Ariz. sends mixed message about open government

In honor of Sunshine Week, the Arizona legislative leaders commended their own efforts to increase government transparency, the YumaSun (Ariz.) reported. However, the same day it was announced that reporters who cover the legislature will no longer be provided with space in Arizona Legislature buildings. The dozen or so reporters who use the space pay $77 per month, but the Senate president says the space is now needed for GOP caucuses.

Leaders of the Arizona Senate sent a mixed message about open government Monday at the start of "Sunshine Week," a nationwide event designed to focus attention of the public's right to know about the operations of its government agencies.

Senate President Bob Burns joined with fellow Senate Republicans to proclaim their commitment to open government, citing a number of pending bills that included ones for municipalities to provide searchable online databases listing expenses and a requirement to post open meeting notices online.

Certainly, making information more readily available to citizens, whether it be online or through other methods, is commendable. We will always applaud those efforts.

More here.

Open-government advocates disappointed about watered-down bill

A House bill that was initially lauded by watchdog groups is now being criticized by them, Washington Independent reported. The bill no longer requires all contracts stemming from the stimulus bill to be posted online. Only summaries of contracts worth more than $500,000 will be available to the public.

Internet junkies and wonks alike may have jumped the gun in looking forward to the new online transparency hyped by House members who vowed to put contracts doled out from the $800 billion stimulus package online.

That promise, included in the initial House bill, was hailed by watchdog groups, who pointed to it as real reform in government contracting. However, in a major concession to government contractors, which opposed having the contracts made public, the final bill requires only a “summary of the contracts” to be posted online; and even the summaries will only be available for contracts worth more than $500,000.

According to the law, the government has to provide certain data about federal contracts, including whether the contracting process was competitive, how the contract was awarded, and for those contracts over $500,000 “a summary of the contract.”

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Del. open government bill would exempt legislators' e-mails

Oh, the irony! Sure, the bill would subject the Delaware General Assembly to FOIA, meaning that the legislature would no longer be exempt from open-meeting laws. However, an amendment would exempt from FOIA all e-mails "received and sent by members of the Delaware General Assembly or their staff" in order to protect the privacy of constituents who e-mails legislators with "their deepest, darkest secrets."

Even as the House mulls a bill intended to make more of the General Assembly's work public, an amendment is being shopped around that would have the opposite effect.

The draft amendment to House Bill 1, which itself would subject the General Assembly to the Freedom of Information Act, would close off access to some information that now is considered public.

The Legislature currently is exempt from the state's open-meeting law, and legislators' e-mails have long been assumed to be covered by that exemption. However, a legal opinion circulating in Legislative Hall concludes that legislators' e-mails to state agencies covered by FOIA are open to public scrutiny.

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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.

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Site decodes Iowa Legislature bills

The Public Interest Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College launched a nifty site that not only decodes Iowa Legislature bills, amendments and votes but also allows citizens to comment on proposed bills, e-mail legislators and receive e-mail updates on bills or issues of their interest.

Public Interest Institute at Iowa Wesleyan College announced the launch of a new Web site that gives users instant access to all the bills, amendments and votes in the Iowa Legislature in concise and plain language.

The Web address is www.iowavotes.org.

It is searchable by legislator, keyword and 50 subject categories, so users can create their own custom voting record guide.

More here.

Mo. lawmakers argue they aren't subject to Sunshine Law

Missouri House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet initially refused to provide the AP with documents on how state agencies would handle potential 15, 20 and 25 percent budget cuts. He used the logic that the Sunshine Law applied to any "public governmental body;" he, individually, is not a "public governmental body." The documents, which were released, revealed the possibility that thousands of inmates and more than a hundred sexually violent predators would be released and that hundreds of people with HIV could be prevented from receiving medication.

They require others to comply with open-government laws. But Missouri legislators have exempted themselves from having to turn over documents they prefer to keep secret.

The Missouri House and Senate have interpreted the Sunshine Law not to apply to individual lawmakers - even though it does apply to the Legislature as a whole, legislative committees and legislative staff.

Whether that complies with the spirit of the Sunshine Law is questionable. Whether that is the correct interpretation of the law also is a matter of some dispute.

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Delaware legislators may soon be subject to FOIA

Promising news from Delaware:

A bill that would make the workings of the Delaware General Assembly more transparent to the public has cleared a House committee.

The bill, which subjects the legislature to the Freedom of Information Act, was released by the House administration committee on Wednesday. But lawmakers say amendments are likely, including one to prohibit public access to legislators' e-mails.

House Speaker Robert Gilligan said he hopes the bill will go to the House floor next week.

But it may have to clear the appropriations committee first because the legislature's controller general says at least one full-time staffer, at a cost of more than $61,000 a year, would be needed to handle FOIA requests.

More here.

South Dakota legislators must reveal identity to get records

State officials in South Dakota have been instructed to not provide data requested by the Legislative Research Council, which conducts research for lawmakers, unless the identity of the requesting legislator is revealed. While in most states, such a policy would be illegal, South Dakota does not yet have a law that presumes that all government records are public. An effort to pass such a bill is expected this year.

The excuses for demanding to know which legislator is asking questions? Well, for one, the governor claims this allows the staff to tailor the information provided to different lawmakers, adding more background for new legislators. He's also worried that useless requests will rob his staff of valuable time.

When state Sen. Gene Abdallah wanted to know how many aircraft the state owns, he figured it would be easy to get the information.

So last month, the Sioux Falls Republican made a request through the Legislative Research Council - the state's research arm for lawmakers.

The LRC had a list of aircraft, but to get details about those planes - their conditions and estimated values - a researcher had to ask officials in Gov. Rounds' administration.

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.

Delaware Seeks to Bring Legislature Within FOI Law

Delaware House members have wasted little time in filing legislation aimed at making the General Assembly more open. This comes as public pressure has intensified on legislators who have exempted themselves from FOI laws.

House Bill 1, sponsored by House Speaker-elect Rep. Robert F. Gilligan, D-Sherwood Park, would place the General Assembly under the state’s Freedom of Information Act as a public body, subjecting the legislature to the state’s open meeting laws.

Under HB 1, the public would be granted access to General Assembly meetings, except for party caucuses. The public also would have access to the General Assembly’s records. Current exceptions in the state FOIA law for public bodies and records would apply to the legislature.

An Interesting Look at Voting Records in SC...

This is a rather interesting issue...

Trying to track down a legislator's voting record might be a little like chasing Bigfoot: First, you have to find out if it really exists.

Open-government advocates argue the state Legislature's lack of roll-call votes — revealed in a new study — is designed so that legislators have "plausible deniability" when comes to taking a stance on controversial bills.

South Carolina's legislative leaders, though, say they and their colleagues want to be on record when it comes to important bills, that taking roll call on procedural matters would clog the system and cost money. Besides, they reason, a bill that passes without a roll-call vote indicates unanimous support on the House and Senate floors.

Further, the South Carolina Policy Council's analysis of roll-call votes on its own is misleading, legislators say.

What the conservative think tank found is that the House called roll on 8 percent of the bills that became law this year, while the Senate did so only 1 percent of the time. That practice is at odds with standards in most states nationally and in South Carolina's neighboring states.

Gov. Mark Sanford's office did not hesitate in condemning the Legislature.

"It's a shocking lack of accountability," the governor's press secretary, Joel Sawyer, said. "Our entire system is built upon this idea of people standing up and being counted and then being held accountable for their actions come November.

More here.

OOGA!

From the start of their rally here Tuesday, a small group pushing to open the General Assembly to more public scrutiny made sure they were both seen and heard.

Legislators, staffers, lobbyists, the media and the public -- all packed into Legislative Hall for the opening of the second half of the 144th General Assembly -- couldn't miss the protesters' fluorescent, lime-green T-shirts and matching buttons. They sported the message "Open Our General Assembly -- OOGA! OOGA! OOGA!"

Specifically, Delawareans For Open Government want legislators to pass Senate Bill 4, which would end the General Assembly's exemption from the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The only protester without a green shirt -- any shirt, actually -- was Jason Scott of Middletown.

Before coming inside, Scott took advantage of the unseasonably warm day by letting other protesters sign their names and write sentiments of support on his chest and back. Because the General Assembly isn't a public body, Scott figured he'd become his own "public body." Get it?

"It's an absurd protest, but it's also an absurd notion that the General Assembly doesn't consider itself a public body," Scott said.

More here.