And just think—if the local Los Angeles broadcast media had talked to me as a viable candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles, we would have already thwarted this economic crisis by seeing and reining in the runaway spending, waste, fraud and corruption.

Additionally, just think—in 2003, I made it almost to the finish line with my State ballot initiative to have the finances posted. I just lacked the money to get signatures gathered to place the measure on the ballot.

But now, here we are again to get our political system honest.

You can write me in on the ballot: Steve Mozena for Governor so I can implement this long-overdue measure.

We need it in California and in the nation as a whole. We are told that the economy is recovering but economists are calling it the “jobless recovery.”

Over a year after the federal stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was passed, unemployment in the U.S. is still unacceptably high.

The financial industry may be recovering, but where are the jobs? Surveys show that people think the federal stimulus helped the banks far more than it helped ordinary people.

The worst thing about it is that it’s impossible for the ordinary citizen to check up on what has happened to all that stimulus money.

The Obama administration, with a great deal of fanfare, established a website, recovery.gov, in the name of financial transparency.

But the site has failed to deliver on its promise, which is “to allow taxpayers to see precisely what entities receive Recovery money in addition to how and where the money is spent.”

The website was relaunched at the end of September, and a Maryland company was paid a cool $9.5 million to redesign it, with a further $8.5 million to operate it until 2014.

But take a look at recovery.gov. As a website, it’s hard to use and gives only general, and often out of date information and incorrect information.

If this is what the Obama administration calls transparency, they have set the bar pretty low.

It does not do what it is supposed to do. It does not track the finances.

It does not include a checkbook register so that anyone can see at a glance where the money has been spent.

That is why I am continuing to promote my idea of “post the finances.”

Politicians talk all the time about fiscal transparency, but neither the federal government nor any state government has yet taken the plunge and put every dime of its income and expenditure on a publicly accessible and searchable website.

This has become the most urgent issue of our time.

It is our money. We deserve to know how it is being spent.

Let me explain further.

Post the Finances is a simple but revolutionary idea that will change the face of politics and government.

Simply put, Post the Finances is a system to post daily all government finances, at all levels of government, to the Internet in the form of a simple online checkbook.

We need it because we need to make our government honest.

We need to ensure that our government is not a slave to the money supplied by large corporations.

We need to ensure that politicians to not misuse taxpayer money to enrich themselves.

We need to ensure that all social programs are run responsibly, with full accountability, so that no one, politician or ordinary citizen, exploits them for their own benefit illegally and unethically.

Our economic future is at stake. The Red Dragon of China and the hi-tech economy of India loom on the horizon as emerging economic superpowers and formidable competitors.

Posting the finances is in accord with principles stated by the Obama administration.

Then-Senator Obama helped to create the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which requires a single searchable website, accessible by the public for free that includes details of each federal award.

This was a step in the right direction, but it is not good enough. We need more, more, more.

A basic system of posting the finances, to include parts of a checkbook register, was initiated by the state of Alaska. Other states have placed varying degrees of financial information online, and in Colorado and South Carolina there are groups calling for checkbook registers online.

But it's not hard to see why the politicians are dragging their feet.

Post the Finances is political dynamite. For some politicians, it would be political suicide, since they do not want us, the taxpaying citizens, to see what they do with our money behind closed doors.

They may give lip service to the idea of fiscal honesty and accountability, but they refuse to put in place a simple system that would guarantee it.

Most politicians are dedicated to helping the few, not the many.

They usually help the people who helped get them elected, and on whose support their political futures rest. Post the Finances is quite different.

It ignores the interests of the few and helps the many.

It helps you, the American taxpayer.

As the Journal-Standard, a newspaper in Freeport, Illinois, wrote in an editorial, Post the Finances is "a radical move toward openness."

It is necessary because in their zeal to bail out Wall Street and large corporations, the federal government is neglecting the fact that it must be accountable to the citizens for its use of U.S. taxpayer money.

The times could hardly be more urgent. It is likely that a heathcare reform bill will pass within the next few months that includes a public option, i.e., the government will. with taxpayer money, establish its own health insurance plan to compete with the plans of private insurers. It seems highly likely—almost certain, I would say—that the public option will produce cost overruns, waste, fraud and corruption. It is imperative that all finances related to this government plan be posted on the Web so that everyone can see them.

How Post the Finances Began

The campaign for Post the Finances began eight years ago, in 2000. It was a new idea for a new century, and it became the central plank in my campaign for mayor of Los Angeles in 2001. See www.mayormozenaforla.com

The following year, in 2002, my wife gave birth to our first child. Then it really hit me what Post the Finances was all about: safeguarding the future for our children.

They are the ones we should be thinking about.

Whatever we do today is their legacy for tomorrow. I realized then that we must not leave our children a legacy of debt, waste and corruption in our government.

Our government is a mirror of who we are.

Just as we want our personal lives to be honest and open, we must demand the same qualities in our government, especially in respect of how it uses our money.

Since this site was established several years ago, more than one million people have visited it.

From the response I have had, I know that Post the Finances is the way of the future. It will restore fiscal sanity to California and to the nation as a whole.

Just as our young kids today are growing up assuming that cell phones and the Internet have always been there, so the kids of tomorrow will think it's no big deal that citizens can check up on every detail of what their government is doing with taxpayers' money.

When that day comes, and it is not far off, people will wonder, How did we ever do it any other way? It will be like trying to remember a world without email. How did we all manage?

Given the inspiration that the birth of my baby girl gave me, the Post the Finances campaign kicked into high gear several years ago.

Ballot Initiative

Because the political establishment in California was failing to respond to my many requests to start the Post the Finances ball rolling, I created a ballot initiative that would mandate all California government departments and agencies to post their finances to their respective Web sites every day.

If Post the Finances were to become law, ordinary citizens would be able to access, through the Internet, all the state's finances. It will be like having an open checkbook register showing all revenues and expenditures, day by day. Payees, dates, and amounts will all be shown clearly, as will income from all taxes and fees. It's as easy as
online banking. We will have "open books" not "cooked books."

We need a money trail like this so we can follow the "flow of the dough" to prevent misuse of our taxes.

In this way, Californians will always be able to stop any waste and corruption instantly.

A ballot initiative is a large undertaking for a single individual. To get the initiative on the ballot, nearly 400,000 signatures are required.

For many months during 2003 I moved heaven and earth to raise the money that was needed. I contacted all the movers and shakers in California politics, from Congressman Darrell Issa, who bankrolled the recall of Governor Gray Davis, to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I received support from the now-councilman Carl DeMaio at the Performance Institute in San Diego, and encouraging words from former LA Mayor Richard Riordan.

Wherever I went I spoke about Post the Finances, and I always received an enthusiastic response.

When I spoke at the Sunday morning Prayer Breakfast at the Fall 2003 California Republican Convention, nearly 500 people broke out in spontaneous applause in support of the Post the Finances initiative.

I was invited to the Schwarzenegger inauguration in Sacramento in November, 2003, and made sure that every member of Schwarzenegger's inner circle knew about Post the Finances. I also wrote directly to Schwarzenegger, asking that he throw his weight behind the initiative.

However, to date I have received no reply, even though the Governor emphasized reform and commissioned a Performance Review to improve all aspects of government.

Why has California missed this great opportunity?

I am still seeking an appointment with the Governor to discuss the proposal directly with him. In the absence of any word of support from him, I am far less likely to support him in the next election than I was before. I explained my waning support for Schwarzenegger in a letter to Duf Sundheim, the former chairman of the California Republican Party.

Initially, if Schwarzenegger would have issued an executive order for this, or if I would have had enough money to get the necessary signatures, as Schwarzenegger has for his numerous initiatives, I would have proposed Post the Finances to be applied systematically to just one California government department at a time.

That will allow everyone to see how the system works and enable it to be fine-tuned and integrated throughout the department. From there, every California government department can be converted to the same system.

Whether it is a local city, a state or even the federal government, my approach would be to implement the system, one department at time until it was fully operational throughout local, state or federal government.

Governors and Mayors Contacted

In July, 2004, aware of the fact that I could not rely on California to take the necessary step, I wrote to all state Governors and more than 200 mayors of the biggest U.S. cities informing them of the Post the Finances proposal.

The letters generated considerable interest.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington D.C. pointed out that his city already posts more financial information on the Internet than most other cities, and he added, "Your suggestion of posting information on a daily basis is intriguing, and I will ask the CFO to explore this option."

Mayor Bart Peterson of Indianapolis said he would consider the proposal, and M. Jodi Rell, Governor of Connecticut, expressed his appreciation for my taking the time to share my concerns.

From the State of Illinois, then-Governor Rod R. Blagojevich's office wrote, "We have reviewed your idea regarding posting all our finances online and we will take this suggestion into consideration."

Another encouraging response came from the office of then-Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. The letter stated, "You have raised some interesting points, and therefore I have taken the liberty of forwarding your letter to our Policy & Planning Department."

Oscar B. Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas, also took action, writing that he had "taken the liberty of forwarding your letter to our City Manager's Office for review."

A telephone message from the office of South Carolina's Governor Sanford saluted me for "this trailblazing undertaking."

Phil Gordon, Mayor of Phoenix, also responded in a positive fashion. He wrote, "Your idea of posting all city financial transactions on the Internet to increase accountability and fiscal integrity is very creative and interesting . . . . I have taken the liberty of forwarding your letter to our Finances Department for their review. I am sure that its applicability will be carefully reviewed by our city staff."

The most promising response came from Martin J. Chavez, Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who stated that the city of Albuquerque already had plans underway to establish a post the finances system for its city government. Although some time has elapsed since then and the system is not yet operational, I still have high hopes that Albuquerque will become the first city in the nation to implement a post the finances system.

In the Fall of 2004, I ran a vigorous campaign to win a seat on the Carson, California, City Council. At several candidate forums I advocated Posting the Finances. In the election, I received over 1,150 votes. I took encouragement from this, and ran again for a Council seat in March of 2005. Once again, Post the Finances was a vital part of my platform. Although I did not win election, many more people became aware of the Post the Finances.

Pushing for this fundamental reform of the way our government at all levels handles our money is an uphill struggle, but I am determined to continue it.

In politics, the issue of fiscal honesty is never far from the surface.

The Campaign in Los Angeles and Southern California

In the March, 2005, campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor James Hahn's campaign was dogged by charges of financial impropriety. His challenger, Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, said he was for fiscal transparency, but he said nothing of posting the finances. I informed both candidates of my plan, so they could have the excuse that they knew nothing about it.

During the campaign for the run-off election in May 2005, I publicly called on each candidate to make a promise to enact Post the Finances if they are elected. After Hahn was defeated, I called on him to issue an Executive Order to enact Post the Finances before he left office on July 1. He didn't do it. So far, Mayor Villaraigosa hasn't had either the fiscal honesty or guts to institute the Post the Finances system.

The urgency of the matter was brought home to me that month of May, when there were some egregious examples of government corruption in southern California. In Carson, Robert Pryce, the attorney who brokered a votes-for-cash scheme between former Carson Mayor Daryl Sweeney and a refuse company, was sentenced to prison.

In San Diego, Mayor Dick Murphy resigned as a federal probe continued of San Diego's pension fund. Then the acting mayor of San Diego, Michael Zucchet, was convicted, along with a city councilman, of taking illegal campaign cash from a strip club owner in exchange for legislative favors.

The corruption just goes on and on, but there is a solution.

Newspaper Editorial Endorses Post the Finances

And, recently, the Journal-Standard, in Freeport, Illinois, became the first newspaper in the nation to endorse Post the Finances.

The editorial was titled, "Information can do what 'reform' can't," and it argued that a Post the Finances system, "would go a long way to mitigate the enabling activities of government agencies and their accounting methods that too often serve to either obscure various
expenses or needlessly delay reporting them to ensure individual lawmakers can't be connected to political favors, votes, appointments and other efforts to reward an outside benefactor."

The editorial concluded, "So perhaps it is finally time to subject our politicians and bureaucrats to . . . scrutiny and let sunshine - the disinfecting power of openness - do its work on a government that is increasingly selling out our democratic soul to the highest bidder."

I applaud the Journal-Standard for its vision and courage.

I hope it will be the first of many newspapers to call for the instituting of Post the Finances.

I also hope and expect many more ordinary citizens to take up the challenge and call for Posting the Finances.

As for myself, I will continue to work towards that end, using whatever ideas and resources I have. In the late fall of 2006, I published my book, Anchoring America in Stormy Times: My Voyage to Discover the American Dream, in which the opening chapter is devoted to Post the Finances.

I mailed a copy of the book to more than a hundred influential leaders in the United States in the fields of politics, entertainment, TV news, religion and business. Recipients included President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, TV news personality Bill O'Reilly, TV commentator Larry King, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Reverend Jerry Falwell, Pastor Joel Osteen, Dr. James Dobson, RCA Chairman Clive Davis, Fox Newscorp's Chair Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump, singer Barry Manilow, actor Ed Asner and many others. I hope these leaders will support fiscal transparency.

Some wrote to thank me. Click here to see an image of Governor Schwarzenegger's reply that he would read the book after the holidays.

You can order a copy of Anchoring America in Stormy Times: My Voyage to Discover the American Dream from www.amazon.com by clicking here.

Along with my wife Lucille, I ran again as a candidate for Carson City Council in the election of March 6, 2007. My main goal was to get the Council to make Carson a model city for the post the finances program. That remains my goal. Carson will then lead the nation and other cities will follow its example. See www.mozena.com

Eventually the message of Post the Finances will get through to the politicians. They will realize they can no longer hide behind a wall of financial secrecy and must open up the books for everyone to see.

No longer will we have politicians and their friends becoming millionaires at the public expense, but an informational system that will help millions of American taxpayers ensure their money is spent wisely and well.

The Post the Finances fuse may seem long now, but eventually this stick of political dynamite will explode, with devastating results for those politicians, bureaucrats and others connected with our government who have taken advantage of our political system.

Then, and only then, will the bells of financial freedom and accountability ring out from sea to shining sea.

Wow, what an inspiring sound that will make.

Finally, let me say that I have written for 10 years about fiscal transparency. If I am ever given the opportunity in public life to implement it, I will do so, without any equivocation. I'll put all government financial information where it should be—online.


Respectfully,
 

Steve Mozena