A PACKAGE OF improvements to San Francisco's landmark Sunshine Ordinance moved a step closer to the fall ballot May 24 when Sup. Chris Daly agreed to sponsor the amendments. Daly's an excellent choice, a proven reformer who isn't running for reelection and thus has the time to put into campaigning for the measure.

The package, put together by the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, would close a long list of loopholes that have hampered the effectiveness of the law. Most of the changes deal with one central problem: the law has some of the most comprehensive requirements in the country for disclosure of information, but it's hard, and sometimes impossible, to enforce. City officials routinely defy the law – and unless a private individual has the money to file a lawsuit, they are allowed to get away with it.

The amendments would rename the task force the Open Government Commission and would give it the power to compel city officials to appear before it and to produce records. It would also set aside $50,000 to allow the new commission to hire outside attorneys and take city officials who violate the law to court. It's always tough to push for specific allocations of money in tight economic times, but this is a relatively tiny amount of cash – and it's almost certain to pay for itself. The reality is that the city is losing millions every year to corrupt and poorly managed contracts – and in many cases, those shady deals are kept secret. When every dollar counts, it's crucial that the public be able to track and review where every dollar goes.

In that spirit, the amendments would also expand the requirement that nonprofit organizations that do the work of government with public money open their books and their meetings to the public. Under the new requirements, any nonprofit that gets more than $100,000 a year in city money would have to give the public full access to records of how that money was spent.