Platinum Leadership Circle Award for Financial Transparency

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts has awarded the Platinum Leadership Circle Award for Financial Transparency to the City of Haslet, which is the highest award level offered, and spotlights entities that go above and beyond providing financial transparency. The City of Haslet will be listed on the Comptroller’s website and the listing will include links to Haslet’s website and financial transparency information. Their site also lists other entities that are members of the Leadership Circle.

The main criteria for the award includes having the city’s budget, audit, and check register available online to the public. The information is to be easy to access and search on the website. Some of the other recommended criteria to be included on the website is contact information for city council members and key staff; municipal codes; past city council meeting agendas and minutes; detailed summary information about current bonded debt and repayment; and a link to the Comptroller’s governmental transparency website.

Fin Transp Logo w Title.jpg

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (Comptroller) began the Leadership Circle program in December 2009 to encourage the more than 1,200 incorporated cities in Texas to make financial transparency an ongoing goal and to recognize local governments across Texas that strive to meet high standards for financial transparency online. The Comptroller announced that in 2015, it was enhancing the Leadership Circle program by spotlighting entities that meet an even higher standard of financial transparency by adding the Platinum Award level. Possible awards are platinum, gold, silver and bronze (in that order).

The Leadership Circle program spotlights those local governments that are:

•opening their books to the public

•providing clear, consistent pictures of spending

•sharing information in a user-friendly format that lets taxpayers easily drill down for more detail.