Columbus – Auditor of State Keith Faber hosted a press conference with Ohio News Media Association Executive Director Monica Nieporte and announced a new approach to reporting public records and compliance with Ohio’s Sunshine Laws through a Star Rating System (StaRS). 

“Since day one, transparency has been a top priority,” said Auditor Faber. “The Stars Rating System, will provide the public a good measure of government transparency and, at the same time, have bench marks and best practices for governments to improve the transparency within their own organization.” 

StaRS will reflect a rating for each public office, which not only measures compliance with Sunshine Laws, but also encourages public entities to be more open and transparent to those they serve by implementing identified best practices.

Entities receiving 2 or more stars will be given the opportunity to print an AOS StaRS certificate, highlighting their accomplishment.

Procedures outlined in the bulletin will be applied to all audit engagements with a fiscal year ending December 31, 2019 and later. While testing for StaRS ratings will begin on January 1, 2020, results will not be available until audits are completed later in the year. The Auditor’s office solicited feedback from numerous interested parties and will continuously seek feedback for this new program.

More information is available online. Bulletin 2019-03, Ohio Sunshine Laws and New Star Rating System is attached.

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio is responsible for auditing more than 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government.