Arizona is FIrst State to Make Metadata Available for Public Review

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that "if a public entity maintains a public record in an electronic format, then the electronic version, including any embedded metadata, is subject to disclosure under our public records law."  The Court did not decide when a public entity must keep information electronically, but if it does, then the entity should provide the native files.  

With its ruling, the Arizona Supreme Court is the first state to rule that metadata is available for public review.  

Metadata is hidden data about data that details a document's creation and revisions, showing when and who made such changes.  

Get more information here and here. 

Oklahoma Supreme Court Decision Troubles Open Records Advocates

A ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court effectively carves out an exception to the state's Open Records Act by forbidding the release of all the state's electronic case information under the state Open Records Act.  The ruling also affirms public access to electronic court records on a case-by-case basis.  

The Court rejected the bulk data request of INAD Data Services LLC for electronic copies of all district court and workers' compensation court case information.  

Controversy started brewing when it came to light that another company, KellPro Inc. has a $1 million contract with the state Supreme Court to get electronic court records from 64 counties ready for a unified system of public access on the Web. 

State Rep. Mike Reynolds (R-Oklahoma City) criticized the Court for contracting with one private company to provide data while simultaneously cutting off access to other companies.  

Get more details here. 

Poof! Making Virtual Information Disappear

A team of University of Washington computer scientists have developed a system to make electronic communications, like e-mail, Facebook posts and chat messages, automatically self-destruct and become irretrievable.  Much better than any "delete" button, the program would remove content from all websites, inboxes, outboxes, backup site and home computers. 

The prototype is called Vanish, and it would place a time limit on text uploaded to any website through a web browser.  

Get more details about the project here. 

Computer Forensics Experts Investigate Whether Boston Mayor's Office Violated Public Records Laws

After a senior aide to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino produced only 18 emails in response to a Boston Globe request spawning a six-month period, an independent computer forensics specialist is examining the computer and software to help determine if the mayor's office violated public records laws.

For more information, click here.

Groups win access to Calif. lawmakers database

The California First Amendment Coalition and MAPLight.org won access to a machine-readable state lawmakers database in its settlement with the Office of Legislative Counsel of California, the California Chronicle reported. The previous form of the database hindered analysis. After the lawsuit was filed, the Office of Legislative Counsel unrolled a "structured database" on its Web site, which can be downloaded by anyone at www.leginfo.ca.gov. MAPLight.org plans to use the structured database to create MAPLight.org California, which will "combine all money given to members of the California state legislature with how each politician votes on every bill, revealing patterns of money and influence never before possible to see."

The California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) and MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization that shows the connection between money and politics, announce today that they have settled their freedom of information lawsuit against the Office of Legislative Counsel of California, having gained the object of their suit: a machine-readable database of how state lawmakers vote.

"It shouldn't take a lawsuit for the government to realize its data belongs to the people," said Daniel Newman, MAPLight.org's executive director. "In this new era of highlighting transparency, we hope this settlement serves as an example to city and state governments across the country to provide public access to public information."

California Legislative data, including how lawmakers vote, legislation in progress, and laws, was previously available to the public only in a plain-text format on the California Legislative Information website. That data was suitable for viewing and printing, but only allowed access to Legislative data at a rate of one bill at a time, making analysis lengthy and cumbersome.

More here.

Open-government advocates oppose Illinois FOIA rewrite bill

The current Illinois FOIA is weak but better than the revised bill, open-government advocates told The State-Journal Register. They initially supported revisions drawn up by Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but changes last week, supposedly made by staff for the House speaker and Senate president, were met with opposition. Included in the changes: "a blanket prohibition on releasing home addresses and license plate numbers" and "allowing public officials to satisfy FOIA requests with paper records, and charging for each page, rather than providing information in electronic format."

Open-government advocates say Illinois would be better off with an existing but flawed Freedom of Information Act than with a revised law released by House Democrats late Tuesday, just one minute before midnight and less than two weeks before the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn.

Rather than making records more accessible, officials with the Illinois Press Association say the provisions put forth by legislative leaders would make it easier for government officials to delay and ultimately keep some records secret.

“This would just open up a whole new range of litigation,” said Beth Bennett, IPA director of government relations.

More here.

Great news for open government in Oklahoma

From Dr. Joey Senat, Associate Professor at OSU School of Journalism and Broadcasting:

Records of government business belong to the public even if they are created, received or stored on an official's private smart phone or laptop, according to an Oklahoma AG opinion released Thursday.

"To conclude otherwise would allow public officials and employees to circumvent the open records laws simply by using privately owned personal electronic communication devices to conduct public business," the opinion said.

The opinion also prohibits public officials and employees from altering or destroying public records on their private communication devices unlessallowed to do under the state Records Management Act.

"E-mails, text messages and other electronic communications made or received in connection with the transaction of public business, the expenditure of public funds or the administration of public property are subject to the Oklahoma Open Records Act, [its exemptions] and the Records Management Act regardless of whether they are created, received, transmitted or maintained by government officials on publicly or privately owned equipment and communications devices," the opinion concluded.

Unlike in many other states, attorney general opinions in Oklahoma are binding unless overturned by a court.

Opinion 09-12 noted that government officials and employees increasingly use privately owned "computers, laptops, cell phones, PDAs, smart phones, and other personal electronic communication devices in conjunction with their work."

Public access to such electronic communications became an issue in April 2008. OSU student Jenny Redden, for an independent study with me, reported in The Daily O'Collegian that OSU President Burns Hargis and several hundred other university employees conduct the public's business on their smart phones or cell phones.

OSU administrators claimed the related text-messages, e-mails and numbers dialed were secret. They contended that the ownership of the cellular device, not the substance of its related records, should decide whether those records are public.

That policy earned OSU officials the annual Black Hole Award from FOI Oklahoma Inc. in March.

The notion put forth by OSU poses a serious threat to open government because it contains no limiting principle. If a record is secret because it's on the mayor¹s iPhone, then so are documents on the mayor's own laptop even if he's conducting the public's business on it while seated at his office desk.

Courts and attorneys general in other states have rejected the reasoning used by OSU officials, holding that it is the nature of the record created that determines if it is open to the public.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondon's office followed suit, saying that nowhere in the Open Records Act "is ownership of equipment mentioned as a factor in determining what is or is not a record."

"We conclude that who owns an electronic communications device has no bearing on whether an electronic communication created or received on that device is a record," the opinion said. "Thus, a communication that meets the definition of a record under the ORA is subject to disclosure regardless of whether it is created or received on a publicly or privately owned personal electronic communication device, unless some provision of law allows it to be kept confidential.

"Nor does the location of the electronic communications equipment matter, whether it is used in a governmental office, in a public official's or employee's home, or somewhere in transit between them," the opinion said.

The opinion also reasoned: "Like the ORA, the RMA makes no distinction between records that exist on publicly owned electronic communication equipment and those on privately owned equipment. Therefore, public officials may not partially or wholly mutilate, destroy, transfer, remove, alter, or otherwise damage or dispose of records on their personal electronic communications devices, except as provided by law."

Read the AG's opinion here.

Jenny's series on open government at OSU can be found at:
http://ocolly.com/2008/04/17/employee-phone-policy-violates-open-records-law
-experts-say/

http://ocolly.com/2008/04/17/osu-could-cut-costs-by-changing-cell-policy/

http://ocolly.com/2008/04/30/regents%E2%80%99-voting-record-under-investigation/


Thank you to Drew Edmondson and Assistant Attorney General Debra Schwartz for this written opinion. It will go a long way toward protecting open government in Oklahoma.

Thank you, also, to Susan McVey, director of the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, and Bill Young, the department's public information administrator, for requesting the opinion.

Arizona bill address technological formats

An Arizona bill would provide the opportunity for those who file records requests to receive the data on CD-ROM, in PDF, in spreadsheets or in other formats, so long as the public body keeps its records electronically, The Arizona Republic reported.

The question, "Paper or plastic?" is usually reserved for supermarket checkout lines, but a Senate bill could have public-records clerks using a similar refrain.

Authored by Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-Chandler, Senate Bill 1305 would require public bodies that keep public records electronically to provide them upon request on CD-ROM or in another format.

The change would allow more efficient public access to records, said David Bodney, a media attorney with the Steptoe and Johnson LLP.

More here.

Electronic requests now accepted in N.M.

The New Mexico governor signed a bill that requires the acceptance of electronic public records requests, the Student Press Law Center reported. The bill was filed after New Mexico State University refused to acknowledge an e-mailed request.

Government agencies in New Mexico will have to accept electronic requests for public records after the governor signed a bill April 3 inspired by a state university's rejection of an e-mail request.

House Bill 598, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, states that communication by e-mail or fax qualifies as a "written" request required under state law.

"Government actors should not be able to rely on artificial barriers to avoid making public records available to the public," Cervantes said following a 64-0 House of Representatives vote on March 4, according to the New Mexico Independent. "With this legislation, no government actor can hide behind an argument that a records request must be printed and mailed or hand-delivered to constitute a valid request."

More here.

Files of former Speaker of Texas House wiped out

When Tom Craddick transitioned from Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives to a rank-and-file member, his computer hard drives and electronic records were wiped from his computers. Some files that Craddick requested were saved, but the rest are gone, which his chief of staff says is standard procedure.

Before the House voted Speaker Tom Craddick out of his powerful job, state officials wiped his computers clean and deleted scores of electronic files, raising concerns that important public records may have been destroyed.

Files on one shared computer network drive were saved, but unless Craddick specifically requested them, computer hard drives and electronic records associated with individual employees were deleted, officials said.

Craddick left the speaker's office on Jan. 13, returning to the state House as a rank-and-file member without a vast staff and without the sweeping power the presiding officer wields.

More here.

Clipboard disappears but reports will soon appear online

The Savannah-Chatham County police agreed to post a list of all reports on its Web site each morning. The comprehensive list had been available on a clipboard at the front desk until the department converted to a paperless, electronic system on Dec. 24. The department had discontinued providing a comprehensive list (even though copies of individual reports could still be obtained), which led to a complaint from the Savannah Morning News.

The Savannah Morning News has settled a dispute with Savannah-Chatham County police over public access to police reports after the department agreed to post a daily list of all reports on its Web site.

The agreement resolves a complaint the newspaper made to Attorney General Thurbert Baker last month accusing the police department of violating the Georgia Open Records Act by suspending unfiltered access to daily incident reports.

For years, Savannah police compiled copies of the latest reports, which are public records by law and total about 300 daily, and kept them on a clipboard at the front desk. Combing through the reports for news stories was a daily ritual for police reporters.

More here.

So much for transparency in the Nev. governor's office

Not only was the Reno Gazette-Journal denied e-mail records it requested from Gov. Jim Gibbons, it was also told it would have to take the government's word for it that the records are confidential. The newspaper's request for an itemized list of the e-mails was turned down.

A judge on Wednesday denied the bulk of a Reno Gazette-Journal lawsuit seeking access to Gov. Jim Gibbons' e-mail records, holding that most of the correspondence is confidential under Nevada law.

Carson City District Judge Todd Russell also denied the newspaper's request for an itemized list of the e-mail records so it could independently assess whether the correspondence fell under the state's public records law.

Russell told Gibbons to release six of 104 emails that were reviewed in private by a court master to determine whether they were public. The court master, Dave Nielsen said the rest were personal, of a non-public "transitory nature" or privileged.

More here.

Three steps needed for Colorado to follow Obama's lead

Chantell Taylor, director of the Colorado Ethics Watch, outlined three ways Colorado state and local government can show a commitment to transparency. These include implementing a policy for the retention of electronic records, adopting a fee waiver in the Colorado Open Records Act and setting maximum limits on fees charged for employee time spent retrieving public records.

As one of his first official acts, President Barack Obama issued an executive memorandum instructing members of his administration “to operate under principles of openness, transparency and of engaging citizens with their government.” There are a number of ways Colorado state and local government can follow suit and join the president in his commitment to an “unprecedented level of openness in government.”

To begin, the Colorado General Assembly should immediately adopt and implement a uniform policy for the members and their staff, setting minimum standards and guidelines for the retention of electronic records, including e-mail records in particular. Incredibly, there is currently no policy at all.

Instead, without any minimum requirements, members are encouraged to develop their own individual policies on retention of e-mails, make their own determinations as to what records are public, and regularly delete records that they think do not qualify as public.

More here.

New bill calls for more transparency, public notice in Missouri

Nineteen members of the Missouri House have developed a bill that would bolster the state's open-government law but that doesn't touch upon government e-mail records, despite the controversy involving former-Gov. Matt Blunt's office.

The bill would:

• Tighten the guidelines for when public meetings may be closed for potential litigation discussions.
• Require public comment periods and five business days notice (instead of 24 hours) for government bodies to meet on certain issues.
• Force governmental bodies to provide electronic versions of public records that are maintained electronically, which could eliminate copying costs for those requesting records.
• Provide more openness concerning proceedings of the Missouri Ethics Commission.
  

Some state lawmakers are seeking to strengthen Missouri's open-government law by giving the public more advanced notice of meetings on hot-button local issues such as taxes, zoning and eminent domain.

The legislation also would make public more of the workings of the Missouri Ethics Commission, which receives and reviews campaign finance complaints against politicians.

Those involved in defending and promoting Missouri's Sunshine Law said the legislation hits many of the areas that are causing problems. However, it stops short of the broader overhaul they argue is necessary, but probably wouldn't clear the Missouri General Assembly.

More here.

Government officials may be using personal e-mail accounts to bypass FOI laws

Sarah Palin used her Yahoo e-mail account to discuss official state business when she served as Alaska governor. Could this be a trend?

John McCain and Sarah Palin say they want to reform Washington.

But Palin's personal Yahoo e-mail account raises questions about the validity of that claim. The Alaska governor apparently uses the account to conduct state business, as do others in her office. And a fight has been under way for the release of hundreds of e-mails from that account that were withheld from public-records requests.

Palin should speak out about the issue, letting the public know why she used a personal account to conduct state business and why that doesn't cast a shadow on her reformist image. Before Palin was selected as the Republican vice presidential nominee, she presented her 2006 campaign as one that was "open and transparent."

More here.

Senate passes 2007 E-Government Reauthorization Act

From the Center for Democracy and Technology:

For five years, the E-Government Act has promoted improvements in the federal government's use of information technology, including increased transparency for government information. The Senate is expected to pass the E-Government Reauthorization Act of 2007 by unanimous consent later tonight. CDT believes that the reauthorization includes two key improvements to the E-Government Act in a call for the development of best practices for Privacy Impact Assessments, and to make online government information more accessible to search.

More here.

Lawsuit could have deleted e-mails recovered by a forensic computer expert

Editor-in-chief of The Toledo (Ohio) Blade, which requested e-mail records of Seneca County commissioners, says this is "the most important [public records] case in the last 20 years." The ruling could determine whether the court will fight against officials deleting e-mails.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday grappled with the realities of the computer age as it weighed the question of when a “deleted” public record becomes a “destroyed” public record.

At issue is a lawsuit by The Blade seeking to force the Seneca County commissioners to hire a forensic computer expert at county expense to recover deleted e-mails from an 18-month period, some of which the newspaper contends may contain illegal private communications related to the proposed razing of the county’s historic courthouse.

“We’re talking about a very finite amount of time here, and we’re talking about e-mails from two or three people to one another,” said Justice Maureen O’Connor. “It just doesn’t seem to me to be that overwhelmingly burdensome or such a huge task here for the county to not even attempt to comply.”

More here.

New York increases charges for electronic public records

Time is money. New York's change in its Freedom of Information Law will increase the bill of those requesting electronic public records by charging for an employee's time spent filling the requests.

New Yorkers might get an unpleasant surprise when they ask their government for databases and other types of electronic public records.

Last month, New York quietly changed its Freedom of Information Law to allow government agencies to charge for an employee's time when they fill citizens' requests for electronic records, provided they need to spend more than two hours filling the request.

The agency must supply an estimate of the cost beforehand in order to be able to collect, said Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the state's Committee on Open Government. The change, which Gov. David Paterson signed into law in August, benefits governments but could discourage citizens from asking for government records, Freeman said.

More here.

A Sign of the Future: FOI Requests Go Social Nets...

A new Web site has been launched to root out some of the lesser known documentation of Salem County government.

Launched by the Salem County Watchdog Association, the site provides archived and current documents secured through open public records requests.

The brainchild of Shirlee Manahan, www.salemcountywatchdog.org is a cyber-library providing information such as who among employees has a county-issued cell phone or vehicle, along with news of the day and budgetary information.

"This is a non-partisan, non-political Web site. I made a simple inquiry for public records in 2006 and was told no," said Manahan, a Pennsville resident. "The Web site was designed to save citizens the time, delay and cost of making individual requests for documents."

Manahan believed strongly that her denial was a violation of the Open Public Records Act and took her case to the Government Records Council.

More here.

Government Contracts -- A Market Approach

This is pretty cool stuff...

INPUT, the authority on government business, announced that it has opened its electronic library containing thousands of federal and state and local contract documents to the public.

“We have over three thousand government contracts and task orders acquired under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) available now with more added every day,” said Ashlea Higgs, senior manager, INPUT Network. “Government FOIA offices are overloaded and requests often take several months to complete. By making our library available, we hope to offload some of the volume of requests to FOIA offices and provide immediate access to these documents to citizens and organizations that have a need.”

By providing access to government contracts, INPUT expects to help government agencies and contractors make better decisions as it relates to government planning and acquisition. Contractors may get the benefit of understanding the work currently being performed on a contract as a means to better understand the needs of that agency.

Government contractors don’t have the luxury of waiting for the government to release an RFP to decide if they should bid,” said Higgs. “Having access to an existing contract prior to release of an RFP can help a company decide much earlier whether it has the skills and resources to pursue an upcoming contract.”