At least three federal government agencies have agreed to seemingly conceal official communications with a congressional committee from public information requests, following letters sent last month by the chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services.
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Optics aside, Greitens isn't the only governor connected to supportive nonprofit organizations.
Groups in Arizona, Illinois and Georgia have sprung up to help the states' governors, while avoiding traditional donation requirements. Robert Maguire of the Center for Responsive Politics said the groups are the "unlimited, undisclosed arm of the administration that basically … bolsters the agenda of the governor."
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Read More… from Secretive Nonprofits Back Governors Around The Country
In the first study of its kind, we used the Obama administration’s White House visitor logs from 2009–2015 to identify 2,286 meetings between federal government officials and corporate executives from S&P 1500 firms. We found that money can buy you greater access to the White House, and that for corporations, that access translated into big returns on Wall Street.
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Read More… from Scholars: When CEOs Visit the White House, Their Companies Profit
Residents of New Mexico may be none the wiser when it comes to information about independent political expenditures and everyday spending by lobbyists after key transparency measures were vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez. At the same time, a long list of anti-transparency initiatives designed to restrict access to government information floundered during this year’s 60-day legislative session.
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Read More… from New Mexico bills flounder on both transparency, secrecy
North Hempstead residents can now precisely track how their tax dollars are spent, with the town’s recent launch of a comprehensive website showing years of its expenditures.
From auto equipment purchases to contracts awarded to vendors, residents can access online checkbooks dating from 2014 up to January 2017.
Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said the website — northhempstead.com/opengov — is part of her administration’s ongoing effort to boost openness and transparency.
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Read More… from Long Island: N. Hempstead residents can view town expenditures on website
New Mexicans soon will have more insight into the private business dealings of their public officials.
The Secretary of State’s Office plans to post online later this month the latest finance reports filed by legislators and other top government officials.
Publishing the mandatory reports online is a shift in policy for the office. It stopped posting the filings in 2012 under then-Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican who later resigned from office before pleading guilty to felony corruption charges.
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Trump administration officials instructed employees at multiple agencies in recent days to cease communicating with the public through news releases, official social media accounts and correspondence, raising concerns that federal employees will be able to convey only information that supports the new president’s agenda.
The new limits on public communications appear to be targeting agencies that are charged with overseeing environmental and scientific policy, prompting criticism from officials within the agencies and from outside groups focused on climate change.
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Read More… from Federal agencies ordered to restrict their communications
The Illinois Freedom of Information Act says citizens "are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees."
It does not say, "unless those affairs are conducted on a personal email account."
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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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