Cool Stuff: Quizzing the Candidates on Open Government in WA

Passing along...from this blog...

Earlier this year, the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) submitted an open government questionnaire to candidates around the state and asked for their position on 10 key government reform issues identified by WCOG. Candidates were asked to take a “yes” or “no” stance on topics including proposals to require taping of executive session of public agencies and stiffen penalties for Open Public Meeting Act violations and destruction of public records.

A summary of the responses submitted by all candidates, plus the individual surveys filled by each one, have been posted on the WCOG Web site at www.washingtoncog.org.

“The Washington Coalition for Open Government is happy to be able to provide this service to our members and to the people of Washington so they will know more about where the candidates stand on government openness, transparency, and accountability,” said Toby Nixon, president of the Coalition. “I hope they will make note of which candidates failed to respond to our survey, and ask those candidates pointed questions about where they really stand on the people’s right to know what their government is doing.”

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and defending the people's right to know in matters of public interest and in the conduct of the public's business. Members of the coalition represent a broad range of interests, including the news media, public affairs, law, current and retired public officials, business and labor.

For more information, contact WCOG President Toby Nixon at 206.782.0393 or visit the WCOG Web site at www.washingtoncog.org.

We Want to Build a Power Plant....Secretly

State District Judge E. Wayne Phillips of Lewistown has ruled the city of Great Falls should not have refused to release drafts of documents to members of an environmental group last year.

The documents involved the city's relationship with the Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative. SME and the city of Great Falls have proposed a coal-fired power plant east of the city.

At one point in his ruling, Phillips called a position taken by the city in the case "disingenuous." The ruling was dated June 12, but a mixup in the Clerk of Courts office prevented the parties from being notified until this week.

Anne Hedges, program director for the Helena-based Montana Environmental Information Center, said she expected a positive ruling and wondered "how the city could argue this case with a straight face."

"It's a wakeup call to the city of Great Falls," Hedges said Thursday.

More here.

NY Web Records Site Sues Over Data

An Albany-based think tank is suing Kiryas Joel's public school district for ignoring a document request that 730 other districts fulfilled.

The Empire Center for New York State Policy claims Kiryas Joel never responded to six letters since March 31 asking for copies of the contracts for its superintendent and teachers union — the same information it sought from every other New York school district.

The center has since posted the contracts it got and other public records — including a database of salaries for all 263,000 state employees — on a Web site (seethroughny.net) that attracted so many viewers when it went online July 31 that it crashed.

Now, the center is taking legal action against the only three school districts that flouted its request: Kiryas Joel, Uniondale and Mount Markham. Those districts could be liable for the center's legal costs if found to have violated the state Freedom of Information Law.

Kiryas Joel Superintendent Joel Petlin says there's a simple reason he never supplied the records: his office moved on March 1, and he never got the Empire Center's letters.

He said he'd be happy to fulfill the request, although he has no teachers contract to provide. The staff of his tiny school system — which serves fewer than 250 special education students from the Hasidic community — are paid on a salary scale the administration has set, Petlin said.

Kiryas Joel's village government and public school have a shaky record of complying with the public records law. The Times Herald-Record asked both for copies of their payrolls — records that governments and school districts routinely provide — three times last year and got no response.

In addition, village officials have ignored five requests from the newspaper since December 2007 for copies of building permits, Planning Board minutes and code violations. Those records were sought after a mudslide occurred in a construction area.

More here.

Colorado Guv Sues for Cell Phone Records

This ought to be a rather high-profile test of the arguments surrounding the public records status of cell phones...

The Denver Post today sued Gov. Bill Ritter after the governor's refusal to turn over 19 months of cellphone records that would show some of who Ritter has called and been called by since taking office in 2007.

The newspaper claims it is entitled to a list of calls made and received by Ritter during the 19 months related to his work as governor.

Ritter only occasionally uses his state-issued cellphone but carries a second cellphone not provided by taxpayers. The governor's office has refused to allow Post reporters to see the itemized bills for that phone, arguing that it would invade the governor's privacy.

Attorneys for the paper disagree.

"It is obvious that if any high-ranking government executive may 'privatize' his conduct of public business by establishing a private account or dealing with private providers of communications technologies, it would allow government officials to unilaterally create a vast and unacceptable 'loophole' in the requirements" of the Colorado Open Records Acts, said the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit filed in Denver District Court, the newspaper filed two requests for the records, one on July 6 and the second July 28.

The first request asked for the itemized phone bill from Ritter's personal cellphone for January and February 2007.

The second request asked for 19 months of cellphone bills — from January 2007 through July 2008 — which reflect the official calls placed or received by Ritter during normal business hours.

More here.

Unhealthy Alliances: When Journalists Lie Down With Sources...

Two important journalism organizations are urging local broadcast stations and newspapers to avoid arrangements with hospitals that improperly influence health coverage, saying unethical partnerships interfere with independent news coverage of health care.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists are concerned about news media that publish or broadcast stories, reports, news releases and interviews prepared or paid for by hospitals.

The ethics codes of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists call for fair and accurate reporting and editorial independence. But editorial cutbacks, along with pressure on hospitals to market profitable services, may be eroding these standards.

More here and here.

In several recently reported cases, local hospitals have exerted editorial control by supplying pre-packaged stories and other content to news organizations. In some but not all cases, hospitals paid for this special influence. Earlier this year, a Maryland newspaper sold its weekly health page to a local hospital and put the hospital in charge of providing content. The arrangement was halted amid community protest after just one published issue. Broadcast examples include airing of hospital-produced segments with hazy branding or no branding at all, leading viewers to believe the local station reported the story. In some cases, the hospital-created material is even transmitted to a station through an affiliated news network.

Even if disclosed, arrangements in which television or radio stations or newspapers hand over editorial decision-making to hospitals violate the principles of ethical journalism and betray public trust. Content produced by hospitals does not fulfill the duty of news organizations to provide the public with independent medical reporting.

Ethical problems are compounded when media outlets fail to adequately disclose the source of the content, misleading viewers, listeners or readers into thinking it is legitimate news.

AHCJ and SPJ believe:
- News organizations should fully disclose the source of any editorial information not independently gathered, whether video, audio, photograph or print material.
- News organizations should not run prepackaged stories produced by hospitals unless they are clearly and continuously labeled as advertisements.
- News organizations should not favor advertisers or sponsors over competing health-care providers when choosing sources or story topics and should strive to employ a wide variety of sources.
- News organizations should develop guidelines for the public disclosure of sponsors and advertisers. These guidelines should prohibit news personnel from appearing in or participating in sponsored programming or advertisements.

The groups said: Our journalistic mission requires us to hold doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies accountable to the public. In doing so, we commit to fair and transparent reporting of medical issues.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, based at the Missouri School of Journalism, is an independent, nonprofit membership organization of more than 1,000 health reporters and editors in the United States and 21 other nations. Along with its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, it is dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues and improving the quality, accuracy and visibility of health reporting, writing and editing.

The Society of Professional Journalists, based in Indianapolis, is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior. Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry through the daily work of its nearly 10,000 members; works to inspire and educate current and future journalists through professional development; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press through its advocacy efforts.

The SPJ Code of Ethics calls on journalists to "Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two."

Both AHCJ’s Statement of Principles and the SPJ code say journalists should:
- Be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know
- Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility
- Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.

Ohio: New Site to Put Records Online

COLUMBUS – The Buckeye Institute today announced its Center for Transparent and Accountable Government. The center, led by former Statehouse reporter Mike Maurer, will collect and post online state and local government budgets, employee contracts, public records policies and other information.

"Transparency and open government crosses ideologies and is equally supported, and equally opposed, by both major political parties," said Maurer. "The Coburn-Obama bill, of which both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain were initial sponsors, requires federal government contracts to be posted at USAspending.gov. Ohioans deserve the same type of transparency from their state and local governments."

The center's first two initiatives include a candidate transparency pledge and an open government "wiki" Web page.

A Pledge for Transparency and Accountability in Government will be distributed to all candidates for elective office, at all levels of government, from townships and school districts to the General Assembly. It asks that candidates acknowledge the importance of Internet availability, the legal basis of transparency in the state and federal constitutions, and the use of practical, current technology, such as searchable databases and relevant cross links.

The pledge is attached to a White Paper on Transparency published as a Buckeye Institute Policy Brief, describing state and private efforts to make budgets, checkbooks, contracts and awards, and a wide array of government data easily accessible. The report is available online at www.buckeyeinstitute.org.

OhioSunshine.org, a publicly editable "wiki" Web site, is available to all citizens and can be edited by local activists across the state. The site is dedicated to open government, and it will allow citizens to monitor how well state and local governments provide information to the public.

"We like to say that there are 11 million pairs of eyes to ensure good government in Ohio," said Maurer. "While many of our government officials deserve credit for working to provide government data the way it must be provided today, over the Internet, the fact is that Ohio is behind its peers in government transparency."

Examples of state governments that are doing a better job than Ohio include the state of Alaska, which has its entire checkbook online, and the state of West Virginia, which has its entire public employee payroll online.

Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said that open, easily available information is essential to good government.

"The legitimacy of Ohio government rests on the consent of the governed, but that consent doesn't mean much when so much of government occurs hidden, or deeply buried," Hansen said. "Twenty-First Century information technology should be applied to draw back the curtain that stands between government and the people."

The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions is a nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to individual liberty, economic freedom, personal responsibility and limited government in Ohio.

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.

Thanks, U.S. Wildlife Services!

Since I blasted them a week or so ago in an AP story, let me praise them now....

The U.S. Department of Agriculture division that kills problem wildlife says it will do the math to report how many wolves, robins, and other species it kills each year on a nationwide basis.

Wildlife Services spokeswoman Carol Bannerman said Monday from Washington, D.C., that the decision came after the conservation group WildEarth Guardians filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the information.

Wildlife Services has been posting the nationwide totals since 1996, but this year for the first time switched to a state-by-state format, forcing anyone interested in national trends to do the math themselves.

Wendy Keefover-Ring of WildEarth Guardians says this was an attempt to avoid public scrutiny.

CPI Unveils News Report on Toxins

A wonderful new FOI-driven series....by one of my favorite grad students.

When two-and-a-half-year-old Amber Nickol McKeown got head lice, her mother put the child in a warm bath and massaged Osco Lice Treatment Shampoo into her scalp. Problem solved.

But the little girl’s condition deteriorated quickly. Her chest turned red. She labored to breathe. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her skin peeled off in clumps. Seventy-two hours later, Amber was dead - an autopsy showed her death had been triggered by exposure to a type of pesticide called a pyrethrin and its accompanying impurities, according to the family’s lawsuit.

While Amber’s story is an extreme case, it clearly shows the hidden hazards of household pesticides and the need to revisit their safety. The Center for Public Integrity’s new report, Perils of the New Pesticides, reveals that these so-called “safe” pesticides, used in thousands of consumer products, accounted for more than 26 percent of all fatal, “major,” and “moderate” human incidents in the United States in 2007, a 300% increase over the last decade.

This Center for Public Integrity project provides the public with a searchable database of products containing these pesticides so consumers can check for incident reports on harmful pesticides used in their own homes. The Center’s reporting also pushed the EPA to fast track its study of the pesticides’ effects, something the EPA was not planning to do for years until the Center showed officials what was happening.

More here.

UK FOI: Journalists Make 11% of Requests

Freedom of Information requests were condemned last year as being abused by "lazy journalists", but the media was responsible for only 11% of them.

The details are contained in the Northern Ireland government's annual report on Freedom of Information.

It said the 11 NI government departments received a total of 3,164 such requests during 2007.

Of these 62% were from members of the public, 13% from businesses and 11% from the media.

Solicitors, public representatives and researchers account for the remaining 14%.

More here.

FOI At Work: Army Segregating Iraqi Prisoners in Crates

The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners.

The military released photos of what it calls "segregation boxes" used in Iraq following a FOIA request by a blogger.

Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials. There was no image released of a box that size.

The average Iraqi male is 5 feet 6 inches tall, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. That leaves little room for a prisoner to move once placed inside.

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.

Kentucky Law OKs E-Mail Notice

Local governments in Kentucky will now be able to notify news organizations about their special meetings by e-mail.

The new provision in Kentucky's open-meetings law took effect in July. Touted as a money- and time-saver, it allows local governments to send meeting notices electronically to any agency member or news organization that asks in writing for e-mail communications.

"It gives the media and the public more timely notification of the special meetings, as well," said Allison Martin, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. "Because you never can ensure when a mailed letter is going to arrive by the postal service."

More here.

Kentucky Law OKs E-Mail Notice

Local governments in Kentucky will now be able to notify news organizations about their special meetings by e-mail.

The new provision in Kentucky's open-meetings law took effect in July. Touted as a money- and time-saver, it allows local governments to send meeting notices electronically to any agency member or news organization that asks in writing for e-mail communications.

"It gives the media and the public more timely notification of the special meetings, as well," said Allison Martin, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. "Because you never can ensure when a mailed letter is going to arrive by the postal service."

More here.

E-Mail Meetings In Colorado...

Two Louisville residents have lodged a formal complaint with the Boulder Valley school board alleging members violated the state’s open-meetings law by using e-mail to discuss public business in private.

On several occasions in the past year, three or more members of the seven-member school board exchanged e-mails discussing issues related to the demolition, reconstruction and proposed preservation of Louisville Middle School, according to documents disclosed through a request under the Colorado Open Records Act.

Ty Gee, an attorney and longtime community activist, and John Leary, a former Louisville councilman, have demanded the board “take remedial action” by creating a policy to ensure “a violation does not occur again.”

“The school board should have known about the Open Meetings Act,” said Gee, who, along with Leary, has opposed demolition of the middle school’s historic facade. “If you’re an elected official, there are certain basics.”

More here.

Huge U.S. Sugar Deal: Did it Violate Florida Sunshine?

A former U.S. attorney sued South Florida water managers Friday, alleging their initial talks about the proposed $1.75 billion U.S. Sugar buyout violated the state's Government -in-the-Sunshine Law.

Among other steps, Dexter Lehtinen wants a Palm Beach County circuit judge to toss out the South Florida Water Management District's "statement of principles" outlining the broad terms of the deal, which could convert 187,000 acres of farmland into marshes and reservoirs to help restore the Everglades.

The suit complains that Gov. Charlie Crist's representatives and district leaders, including members of the district's board, "participated in secret negotiations" on the proposed deal before Crist announced it June 24.

"The transparency issue is critical," Lehtinen said in an interview. "They have developed this without revealing the details and without answering the serious questions. The Sunshine Law is designed to allow the public to get answers to those questions."

Water managers defended the deal, calling it one of the most important moves to protect the Everglades since the creation of Everglades National Park in 1947.

In a statement Friday, the district said it "remains committed to open government and conducting itself according to the letter and spirit of the law throughout these complex and delicate negotiations."

More here.

Carter Center Unveils Declaration

This just in from the Carter Center's initiative on access to information...

In July, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter forwarded the Atlanta Declaration and Plan of Action for the Advancement of the Right to Information to all heads of state and leaders of the major international organizations and financial institutions. President Carter urged these leaders to ensure the right of access to information and its implementation and enforcement. The Atlanta Declaration and Plan of Action (please see attached) was the product of the Carter Center’s International Conference on the Right to Public Information, held February 27-29, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. The more than 125 participants, representing governments, civil society, international organizations and financial institutions, private sector, donors and scholars, from 40 countries who met to discuss the successes and future challenges to the establishment of a right of access to information.

The Atlanta Declaration and Plan of Action, serving as a framework for advancing this human right, finds that access to information is fundamental to dignity, equity and peace with justice, and that a lack of access to information disproportionately affects the poor, women and other vulnerable and marginalized societies. The Declaration calls on all states and intergovernmental organizations to enact legislation and instruments for the exercise, full implementation and effective enforcement of this right. It further encourages all stakeholders to take concrete steps to establish, develop, protect and promote the right of access to information. The Declaration is available in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Bulgarian (Portugese coming soon).

More here.

Mississippi Court Denies Access to Animal Research Records

The Iams Company's records from seven years of pet food research at Mississippi State University are not public documents, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

In 2006, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued Mississippi State University.

It alleged the school violated the Mississippi Public Records Act by denying PETA access to records of dental experiments and other tests on animals conducted since 1999 for Iams.

Iams had argued that the experiments were the company's intellectual property.

Iams said it had made a substantial investment at Mississippi State to develop and protect that property.

PETA said it didn't want trade secrets. PETA said it only wanted to know what happened to the animals at Mississippi State.

PETA claimed Mississippi State wanted an advance fee of $40,497 for the documents it requested. When it reduced the number of pages asked for, PETA claims MSU told them that only 19 of the requested pages would be sent and the cost would be $1,000.

More here.

Texas DPS Ordered to Release Protective Detail Info

The Texas Department of Public Safety must release to the public travel information about Gov. Rick Perry's protective detail, a state district judge ruled Friday.

Judge Scott Jenkins found no evidence that releasing the records would place Perry or anyone else in imminent danger.

Two news companies had sued DPS for access to the documents. They were requested last year under the Texas Public Information Act by reporters from the Austin American-Statesman as well as the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, both of owned by Hearst Newspapers LLC.

The newspapers reported the judge's decision online Friday.

"This is a very good day for public disclosure," said Matthew Baumgartner, an attorney for the newspapers' publishers. "If a basic accounting document can be restricted on security grounds, there's no limit to what can be withheld."

The requested documents contain travel expenses for the state troopers who accompany Perry and his family on trips, including trips that are not official state business.

In a hearing before Jenkins, DPS argued that releasing the information would compromise the safety of the governor, his family and others who travel with them because it could provide useful details to someone trying to do them harm.

More here.

Washington State Supremes Protect Teachers' From 'Stigmatization'

The state Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday that pitted the fear of stigmatizing an innocent teacher against the threat of allowing sexual predators in the schools to escape detection.

The scenario before the court was this: A teacher is accused of sexually abusing a student. The school decides the allegation is unsubstantiated. Under state law, should the teacher's name be disclosed?

By a 6-3 vote, the court fell on the side of accused teachers. The names of teachers must be disclosed only in cases where sexual misconduct has been found or some form of discipline has taken place, the court ruled. In unsubstantiated cases, the details of any investigation may be disclosed — but with the teacher's name redacted, or blacked out.

The issue was brought before the court by 15 teachers from the Seattle, Bellevue and Federal Way school districts. The teachers asked the judiciary to prevent their districts from releasing their identities in response to a public-records request by The Seattle Times.

More here.