El Paso County - Having the Most Transparency Possible
El Paso County has been placing its annual Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), budgets, operational expenses and more on the Web over the past five years in an effort to follow the Governmental Financial Officers Association (GFOA) recommendation. El Paso is one of nine counties to be recognized by the GFOA with a distinguished budgetary award. El Paso County’s budget has been recognized for the past 14 years and its CAFRs for the last 19 years.
The county auditor seeks and receives public feedback and periodically implements suggestions from the public. According to the El Paso County Budget and Finance Manager Wallace Hardgrove, “the county is currently considering showing expenditures in real-time.”
El Paso County has added all internally produced financial reports to the Web site as they have become available. The county has also begun electronically providing all supporting documentation for commissioners’ court hearings and public budget hearings as well as broadcasting all court meetings online.
Hardgrove said, “The best benefit is having relevant and timely financial and operational data available to the public online 24/7. The ultimate goal is to have the most transparency possible to members of the general public.”