On the Friday before Christmas, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a significant ruling in strong support of freedom of information. It stems from a Civil Beat 2015 lawsuit that sought to access budget documents used to inform Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s spending plans for fiscal year 2016. City officials denied the request, saying it would “frustrate […]
Advocates say they’ve secured legal representation to continue their effort to restore the bus hub at Rodney Square. The Coalition to Restore the Rodney Square Bus Hub has been trying to see Gov. John Carney’s unredacted email exchanges with Wilmington business leaders for a year. The business leaders were advocating for reducing bus traffic in […]
City employees in the mayor’s office and possibly the City Council appear to be conducting government business on private e-mail accounts and failing to disclose these communications through public records requests, so we’re doing something about it. Earlier this month we signed onto a letter calling for an audit examining the use of private e-mails […]
In dozens of U.S. cities and states, the rights to publish state and local laws don’t belong to the people or the governments. They belong to private contractors. (Read more…) A federal law has been interpreted by many state governments and state courts to allow their agencies to keep secret studies, surveys and other data […]
The First Amendment won a round in US District Court this week with a ruling that a 50-year-old Massachusetts law was never intended to apply to the recording of police or other government officials by activists or journalists. The ruling narrows considerably the scope of a law passed long before the invention of cell phones […]
Read More… from First Amendment scores a win in federal court
In his first state of the state address, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey declared, “Our government needs to operate at the speed of business.” Two years ago, his office highlighted the progress of government agencies “working more productively, more efficiently, and doing so at a lesser cost to taxpayers.” But Ducey’s office hasn’t adopted the brisk speed and efficiency […]
Here’s how to be a citizen sleuth. Alaska favors citizen involvement in — and oversight of — its government. State laws give citizens rights to a lot of information. But to get it, you need to know where to find it, and who to talk to. As lawyer John McKay points out, “The legislature has […]
Read More… from Know Your Rights: Alaska Public Records and Information Primer
We’re pleased to see Wyoming lawmakers taking a preliminary step toward strengthening the state’s public records act. Late last month, the Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee endorsed a bill that would give government officials a deadline for providing public records: They’d need to turn over the records within 17 days of […]
The state’s most recent environmental compliance report reads more like a pitch to invest in Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management stock than a document of enforcement actions. And both the report and the agency’s growing lack of transparency has environmentalists concerned. For the three years immediately following Gov. Gina Raimondo’s election, the Department of […]
Read More… from Environmentalists Concerned About Enforcement Transparency
Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, introduced a bill Monday to strengthen transparency measures in all state agencies, including the High-Speed Rail Authority. Senate Bill 53 would require state agencies to make all committee meetings public and stop them from using a loophole that allows them to have meetings “behind closed doors,” according to officials. SB […]
Read More… from California Senator Introduces Government Transparency Bill
