Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System will go to court to try to keep pension benefit records secret

from Oregonlive.com:

Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System is going to court to try to overturn a decision by the state's top lawyer and keep the names and pension benefits of its best-paid retirees a secret.

The case spotlights a potential showdown between Attorney General John Kroger, who is pushing for more government transparency, and state agencies, which observers say had greater discretion to withhold information under Kroger's predecessor, Hardy Myers.

Earlier this month, Kroger released a report identifying shortfalls in Oregon's public records laws and agencies' compliance with them. Tony Green, a spokesman for Kroger, said the Department of Justice is preparing legislation "that will significantly overhaul the public records law to encourage greater transparency and greater public access to their government."

Read more here.

NFOIC Knight FOI Fund supports victorious transparency case involving California pension fund investments

from NFOIC

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A California judge, as a result of litigation backed by the Knight FOI Fund, has ordered the state’s pension fund to release records about a $100 million real estate investment loss.

Judge Charlotte W. Woolard of the San Franicsco Superior Court, in a six-page writ signed on Tuesday, September 14, ordered the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to release records regarding its investment in Page Mill Properties, a controversial East Palo Alto low-income housing development. (You can read the ruling here (312 KB).

CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the country, lost all of its $100 million stake in the development, but refused to disclose records regarding its investment or the business arrangement surrounding it.

The First Amendment Coalition (FAC), a California-based member organization of the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC), sued CalPERS in July and was awarded a $3,200 Knight Fund grant by NFOIC to help with its legal expenses in that suit.

Read the rest here.