In September Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 1349, requiring a complete rebuild of Cal-Access into a database where campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures will be made public. Since the measure was approved, Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been working to ensure the system fits the needs of all those involved.
On Thursday, Padilla held a public meeting in Sacramento, where members of the public were given an opportunity to share their thoughts about desired features of the new Cal-Access solution. Recommendations from stakeholders seemed to focus on improving two main factors of the system: adaptability and usability.
ADAPTABILITY
Many of the attendees commented on the need to make the system more adaptable as technology continues to evolve. Skippy Williams, product manager for Berkeley-based MapLight, recommended the new system be released in an open source license.If the system were to be built using an open source solution, Williams said vendors would be allowed to freely review and modify the system. Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, echoed William’s sentiment, adding that the replacement should be beta tested with users before it goes live.
On that same note, a representative from the League of Women Voters of California mentioned that under SB 1349, the Secretary of State is given procurement flexibility that can enable different approaches for development of the replacement system. Agreeing with Williams and Alexander, the representative said this flexibility would support the agency in deploying a more flexible environment.
USABILITY
In addition to improving the system’s adaptability, members of the audience also brought up ideas regarding enhancing Cal-Access’ overall usability.Speakers from the California Common Cause, Gavin Baker and Nicolas Heidorn, pushed for more graphical displays and summaries to help users digest information. They also noted that the current Cal-Access system requires workarounds to retrieve certain data, and proposed creating a solution that would allow for search fields and subfields to be added going forward.
Other suggestions included better integrating Cal-Access with related systems, developing a more mobile-friendly version of the solution and providing an option for users to sign up to receive automatic alerts on donor/recipient activity.
