From ColoradoSenateNews.com:
Despite the best attempts of Capitol Republicans, school districts will retain the right to keep collective bargaining negotiations under wraps.
A bill to require negotiations between school districts and teachers be made public was killed on a party line vote Wednesday afternoon, despite the urging of several teachers to open such talks.
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From Texas Watchdog:
Some documents went missing, and others were removed, altered and returned to the file for a contract with eight firms including Westco Ventures LLC — a company owned by a close friend of Trustee Paula Harris– an audit of the Houston schools procurement practices found.
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From Connecting Government Blog:
The City of Sarasota, FL. implemented Granicus solutions six years ago for the purpose of putting all of the City Commission meetings, from Regular to Special and Workshops, online and accessible to the public via the Internet.
Sunshine laws in Florida are some of the most open in the country, and so, in keeping with the laws’ philosophy, the Office of the City Auditor and Clerk has always worked to provide all it can to the citizens.
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Read More… from Sarasota: Expanding the Expectations of Open Government
From Facebook
When I tried to fight my way into a closed-door Kentucky budget negotiation in 2006, the windows on the doors were covered with newspaper. I was physically restrained by a cop (or security guard) for looking through a gap in the newspaper. I’m glad my Bluegrass Institute colleagues are keeping the heat up.
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From Desert News:
An attempt to make it more difficult for local government entities and school boards to skirt Utah's open meetings law stalled in a House committee Monday.
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Read More… from Stall in proposal to open more government meetings
By KENNETH F. BUNTING
COLUMBIA, Mo. — It was so ho-hummedly and matter-of-factly reported that few would sense its importance when reading it.
The district attorney’s office found that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors had clearly—and rather flagrantly—violated the state’s open meetings law when they met with Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown in a secret, closed-door meeting last fall to iron out details for moving thousands of state prison inmates to county jails.
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From L.A. Now:
Los Angeles County supervisors violated the law last fall by holding a closed-door meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss a plan to shift nonviolent state prisoners to county jail and supervision after release, according to the county district attorney's office.
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Read More… from D.A. finds that L.A. County supervisors violated open meetings law
From The Gazette:
Two in three Iowans polled favor the creation of a board in state government to handle citizen complaints about violations of open meetings and access to government documents.
The findings come as Gov. Terry Branstad has joined open government advocates in pushing the Legislature to create such a board, staffed by a full-time attorney, to handle complaints.
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From news-press.com:
Florida’s Legislature will undertake bills this year that will make it easier for individuals to speak at government meetings and define record-keeping for newly elected officials.
“All in all, it is not a bad session,” said Barbara Petersen, director of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.
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Read More… from Florida Legislature to address open government improvements this year
From news-journal.com:
Tatum’s city attorney says it was a mistake not to allow cameras and recorders in Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Texas Attorney General’s Office guidelines say it is unlawful to ban such devices from open session in council meetings. Tatum Mayor Phil Cory issued the ban before Tuesday evening’s meeting.
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Read More… from Tatum (TX) city attorney regrets ban on recording devices during meeting
