massachusetts open records – Page 2 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Opinion: State often keeps public in dark

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From Boston Herald: Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis praised the sunlight of public scrutiny as “the best of disinfectants.” The dark and dusty corners of Massachusetts government need far more sunshine.

The commonwealth enacted its public records law in 1966, the same year Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act. While the world looks very different than it did in the age of LBJ and Gov. John Volpe, our public records law becomes more antiquated each year, leaving far too many avenues for officials to avoid disclosure.

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Press seeks better access to public records

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From Patriot Ledger: BOSTON — News media representatives lobbied a legislative committee Tuesday, hoping to relegate to history the current, often slow and expensive process of obtaining official government records.

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Mass. lawmakers weighing public records bills

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From The Boston Globe: BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing bills designed to make it easier for the public to obtain state records.

Among the bills are proposals to increase access to public records in an electronic format or over the Internet, rather than with paper copies.

Visit The Boston Globe for more.

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Lantigua spends $32,178 of taxpayers money to fight $61 public records request

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From The Valley Patriot: Records obtained by the Valley Patriot reveal that Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua has spent a stunning amount of state taxpayer’s money, ($32,178.51) to fight the release of public records regarding legal bills and rental payments to a private law firm representing the City of Lawrence on worker’s compensation claims.

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Lawrence, Mass. official seeks city councilor’s personal emails

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From New England First Amendment Center:

Emails dealing with public business sent or received by public  officials from their personal email accounts are public records,  according to a ruling by the Massachusetts secretary of state.

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Citizens Against Casino Gaming seek records on Springfield consultant contract and costs

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From MassLive.com:

SPRINGFIELD – Michael T. Kogut, chairman of Citizens Against Casino Gaming, announced on Friday that he has submitted a request for public records from the city, detailing its contract and all costs related to the hire of a casino consultant.

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Gov. Deval Patrick locks down State House parking logs

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From Boston Herald :

Claiming privacy and security concerns, the Patrick administration is refusing to release records that could show when top state officials arrive for work and how long they stay.

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Massachusetts resident files open meetings complaint

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From The Herald News:

The Diman School Committee addressed an open meetings complaint filed by a Swansea resident during its session Thursday.

The complaint was filed by Patrick Higgins, a candidate for the Swansea Recreation Commission. It stated that the School Committee’s agendas did not include enough detail.

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So much for open government

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From Concord Monitor:

In a column published in the Monitor yesterday, House Speaker Bill O'Brien and others argued that the vote to override the governor's veto of the House redistricting plan was conducted properly. He described the failure to publish the governor's veto message in the House Journal prior to the vote as a red herring and justified his tactical strategy of calling for a vote without notice to the public on the grounds of expediency.

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