A wage-theft transparency measure that died in the Colorado legislature last year passed unanimously Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee.
The amended version of HB 17-1021 is identical to a proposal that earned bipartisan House support in 2016 but was killed in a Senate committee. The bill allows the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to disclose whether an employer has cheated its workers.
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On Wednesday legislation aimed at government transparency was resurrected in the Michigan State House.
The bipartisan bills would allow you to formally request information from the governor’s office down to the state legislature. However the bills may prompt a showdown between the State House and the State Senate.
House lawmakers from both parties are putting State Senators on the spot, putting them on notice that there needs to be more government transparency in Michigan.
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Read More… from Legislation aimed at government transparency resurrected in Michigan
A long-running legal battle over the governor’s decision to deny a 2014 open-records request was resolved in Pence’s favor by a three-judge panel.
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Read More… from Indiana Judge holds former Gov. Pence to open-records law
The city of San Diego used to have a performance measure for its handling of public records requests.The Human Resources Department, which processes such inquiries, listed “percent of public records act requests completed within mandated timeline” as a key performance indicator in city budgets. In 2013, about 75 percent were completed in the required 10 days. The measure increased to 84 percent in 2014 and 85 percent in 2015.
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Read More… from San Diego Pushes for Further Transparency with New Open Records Portal
The city of Chicago paid out about $670,000 last year to plaintiffs in lawsuits alleging that officials violated open records law — nearly five times what the city paid in the previous eight years combined.
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Read More… from Chicago paid $670,000 in 2016 over lawsuits alleging open records violations
Questions of transparency cropped up throughout the tiers of state and local government over the year as legislation, city policy and school board votes presented an air of secrecy.
Among the more notable local battles for transparency this past year was efforts by the Sun-Gazette to continue publishing daily police activities as it has done for the past three decades. This came about after city police began withholding emergency dispatch records, also known as police logs, in February.
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Hospital authorities and the hospitals they operate must be transparent.
The state’s highest court has the opportunity to send a strong message to all governing bodies that the public’s business must be public.
Open government is the law in Georgia.
We are pleased to learn the Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to consider the arguments of the Georgia Press Association, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and plaintiff E. Kendrick Smith.
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Read More… from Georgia Supreme Court to hear hospital open records case
he state attorney general ruled Monday that the University of Kentucky violated the state’s Open Records Act when it failed to provide a detailed explanation why a request for emails and other records from the College of Law was delayed.
UK also failed to give William Teague, who requested the documents, a date for when the emails and other correspondence would be available, which the university is required to do under the state’s Open Records Act, the opinion found.
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The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled against the City of Davenport over Iowa Open Records Act violations and remanded a case back to Scott County District Court.
In 2015, the Scott County District Court ruled against Dr. Allen Diercks and Patricia Lane after they alleged Davenport had ignored Freedom of Information Act requests and signed contracts with Deloitte & Touche without City Council approval during the city's attempt to purchase the Rhythm City Casino.
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Read More… from Court rules against Davenport in open records violation appeal
