“To have to FOI the Board of Education is pathetic,” said Fracasso.
The Freedom of Information request was part of a series of motions, passed unanimously during the Board of Selectmen’s meeting Monday night. The thrust of these motions was to resolve the ongoing dispute between the Board of Selectmen and Board of Education, regarding the latter’s financial state.
Assessing the Health of FOIA After 2000 through the Lens of the National Security Archive and Federal Government Audits [2009-18] Melissa Guy and Melanie Oberlin (pdf)
Law Library Journal
Law Library Journal 101, no. 3
Image by ®oberto’s via Flickr
Melissa Davenport will tell you that the recent controversy surrounding Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s unwillingness to disclose information about a variety of things, including the cost of his trip to Dubai, didn’t motivate the founding of the D.C. Open Government Coalition.
“Our effort is not pegged to any administration,” she told me earlier this week. “We happen to believe the best mechanism for holding the government accountable is openness.”
Since 2006, the percentage of adults who believe the federal government to be somewhat or very secretive has grown steadily; from 62 percent in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008. The latest survey finds 73 percent characterizing federal government as secretive. This mood is perhaps buoyed by the nearly eight in 10 adults who think President Obama’s Freedom of Information directive calling for a presumption of disclosure is the right thing to do. “Trust in government has been on the decline for some time in Federal Government Still Viewed as Secretive; Public Supports President’s Directive on Transparency
By: PR Newswire
Mar. 13, 2009 07:00 AM
Public records laws are one of the single most important safeguards against tyranny in a free democracy. Strong public records laws are the people’s first line of defense against illegal actions by their government; they provide, among other things, that most all meetings of policy makers that result in new laws or government actions are open to public scrutiny and input. They also require government agencies to release documents, reports and financial details applicable to nearly everything they are doing. Without the provision of transparency afforded under the public records law, politicians might be easily able to hide from the public many of their less popular or even illegal actions.
Access to public records vital to U.S. democracy
Editorial
by Editorial Board |
This weekend, Tim Gleason, dean of the University’s School of Journalism and Communication, wrote a piece for the Oregonian in which he highlighted some of the Oregon legislature’s latest proposals to add more exceptions to the Oregon public records law. He argued, persuasively in our view, that the increased exceptions must be looked upon with some concern.
The United States is not alone when it comes to keeping the inner workings of its government secret – a practice that President Obama is attempting to change. The International Budget Partnership (IBP), a Washington-based research group, said an overwhelming majority of governments withhold more information from their citizens than the United States – especially when it comes to money. Eighty percent of the world’s governments fail to provide adequate and timely budget information for the public to hold them accountable, according to a recent report by the group. IBP’s Open Budget Survey 2008 found that nearly half of 85 countries studied provide minimal information to the public and that only five, including the United States, provide extensive information. “Transparency is critical for citizens to hold their government to account and is fundamental to the public´s trust in government,” said Nancy Boswell, president of Transparency International USA, a global organization fighting corruption.
Monday, February 2, 2009
U.S. one of the more open governments
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn speaks to the media – Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Gov. Pat Quinn told state agency directors and state lawyers Wednesday to “take all steps necessary to make information as accessible as possible” and better comply with the Freedom of Information Act.
Quinn spokesman Bob Reed said the directive is intended to let state workers know they “should have a pro-disclosure attitude toward FOIA.”
The purpose of the act is to provide members of the public access to government records. Certain types of information, such as medical files and security information, are exempt from the act.
A common criticism is that state agencies often deny requests for information based on broad interpretations of these exemptions.
In his memo, Quinn ordered FOIA requests to be considered “in favor of disclosure” instead of secrecy.
“In particular, FOIA requests shall be complied with in full conformity with both the letter and spirit of FOIA, and no decision to withhold information sought in a FOIA request shall be made to avoid embarrassment or for any speculative or other improper purpose,” he wrote.
February 25, 2009 MINNEAPOLIS – A nonprofit group that fights for the public’s right to government information is honoring a St. Paul man for doing exactly that. Rich Neumeister was named Wednesday as the winner of the John R. Finnegan Award, given each year by the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information. The group said Neumeister has worked for 25 years as a citizen lobbyist. He’s appeared before numerous legislative committees and worked with legislators on issues such as freedom of information, privacy rights and government accountability.
FOI award recognizes citizen lobbyist
WASHINGTON – SEPTEMBER 28: (L-R) Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) hold a news conference at the U.S. Captiol September 28, 2008 in Washington, DC. The Congressional Democrats talked about the compromise legislation between Congress and the Bush Administration for the $700 billion bailout plan for the Wall Street financial crisis.Image by Getty Images via Daylife
By Lise Bang-Jensen Did $165 billion in taxpayer dollars disappear into the ether? Probably not, but eight top financial executives, appearing before a House committee last week, were unable to account for how they spent federal bailout money. The episode speaks poorly for the banking industry. (Let’s hope banks are more prudent with our personal checking accounts.) It also makes government look terrible—and increases demands that the federal government track every dollar of the $789 billion stimulus plan. Transparency has emerged as a political buzzword, but it’s not a new concept. Thomas Jefferson observed, “Information is the currency of democracy”. Two centuries later, another president, Barack Obama, has promised “an unprecedented level of openness in government”. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives embrace the transparency movement. As a U.S. senator, Obama joined with Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona in co-sponsoring the Federal Funding and Accountability Act of 2006. It posts federal contracts and grants on a website, www.usaspending.gov Government transparency is about more than tracking federal contracts or stimulus funds. Citizens have a right to know how every tax dollar is spent.
Spending web sites make politicos take transparency seriously
Manhattan Moment Columnist | 2/24/09 6:10 PM
Image via Wikipedia
[1]The 1996, yes, 1996 revision of the Freedom of Information Act, known as EFOIA [2], called for federal agencies to post frequently requested documents on their Web sites.
Guess what? Not every agency did it.
But now that transparency is hip, open government advocates have created a Web site [1] so folks can tell the government what documents they would like to see made public.
The site, Show us the Data [1], is a joint project of the OpenTheGovernment.org and the Center for Democracy and Technology. They only have a few votes, but the currently most wanted document is something we wrote about Tuesday [3] — reports of the Congressional Research Service. CRS reports would not fall under the 1996 EFOIA amendments, but open-records advocates have argued for years that the information should be public.
There aren’t a lot of votes on the site yet — but the site just opened yesterday.
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