Even in Republican-dominated North Idaho, you want to be blue if you’re an elected official.

Blue: Lights on.

Red: Lights off.

Allow us to explain.

Ever since the Idaho House State Affairs Committee killed a proposal in January to require candidates for local, county and state offices to disclose basic information about their personal finances — the idea is to avoid possible conflicts of interest — The Press has called upon local elected officials to disclose their finances voluntarily. That effort has been largely successful — but not completely.

Now, thanks to a new website, Kootenai County voters can keep track of who’s transparent (blue) and who’s not (red) with personal finances. The site is: http://bookshelf.cdapresshost.com/disclosures

The names of elected officials who have voluntarily provided their financial information appear in blue. Clicking on those names will take readers to the officials’ financial info. There readers will also see links to Press stories where the disclosures were made.

Elected officials whose names appear in red? They’ve chosen thus far not to share their financial information. Click on their names and you go nowhere. It’s as if those officials have turned off the lights of transparency.

The website was created and will be maintained by Josh Bright, a quiet, thoughtful member of the newspaper’s IT team. Asked why he took the initiative to build the site, Bright said simply, “I feel like this is something newspapers should do.”

And we think this is something elected officials should do. Those who haven’t yet are encouraged to send their financial disclosures to The Press at: [email protected]

The disclosure website will be expanded this spring to include not just elected officials from Kootenai County, but also candidates in upcoming city, county and state races.