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If you're searching Greensboro, High Point or Guilford County's Web sites for information on how they're spending money, be prepared to dig.

Do you agree with the survey's findings? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.

And don't be shocked if you come up empty-handed.

North Carolina's largest cities, counties and school systems fail to provide easy access online to detailed budgets, financial reports, contracts, information on grants to nonprofits and employee salary data, according to a survey of government Web sites by the John Locke Foundation, a Raleigh-based conservative think tank.

Guilford County's Web site fared the worst locally, earning a grade of D-minus from the foundation. Guilford County Schools earned the highest mark, a C-minus. No Web site earned better than a C.

"This is a priority that is as important as anything government does," said Chad Adams, Locke Foundation spokesman. "People should be able to see how their government spends money."

City and county leaders say they are taking steps to provide easily accessible, accurate information on their Web sites. But they were not convinced the information the foundation sought would interest the average resident.

The survey was graded based on how difficult information was to find on the Web site. A grade of C means it would be difficult for the average person to find the information. A failing grade signifies that the information is not available online.

The school system and cities earned passing grades for providing lots of online information about their budgets.

But Greensboro — along with Guilford County, High Point and the school system — missed the mark for not having online information about contracts, grants to nonprofits or complete employee salaries.

"They're right. Those are all things that deserve total public transparency," said Patricia Boswell, Greensboro's public affairs director. "The question is more of a technological one. How do you put them up there, and how do you keep them updated?"

In recent months, Greensboro has explored new policies of putting more public information online, such as contracts, according to City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

A planned upgrade in the city's online publishing software should allow more employees to put more information online.

Guilford County has also worked to make its site more relevant.

"We need to continue to look at it and find information that would be useful to the citizen," County Manager David McNeill said.

But leaders pointed out that it can be costly to create a robust Web site.

"It's funny to me because these are the same people who are after us about fiscal responsibility," High Point City Manager Strib Boynton said. "We've minimized our cost to the taxpayers by not hiring new people to handle extra online things, buying new software, creating new databases."

Some leaders questioned whether residents would really be looking for such detailed information. Johnson pointed out that Greensboro has focused its attention on city services, such as recreation information.

But Adams says fiscal issues are just as important.

"Government clearly is using the Internet to disseminate information about what they do," he said. "This is just another aspect."

For residents who are trying to hold the government accountable, such as school board candidate Paul Daniels, more information online is a good thing.

"We need to have information in a form that's readily accessible to an average person," Daniels said.



Staff writers Morgan Josey Glover and Joe Killian contributed.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com