Economic Development: None of Our Business?

A nice piece from Arkansas on an endlessly controversial practice:

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission is an agency that thrives on secrecy, so much so that big-name projects' real names aren't uttered until they're a done deal.

A Denmark windmill blade manufacturer's Little Rock plant was known around the office as "Project Zephyrus." When Hewlett-Packard Co. mulled a move to Conway for a new facility, proposals detailing the millions offered in state incentives simply referred to HP as "Project Sigma."

The secrecy, state officials say, is necessary to keep Arkansas in the hunt for major business projects. No company will come to the state if they fear that details of their internal operations will be splashed on the front pages of newspapers or lead the nightly local newscast.

Democracy and a free press, however, thrive on openness. So it's not anything new for the state's economic development arm and reporters to clash over access to information.

That rift appeared again in June as word leaked out of HP's decision to open a facility that will eventually employ 1,200 people in Conway. ArkansasBusiness.com was the first to report that HP was coming to Arkansas -- four days before the official news conference.

When the news got out, HP spokesmen and government officials from Gov. Mike Beebe on down declined on-the-record comment for the rest of the week.

Arkansas Economic Development Director Maria Haley appeared to criticize media for reporting on the development before it was announced, calling the leaks "extremely irresponsible."

More here.

FOI At Work: The Data Diva Checks Out Those Dates...

OK, full disclosure: Jaimi is a recovering student of mine, and one of my all-time faves....

In her latest column, she puts the dating pool on notice.

For many, the dating process involves varied pre-date rituals. Some women buy new clothes. Others have intense beauty regimens. Many feel the need to talk about their jitters. Not me.

I hit the computer and search like crazy, digging up all the dirt I can find. With each keystroke the secrets unfold. They’re no match for me.

My reconnaissance mission prepares me for that moment in the date, if things are going well, when he feels comfortable enough to discuss some of his baggage. “I have something to tell you,” is usually how it starts. Before he finishes the thought I’m already wondering if it’s going to be his recent divorce, that lawsuit with the city, or his (actual) age.

Read the rest of this delightful (and informative) column here.

NY Bill Would Allow Video, Audiotaping

A bill pending in both the NY Assembly and Senate would change that to allow citizens greater access to the goings-on in government.

Recognizing changes in technology have made recording and photography equipment less disruptive than in the past, the legislation would allow citizens to record and even broadcast meetings (even on cable), so long as the activity wasn’t disruptive to the meeting. The law would allow government boards to establish rules such as where the equipment and personnel could be located in the room. But they couldn’t regulate what was being recorded.

It’s ridiculous that you can observe a proceeding in person, but not record it. This measure would expose more citizens to the goings-on of government by allowing people who can’t attend meetings to view recorded versions at a time and place that’s convenient to them. As we’ve said repeatedly, the more the citizens observe government activities by attending meetings and requesting documents, the more responsive government bodies are forced to become. This measure just furthers that end.

The bill, which is strongly supported by the New York Newspaper Publishers Association, is sponsored by two friends of open government, Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito of Rome and Sen. John DeFrancisco of Syracuse. The Assembly has already passed its version, while the Senate version was stopped in the majority leader’s office near the end of the recently concluded legislative session.

To read the bill and accompanying memos — it’s really cut and dried — go to the state Senate Web site, www.senate.state.ny.us. and click on Bills & Laws in the lefthand menu. Then plug in either the Senate bill number, S2053, or the Assembly bill number, A1111.

More here.

ACLU To Get Profiling Data in Maryland

The NAACP can review Maryland State Police documents alleging racial profiling that the organization had been seeking, a judge ruled yesterday - a victory for the civil rights organization in a battle that has raged more than a decade.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Timothy J. Martin decided that a panel of three lawyers selected by the civil rights organization's Maryland conference will have 120 days to review the documents and select those they would like copied. The names of the officers and the complainants will be redacted from the copied documents.

"I believe the fair approach is to find a middle ground," Martin said. "I know state police fear a precedent, but I believe the NAACP is entitled to disclosure of these documents. ... I know the state police are not going to be happy with the statements I'm making."

Betty A. Stemley, an assistant attorney general representing the state police, had argued that the documents were not public record and should be considered private personnel documents.

More here.

A Florida Exemption Runneth Amuck

County Commission candidate John Nicolette owns 14 properties in Pasco worth more than $4-million.

But punch his name into the county's online property records databases, and nothing comes up.

Using a public records exemption that shields the home address of public safety officials — including Nicolette, a Tampa firefighter — Property Appraiser Mike Wells and Tax Collector Mike Olson have blocked the public's access to information about all of Nicolette's investment properties.

Rather than simply redact the home address from those forms, the records don't exist online.

Those records include information on the location and value of the investment properties, as well as the taxes paid on every piece of land Nicolette owns.

A Times reporter obtained information only after visiting the offices in person and getting a Times attorney involved.

But it's a tenet of open government — and particularly, state law — that property records in Florida are public. Neighbors can see what neighbors are paying in property taxes — and what tax breaks they receive.

More here.

FOI At Work: Texas Guv Search Was a Narrow One...

When Gov. Rick Perry chose his former political aide to head the Texas Transportation Commission, he bypassed prominent business people who some legislators say were better equipped for the job, state documents show.

Perry's selection of Deirdre Delisi led to claims of political cronyism. But Perry's office and Delisi herself say she has the policy expertise and legislative experience needed for the transportation hot seat.

Before appointing her in April, along with non-controversial pick William "Bill" Meadows, Perry received resumes and recommendation letters for at least eight potential transportation nominees, according to records obtained by The Associated Press under the Texas Public Information Act.

Only one candidate — Meadows, who was vice chairman of the North Texas Tollway Authority — appeared to come directly from a regional transportation board, records show. Others up for consideration for the five-person commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation, known as TxDOT, were attorneys or businessmen.

More here.

FOI At Work: Picking Up the Trash

South Los Angeles residents aren't the only ones having a tough time getting city crews to clean up alleyways strewn with refuse and dead animals. Not even an aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could get quick action when he complained about illegal dumping earlier this year, according to a Times review of city records.

The mayoral aide alerted the Department of Public Works in early March about rubbish completely blocking an alley in a pocket of Watts prone to illegal dumping. But more than two months passed before workers cleaned the byway near East 113th Street and Graham Avenue, according to city records.

A spokesman for the mayor said his office was unaware of the delay until told by The Times earlier this week. The aide said he never followed up on his request because he assumed the department would take care of the problem.

Last week, after The Times reported that illegally dumped trash festered for a month or longer in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, Villaraigosa ordered a report to determine how long it takes for crews to respond to complaints from residents. The report is expected to be completed by the end of this week.

But records show that the mayor's office, as well as residents who called the city's 311 non-emergency number, have regularly waited anywhere from two weeks to two months for alleys to be cleaned...

The city documents reviewed by The Times were obtained under a California Public Records Act request. They detail two dozen requests for service from January through the end of May in three areas where public works officials say illegal dumping has been a problem for years.

More here.

House Moves to Open Homeland Security A Bit...

Congress on Thursday will take a major step in rolling back the tide of secrecy that has swept through government since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with the House Homeland Security Committee poised to pass two bills making the Homeland Security Department more transparent.

Both bills are expected to pass the committee easily: One would crack down on too-frequent use of classification, while the other would go after "pseudo-classification" - the new labels such as "for official use only" that have popped up to keep even unclassified documents out of the hands of the public and other government agencies.

"This is more than Congress has been able to do in seven years," said Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat and the bills' chief sponsor, who said the bills are the result of an alliance of open-government advocates and those who think the government needs to share more information within its agencies for national security reasons.

Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat, is the chief sponsor of two bills aimed at cracking down on overclassification and pseudo-classification within government agencies.

"The dirtiest four-letter word in government is spelled T-U-R-F, and overclassification and pseudo-classification are ways to protect T-U-R-F," Mrs. Harman said.

The Sept. 11 commission blamed a lack of information-sharing among agencies for intelligence failures before the attack, and Republicans and Democrats both want to make sure that new turf battles won't produce a similar breakdown.

A Homeland Security official said late Wednesday that the department opposes both bills.

More here.

That was quick: police disciplinary records remain a secret in Cali

Despite lobbying efforts by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, an Assembly committee Tuesday killed a bill that would have cleared the way for the Los Angeles Police Department to make officers' disciplinary hearings and records open to the public.

The bill faced stiff opposition from many of the state's powerful police unions, which argued that the measure would compromise officer safety. LAPD Chief William J. Bratton, normally a Villaraigosa ally, pointedly chose not to take a position on the bill and Tuesday expressed concerns about it.

Three Democrats on the seven-member Public Safety Committee refused to cast a vote. Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) voted for the measure, and Assemblymen Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton), Joel Anderson (R-San Diego) and Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) opposed it.

The bill's author, state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), lashed out against the members who abstained. They were Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), the committee's chairman, and Assemblymen Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) and Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge).

"I was really taken aback by the [bill's] death by silence," Romero said. "The fear, you could feel it -- the fear of what will happen if you look out for the public's interests when they may differ from the interests of the law enforcement lobby."...

The legislation, SB 1019, would have allowed, but not required, the LAPD to return to its long-standing policy of releasing officer's disciplinary records and allowing the news media and other members of the public to attend disciplinary hearings. Acting on the advice of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, the department sharply curtailed its disclosure policy in 2006 in light of a state Supreme Court decision.

More here.

Texas Guv Mansion Video: Public Record or Security Secret?

The Texas Department of Public Safety, citing protection of public property from terrorism, is trying to keep secret the video surveillance tapes of the Governor's Mansion the day it burned.

The DPS wrote Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last week asking for a ruling on whether the tapes must be released to The Associated Press. The AP requested the video the day of the fire using the Texas Public Information Act.

At least three other news organizations also asked for copies of the surveillance tapes shortly after fire severely damaged the 152-year-old mansion the morning of June 8.

DPS contends the tapes are exempt from disclosure because state homeland security laws allow information to be kept confidential if it "relates to the specifications, operating procedures, or location of a security system used to protect public or private property from an act of terrorism or related criminal activity."

Disclosure of the video would "reveal the clarity, range, angle, zoom capabilities, panning capabilities and fields of view of those cameras, as well as their ability to record in little or no light, whether the cameras have infrared or thermal imaging capability, and whether the cameras record in color or black and white," Lopez wrote.

"This information would allow a terrorist or related criminal to discern whether and exactly when a person can be detected and recognized in the areas monitored by the cameras in question," the letter stated.

Releasing the video would reveal whether cameras are real or "dummies;" whether they are constantly running or are motion activated; and for how long videotapes are preserved, the agency contends.

Additionally, DPS said it opposes releasing the video because it could interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation...

In the past, Abbott's office has ruled DPS video surveillance tapes from hallways behind the Texas House of Representatives in the Capitol should be available to the public. The DPS is fighting in court to keep House hallway video from the Texas Observer, a news magazine that made an open records request for videotape recorded in May 2005 when legislators debated private school vouchers.

In the Governor's Mansion video, someone can be seen igniting an object and throwing it onto the porch of the building, fire investigators have already revealed. Investigators say the suspect was wearing a ball cap, a dark shirt, work-type gloves and blue jeans or cargo-style pants.

Only 13 of 20 security cameras on the mansion grounds were working when the fire broke out, and a motion sensor system wasn't working properly, a state official has said.

More here.

Task Forces, Advisory Meetings, and Publicly Funded Arenas: A Rich Mix

Hartford, CT Mayor Eddie A. Perez is dancing...

The mayor:

wanted to know whether there was sentiment within the Greater Hartford business community to support a new downtown arena, so he created a "task force" to study the question.

When that group's first meeting was held behind closed doors in April, The Courant questioned the secrecy and filed a Freedom of Information complaint with the state. The group stopped meeting at city hall and retreated to the offices of the MetroHartford Alliance regional economic development organization.

There, business leaders say they can talk with candor, out of earshot of the press and public.

They met again Tuesday, turning away a Courant reporter. Perez and the city contend the task force meetings are private.

They might ought not be, Mayor...people grow suspicious quickly these days about arena deals, and when you embrace the 'ol smoke-filled room, things generally go downhill from there.

A Peek at Alice's Wonderland...

Slate's Alex Heard provides an excellent analysis of the FBI's "retention" program and
reminds us all how important the historical record can be, and how much of history can be lost...

I got bad news from the FBI a few months ago. A file I'd requested under the Freedom of Information Act wasn't going to be available. Ever.

And not for one of the reasons I already knew to expect—that the material was classified, that the file concerned a living person, or that no file existed to begin with. Judging by the FBI's final response letter, there might have been a file on my subject, a long-deceased Mississippi lawyer name John R. Poole. But if there was, it got shredded.

"Records which may be responsive to your … request were destroyed on July 01, 1995," the letter said. "The FBI Records Retention Plan and Disposition Schedules have been approved by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and are monitored by knowledgeable representatives of the NARA."

A Good Fix in California

On a 69-0 vote, the California State Assembly today sent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles) legislation to allow greater public access to government contracts as well as audits and reviews of public agencies. Once the bill is received by the Governor, he will have twelve days to sign or veto the legislation.

Senate Bill 1696, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), would prohibit a state or local agency from allowing an outside entity to control the disclosure of information that is otherwise subject to the state’s Public Records Act. In addition, the bill would specify that regardless of any contract term to the contrary, a contract for the purpose of conducting a review, audit, or report between a private entity and a state or local agency is subject to the same disclosure requirements as other public records.

The need for the measure arose from the denial of a January 2007 request by the San Francisco Chronicle to the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). UCSF refused to release an independent review of its finances or even the name of the firm that was issued a contract for $165,000 to carry out the review. UCSF claimed the auditing firm controlled the confidentiality of the contract and the audit.

More here.

Missouri Judge Takes Dim View of Charges

According to an AP story:

A judge says he's inclined to rule that fees for getting driver's license records must follow Missouri's Sunshine Law.

Companies that buy driver's license and motor vehicle records in bulk sued to challenge a Revenue Department fee increase, alleging it violates the Sunshine Law. The department had charged a fraction of cent for bulk records but increased that to $7 starting May 1 to pay for a new computer system.

Cole County Judge Richard Callahan has already temporarily blocked the fee increase, citing the Sunshine Law's limit on how much the state can charge for copies of records.

Callahan held a hearing Friday on a permanent injunction. He said the Sunshine law seems to apply to the Revenue Department records, but he did not issue an immediate ruling.

FOI AT Work: Don't Ask, Don't Tell Affects More Women Than Men

The Army and Air Force discharged a disproportionate number of women in 2007 under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military, according to Pentagon statistics gathered by an advocacy group.

While women make up 14 percent of Army personnel, 46 percent of those discharged under the policy last year were women. And while 20 percent of Air Force personnel are women, 49 percent of its discharges under the policy last year were women.

By comparison for 2006, about 35 percent of the Army’s discharges and 36 percent of the Air Force’s were women, according to the statistics.

The information was gathered under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a policy advocacy organization.

More here

Rhode Island Reforms Pass

Per the AP, Rhode Island lawmakers have taken a major step toward strengthening the state's public records law:

Rhode Island lawmakers have endorsed the first major changes to the state's open records law, including hastening their release and specifying the information from arrest records police must make public.

Lawmakers approved the changes Saturday. They would take effect Sept. 1, if accepted by Gov. Don Carcieri.

The proposed law would decrease the time that public agencies have to respond to requests for public records, from 10 days to seven.

It would bar state agencies from requiring those seeking the information to provide personally identifiable details or stating the reason for their request.

The bill lists the basic information that police must release about arrests within 24 hours. It also orders that police release narratives of arrest reports within seven days.

FOI At Work: Sports Beat

eorgia State has offered new football coach Bill Curry an annual salary of $350,000, according to documents obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Freedom of Information Act.

This is not a contract but a memorandum of understanding. Curry has three months to sign the document. When Georgia State introduced him as head coach last week, Curry had agreed to a five-year contract.

In addition to his salary, he will receive an annual $50,000 bonus that's tied to certain athletic and academic achievements that will be included in the contract. He will also receive a $500 month car allowance. He will have a pool of $450,000 with which to hire six assistant coaches, a director of football operations and an administrative assistant.

More here.

Some Good News (At Last!)

After a morning of new exemptions, some good news from Arizona:

The state Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a bill that would make public the disciplinary records of state employees.

On a voice vote, the Senate approved House Bill 2159 and amended it to say that employee phone numbers and addresses would remain private.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican, was introduced as part of a series of reforms to Child Protective Services following the deaths of two Tucson children, and the presumed death of a third local child, who were being monitored by the state agency.

More here.

The Ever-Shrinking Community...NC Seeks to Keep Secret Names of Little Leaguers

A frequent rant of mine is the ever-narrowing conceptualization of information that ought to be public, such as the fact that little Johnny drove in three runs in the game last night...while I see no reason to release dates of birth and the like, what about a name and an age?

Efforts to keep identifying information about children who participate in local recreational programs cleared a subcommittee on Wednesday.

The subcommittee, which is looking at a bill introduced by two Alamance County representatives - Democrat Alice Bordsen and Republican Cary Allred - along with Rep. Karen Ray, R-Iredell, also chose to recommend that the new proposed law clarify that coaches and recreation staff members could release that information if they chose to. However, they would not be required to do so.

The bill would exclude from the public record identifying information of a minor, such as the minor's name, address, age, date of birth, telephone number, name and address of the minor's parents and any other information on an application to participate in a recreation program.

Charles Marshall, representing the N.C. Press Association, requested that the name and age of the child continue to be public record to facilitate reporters and photographers who might be covering a youth sporting event.

Reps. Bonner Stiller, R-Brunswick, and Debbie Clary, R-Cleveland, argued for keeping such identifying information public.

"The worst thing that can happen is to put the wrong name under a 12-year-old or a 14-year-old who is the triple hitter," Clary said.

More here.

Want to Get Inspired Today?

Then check out the Student Press Law Center's excellent series of interviews with student journalists and their teachers...

Humboldt State University's investigative reporting class had hit a wall. In January they embarked on an investigation into mental health within the Humboldt County Jail by researching the life and death of James Lee Peters, a Native American man who in August committed suicide while in the jail.

After repeated phone calls and endless interview requests, the class was met only with silence.

"No one felt they could talk about it," said Marcy Burstiner, the professor who led the class. "No one was blocking them, but no one was helping them out."

Not knowing where else to turn, the class began digging through public records. They filed California Public Record Act requests with Atascadero State Hospital and petitioned the District Attorney to open Peters' files.

As the class pored over court transcripts, physiological reports and procedural policies, they began to piece Peters' life together. In doing so, they shed light on the deteriorating state of mental health services within the county jail.

Check out the interview here.