In this suit testing the enforcement powers in the D.C. Open Meetings Act, Superior Court Judge John Campbell heard argument last Friday (28) on pending motions from both sides for summary judgment (decision without a trial). The hearing was the first time the parties squared off in court.
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Since public access opened over a year ago, FOIA requests for video from Metropolitan Police body-worn cameras (BWC) have numbered just over sixty and redacting those released so far has cost only $25,000.
Those facts, released by the Open Government Coalition in a Sunshine Week briefing at the National Press Club, are far from the alarming estimates provided by the executive branch to the D.C. Council in the heat of the extended camera debate in 2015.
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Celebrating Sunshine Week 2017, the National Press Club Journalism Institute’s Freedom of the Press Committee will join with the D.C. Open Government Coalition to present the sixth annual D.C. Open Government Summit on March 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
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Read More… from DC Open Government Summit and Reception at National Press Club
Plans are under way inside D.C. government to change the law in ways likely to disable the Office of Open Government (OOG). The D.C. Open Government Coalition testified February 23 at the annual performance oversight hearing on the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability (BEGA) that includes the OOG.
Proposals in the works at the board could harm the office, according to the Coalition’s government affairs committee chair, attorney Robert Becker. He reported on a text of a bill obtained by the Coalition and under consideration by D.C. officials.
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Read More… from DCOGC: Independence of D.C. Watchdog Office Threatened, Coalition Tells D.C. Council
A class action lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia could mean refunds for millions – anyone who paid fees to access federal court records using the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system in the last six years.
Plaintiffs are three nonprofit organizations—National Veterans Legal Services Program, National Consumer Law Center and the Alliance for Justice–who used the system but say the ever-increasing fees are excessive, far beyond what the law allows.
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Flexing its enforcement muscle in court for the first time, the Office of Open Government has filed suit against the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Caribbean Community Affairs. D.C. law gives the independent Office power to go to court to enforce the D.C. Open Meetings Act.
According to the lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court, the Commission failed to post agendas or minutes of 11 meetings this year as the law requires. The lawsuit also says the Commission continued to meet without following the legal requirements despite repeated communications and offers of help.
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Read More… from D.C. Office of Open Government Sues to Stop Open Meetings Act Violations
D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds, chair of the Committee on Housing and Community Development, announced in a Sept. 29, 2016 committee hearing that Advisory Neighborhood Commissions will not get a blanket exemption from the D.C. Freedom of Information Act.
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Read More… from DCOGC: Blanket FOIA exemption dumped from ANC bill
In a dramatic turnaround just hours before a hearing on legislation to create a new Metrorail Safety Commission, revisions to the legislation will beef up legal protections for transparency and public access, as advocates had been calling for.
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Read More… from From DCOGC: D.C. Council Drops Secrecy Provisions in Metro Safety Panel
After three years and a losing court fight, the D.C. Council is nearing agreement on releasing records requested by activists concerning the controversial McMillan Reservoir development deal.
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From the DC Open Governent Coalition:
For 20,000 appeals filed each year from decisions in dozens of District agencies, from trash tickets to school suspensions, unemployment denials and Food Stamp or Medicaid errors, the only way to check on your case is by calling the clerk’s office at the central appeals office or visiting in person downtown at Judiciary Square—a special chore for the thirty percent of customers from Virginia and Maryland.
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