From NJ.com:
An attorney at odds politically with the township came down with a case of sticker shock when he received a $45,000 bill for the 175 Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests he filed with the township.
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Read More… from 175 OPRA requests, $45,000 charge have attorney, North Bergen at odds
From Star Advertiser:
The city is offering new board and commission members the option to complete mandatory Sunshine Law training online.
Honolulu ordinance requires all public board and commission members to complete a workshop on the state's open meetings statute. That law requires agendas to be filed six days in advance, restricts deliberations to public meetings and guarantees the public the right to submit testimony on any agenda item.
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Read More… from City offers online Sunshine Law training for board, commission members
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 SF Gate:
California, home of so much brilliance and innovation, should be ashamed that Texas and Kentucky lead the nation in using the tools of technology to make their government spending more transparent to their citizens. Even worse is that 35 other states scored higher than California in a recent analysis by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
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Read More… from How California got D minus in government transparency
From TNReport
Local school board members can attend meetings digitally, so long as there is a physical quorum, under a plan that has passed both chambers of the Legislature.
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Read More… from Lawmakers OK Legislation Allowing Ayes, Nays Via Video at School Board Meetings
From StateIntegrity.org
Delaware is the latest state to take action on improving its Corruption Risk Report Card grade. With a C- overall grade, Delaware ranked 22nd out of 50 states in the State Integrity Investigation. The overall score was hurt badly by the lack of effective laws and practices governing lobbying activity: Delaware's 43 percent 'F' grade on the lobbying disclosure category was fourth-worst in the nation.
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Read More… from Delaware Gov. Markell supports increase transparency requirements for lobbyists
From RCFP
A Pennsylvania appellate court ruled on Tuesday that the state Department of Transportation must release records on speed enforcement devices used by state police agencies in full – without any redactions – under the state's Right-to-Know Law to an engineer whose speeding ticket sparked the requests.
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