Transparency News 7/26/16
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
State and Local Stories
The Richmond City Council reached an agreement with Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration Monday night on a transparency initiative that will require city officials to post documents and contracts for major city projects on a centralized website. Jones’ administration officials had initially balked at the proposal, saying it would be costly and burdensome. But they said changes agreed to by the measure’s sponsor, Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, made it manageable. “Overall, what we did was we simplified the project to make it more of a webpage as opposed to a system, which the original ordinance seemed to be leaning toward, requiring certain data to automatically be extracted,” said John Buturla, the city’s deputy administrator for operations. The biggest amendment to Agelasto’s initial proposal is the deletion of a section that would have required the pages to have a section where residents could post public comments. Instead, the page will allow residents to submit feedback, but not post them online.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
If you’ve ever wanted to know how much your local government is spending in its various departments, now’s your chance. Prince George County recently initiated a program called the OpenGov Financial Transparency Module. OpenGov is a program which sorts and tracks monetary expenditures made by government departments in any given area. “We take a lot of pride in being an open government,” County Administrator Percy Ashcraft notes. “A lot of people say they are, but we do it every day. Everything we do here the citizens have right to know how we do it. It’s not one thing you do that makes a difference, it’s everything you do.”
Hopewell News
National Stories
Clark County (Washington) Councilor David Madore‘s preferred form of communication with constituents — his often controversial Facebook page — has raised questions about the county’s handling of public records. Clark County has denied multiple requests by The Columbian and others for messages to and from Madore’s public Facebook page, which he uses to campaign and engage with constituents, some of whom he apparently bans for questioning or disagreeing with him. Madore has repeatedly branded his page as an “online newspaper,” and himself a “citizen reporter,” denying the page is county business. But Madore has used the page to write about county business since he was elected.
The Columbian
The Chief FOIA Officers Council, charged with addressing the most important difficulties in administering FOIA across government, met for the first time July 22 to begin the process of implementing a “release to one is a release to all” standard for federal records. The policy would make agencies release FOIA-processed records to one requester and simultaneously to the general public by posting them online. Concerns about the policy from both journalists and FOIA officers were addressed at the meeting. Many reporters worry that releasing requested documents to the public would compromise their reporting by allowing others to steal their “scoop.” Agency FOIA officers were troubled by the burden of ensuring records are accessible to all and in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Editorials/Columns
Emails make news, often to the dismay of senders and recipients. The serial incidents will remind people of a certain vintage of their school days. When taught how to write letters, students were told the difference between business and personal correspondence. They also were warned not to write anything they did not want the world to see on postcards. The only safe thing to scribble on one is “Scenery is beautiful, wish you were here,” or as Paul Theroux cracked while in a mean mood, “Scenery is here, wish you were beautiful.” Emails are not secret and are almost impossible to keep confidential.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
State and Local Stories
The Richmond City Council reached an agreement with Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration Monday night on a transparency initiative that will require city officials to post documents and contracts for major city projects on a centralized website. Jones’ administration officials had initially balked at the proposal, saying it would be costly and burdensome. But they said changes agreed to by the measure’s sponsor, Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, made it manageable. “Overall, what we did was we simplified the project to make it more of a webpage as opposed to a system, which the original ordinance seemed to be leaning toward, requiring certain data to automatically be extracted,” said John Buturla, the city’s deputy administrator for operations. The biggest amendment to Agelasto’s initial proposal is the deletion of a section that would have required the pages to have a section where residents could post public comments. Instead, the page will allow residents to submit feedback, but not post them online.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
If you’ve ever wanted to know how much your local government is spending in its various departments, now’s your chance. Prince George County recently initiated a program called the OpenGov Financial Transparency Module. OpenGov is a program which sorts and tracks monetary expenditures made by government departments in any given area. “We take a lot of pride in being an open government,” County Administrator Percy Ashcraft notes. “A lot of people say they are, but we do it every day. Everything we do here the citizens have right to know how we do it. It’s not one thing you do that makes a difference, it’s everything you do.”
Hopewell News
National Stories
Clark County (Washington) Councilor David Madore‘s preferred form of communication with constituents — his often controversial Facebook page — has raised questions about the county’s handling of public records. Clark County has denied multiple requests by The Columbian and others for messages to and from Madore’s public Facebook page, which he uses to campaign and engage with constituents, some of whom he apparently bans for questioning or disagreeing with him. Madore has repeatedly branded his page as an “online newspaper,” and himself a “citizen reporter,” denying the page is county business. But Madore has used the page to write about county business since he was elected.
The Columbian
The Chief FOIA Officers Council, charged with addressing the most important difficulties in administering FOIA across government, met for the first time July 22 to begin the process of implementing a “release to one is a release to all” standard for federal records. The policy would make agencies release FOIA-processed records to one requester and simultaneously to the general public by posting them online. Concerns about the policy from both journalists and FOIA officers were addressed at the meeting. Many reporters worry that releasing requested documents to the public would compromise their reporting by allowing others to steal their “scoop.” Agency FOIA officers were troubled by the burden of ensuring records are accessible to all and in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Editorials/Columns
Emails make news, often to the dismay of senders and recipients. The serial incidents will remind people of a certain vintage of their school days. When taught how to write letters, students were told the difference between business and personal correspondence. They also were warned not to write anything they did not want the world to see on postcards. The only safe thing to scribble on one is “Scenery is beautiful, wish you were here,” or as Paul Theroux cracked while in a mean mood, “Scenery is here, wish you were beautiful.” Emails are not secret and are almost impossible to keep confidential.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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