Local open government

Is that a great name for a blog?

Yes, and I’m happy to say it is a new blog:

Local open government.

You’ll like it. It is going in my blogroll for your future reference.

You had me at “fines”.

Our Opinion: Make fines key part of FOIA fix.

See also:

Illinois Sunshine Law.

Good lawsuit news from California

“A state appellate court gave a Northern California couple the go-ahead to pursue a taxpayer lawsuit against several state and local agencies for policies restricting access to public records.

The decision potentially could put some teeth in the California Public Records Act. That’s the law that says that public records belong to, well, the public. You and me. Not the bureaucrats that keep the records.”

Read the rest here.

Muckrakers of Ohio, unite

Ohio muckraking workshop March 18.

Oh, Dunbar, Dunbar

Dunbar, West Virginia was last seen justifying new rules making it more expensive to obtain records under West Virginia’s sunshine laws because “the requests were very time consuming for employees. We are trying to keep our heads above water”.

A couple of students decided to find out how many FOIA requests the staff was dealing with. Looks like it’s been about 2 a month.

Sunshine Week announces theme

The project of the 2009 Sunshine Week, which goes from March 15-21, is:

“…enlisting journalists, educators and students, openness advocates and others to develop a snapshot of public records that states make available on their Web sites. The information collected will be distilled into a nationwide report released for Sunshine Week.”

Sometimes, I ask myself what year it is

For example, when I read a headline that says Audio of public meetings ruled public records.

See Franklin Park, Pennsylvania.

Chicago Tea Party

Are you following the Chicago Tea Party developments? More here on Rick Santelli.

Best of the FOIAsphere: Weekly round-up

For our new readers, when I say “weekly”, it means “weekly or less-than-weekly, depending”.

Much has been happening in the world of open records blogging. Here are some of the posts we most enjoyed or learned from.

Connecticut:

Save us from this horrible mandate of disclosure.

Illinois:

Isn’t it good to know there is a watchdog blog for Evanston, Illinois? They know about FOIA, which always stands a watchdogger in good stead.

Iowa:

File an open records request, get fired.

Kansas:

How can you tell if a public utility failed to seek competitive bids on 21 out of 25 contracts of over $50,000? You know, it’s a good thing the economy is roaring and we don’t have to watch every penny.

Louisiana:

Moldy City has thoughts about Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration.

Maryland:

Wouldn’t you like to have a blog called the Pocomoke Tattler? Wouldn’t it be fun to just write all day long about Pocomoke, Maryland?

In this case, the Tattler is keeping a watchful eye on the city manager.

New Hampshire:

Another website to cheer you up.

New Jersey:

What do I know, but I would imagine that New Jersey Senate Republicans are an endangered species. Not so endangered, though, that they can’t put together a feisty blog series called Your Tax Dollars at Work. They’re doing this to spotlight the need for a searchable online database of government spending or, as we like to say, If you can’t defend it, don’t spend it.

Ohio:

The dog ate my homework.

Pennsylvania:

Light comes to Lehigh. (Because a citizen went to meetings, recorded them, and posted them on his website.)

Texas:

Why can’t government make its spending available? Anyone? Anyone?

A great new website: George Scott Reports.

Washington:

Blogs (sort of) disagreeing! The legislature shouldn’t make it harder and the laws can be a burden.

More here and thanks to Maverick for collecting these links even while having other things on her mind.

Embarrassing emails? Not if you delete them

Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, is under fire after a judge learned that “virtually all of the e-mails sent and received by Nagin last year and much of the information on his 2008 calendar have been erased in an apparent violation of the state public records law.”

If you were this journalist you might think that Ray Nagin is simply trying to rescue the rule of law, but I leave that debate up to the philosophers.