be following Congressional protocol and would submit the same form required for Congressman Welch and Senators Leahy and Sanders on the same date required for all members of Congress: May 17th.

All of the candidates for Governor have submitted and publicized some part of a financial disclosure. This was a step in the right direction, but demonstrated the inconsistency inherent in the voluntary disclosure process we now employ.  I asked the other candidates to join me in adhering to the Federal requirements and timelines in order to provide a uniform standard of disclosure.

I was surprised by the response from the campaigns who, with the exception of Doug Racine, all told the Times Argus they would not be submitting a disclosure form. Senator Bartlett posted her response here on GMD, and while I respectfully disagree with her position, I appreciate that she provided thoughtful discourse to the debate.

I wanted to take this opportunity now that my disclosure is public (you can find it at http://www.mattdunne.com/finan… and talk about, as I alluded to at the beginning of the post, why I believe this issue is bigger than just finding out how much someone makes, as some of the candidates have argued.

Vermont is facing difficult challenges. We are losing jobs and seeing increasing deficits. The state employees we depend on to allow our state to function effectively suddenly feel they are the enemy and under suspicion. If we want businesses to create jobs in Vermont, we need to offer them clear guidelines, benchmarks for progress, and predictability in government operations. The only way we can do that is by changing the culture in Montpelier and making our government more transparent.

While state governments across the country would benefit from greater transparency, the situation in Vermont is particularly dire. The United States Public Interest Research Group report released last month, which cites nearly 70 sources and studies, gives Vermont an “F”. It’s one of numerous sources that grade Vermont poorly in this area. http://www.uspirg.org/home/rep…

The study shows that increased transparency in government can:

• Reduce costs through increased government efficiency and lower waste, including savings in procurement, contracting, and IT management.

• Improve civic trust and democratic engagement through accountability, allowing citizens to immediately evaluate how their tax dollars are being spent and empowering voters to better decide who to vote for in the future.

• Bolster robust economic development through speed, efficiency, and convenience in government services that provide the resources for entrepreneurs and business owners to start, support, and grow businesses as they identify opportunities. Improvement in government services includes reducing the need for physical travel between governmental agencies for business licenses and permits, etc., improving accounting and record keeping through computerization, and easy access to information and forms leading to quicker and more accurate processing.

In order to ensure the trust of our citizens and, more importantly, engage them in helping to find solutions to our growing fiscal, economic and social problems, we need to be as open and transparent in our actions as possible. To keep improving state government and remove barriers between agencies, we must have transparent goals. Vermont needs leadership that sets clear measurements of success and provides an understanding across departments of what success looks like.

In addition to releasing my financial disclosure form yesterday, I released a copy of my “Transparency for the 21st Century” proposal (http://www.mattdunne.com/issues/21st-century-transparency). In it, I lay out several different initiatives I would undertake as Governor to increase transparency in state government.

The initiatives in this proposal represent “best practices” from successful governments and companies. These initiatives are aimed at establishing transparency measures that empower frontline workers, enhance trust, increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve services. Meeting the needs of Vermonters and ensuring an open and transparent government will be a priority of my administration as we work together to transform the way state government operates and to change the culture in Montpelier.