The UB Council violated New York State’s Open Meetings Law on Monday by barring students from its meeting, according to the state’s top open-government official. Roughly 50 graduate students and faculty members congregated outside Capen 505, hoping to attend the meeting. Chief of Staff Beth Del Genio told members of the Living Stipend Movement –– […]
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News have agreed to drop their claims against the city of Atlanta for what the media organizations described as “systemic violations” of the Georgia Open Records Act, according to an agreement reached this week. Under the agreement, the city will work with the news outlets over the next […]
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Following a federal bribery probe investigating former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration’s muddy financial dealings, the City of Atlanta announced a new transparency tool called Atlanta’s Open Checkbook. The Open Checkbook shows the City of Atlanta’s expenditure of more than $2 billion between 2017 and 2018. “Rather than waiting for the public to ask or waiting for […]
Read More… from Atlanta’s Open Checkbook: a tool for transparency
As Fergus Falls City Council candidates sat in the Kennedy Secondary Auditorium Tuesday, a question on transparency was posed in one of the two debates. Several of the responses stated that council members believed that the city was doing their best to be transparent to their constituents. Whether this was by publishing the council minutes […]
Read More… from Editorial: In Minnesota, transparency key to government
The Arkansas Attorney General’s website states that “the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is one of the most comprehensive and strongest open-records and open-meetings laws in the country.” Let’s keep it that way. On April 11, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the Arkansas FOIA Task Force voted to have fewer exemptions and no time extensions on […]
Read More… from Op-Ed: In Arkansas, transparency should be proactive with data
A judge ordered Tuesday that Louisville must turn over to the Courier Journal the full proposal it offered Amazon to build its second headquarters here. The order was issued the day after Mayor Greg Fischer doubled down on the decision to hide details of the proposal from the public, saying it would be “business malpractice” to […]
Read More… from Louisville must hand over details of Amazon HQ2 offer, judge rules
A watchdog group has filed a lawsuit seeking to block construction of a large housing and commercial project in southeastern San Diego because of ethics violations by a member of the Civic San Diego board. San Diegans for Open Government, a group led by attorney Cory Briggs, contends the City Council’s June approval of the […]
New York State’s government is in bad shape, but there is so much secrecy it is hard to tell how bad. That was the message Wednesday night, as two public interest groups were honored for trying to open government and uncover what is there. It was the Buffalo Niagara Coalition for Open Government’s chance to […]
Read More… from Lawsuit over extreme secrecy in Niagara County government being considered
The National Freedom of Information Coalition concluded its 2018 FOI Summit in Cincinnati. The annual two-day conference features presentations from open government experts and practitioners on trending government issues in state and local public institutions. Attendees include NFOIC’s state coalition directors, journalists, media lawyers and first amendment watchdogs. This year’s conference included candid discussions about […]
Read More… from Reforms to solve open government challenges dominate FOI Summit
A Republican leader of the Mississippi House says the Legislature operates more transparently now than ever. But a longtime Democratic senator says the Legislature falls short of even its own past practices of conducting public business out in the open. House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden of Meridian and Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory presented […]
Read More… from Analysis: Mississippi Legislative transparency a matter of perspective
