Sunlight Weekly Round-up: New State Open Government Guide

[Zubedah Nanfuka]

It's Friday!
This means another weekly round-up on all things open government. This week I am particularly happy to share (with those of you who have not had time to play with it yet) the new and improved Open Government guide by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, for all 50 states. Check out the original post on Sunlight's main blog:
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/09/16/sunlight-weekly-round-up-new-state-open-government-guide/

In a new effort to open Chicago, the administration of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel announced that all crimes will be posted on line for residents to make their own analysis of crimes in their neighborhood. Blogger Matt Fratz is not too sure this is well-intended. In his opinion, transparency should be implemented through the creation of law not in the number of arrests made by the police. And by not publishing the names of police officers involved in criminal acts -- as the Mayor’s office is doing -- the purpose of transparency is defeated. Read more on the appropriately named Political Fail blog.
http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/09/mayor-rahm-emanuel-wants-you-to.html

About six months after the U.S. Public Interest Research Group gave Arkansas an F for transparency in their state website, legislators have finally passed the Arkansas Financial Transparency Act which will ensure the creation of a website showing all the state’s expenditures. David Kinkade is singling out an important factor that open government does not have to be expensive -- when he mentioned how the website creation is on time and under budget. It’s all on the Arkansas Project.
http://www.thearkansasproject.com/west-virginia-transparency-site-offers-glimpse-of-arkansas-future/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thearkansasproject%2FDK+%28The+Arkansas+Project%29

A new and improved guide on all things open government at the state level has been produced by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Some of the impressive features to check for free and also available on both CD and online, include categories on accessing information on government budgets and updates on public records laws. Open government expert Charles Davis offers more on Art of Access.
http://theartofaccess.com/2011/09/15/the-best-foi-tool-in-the-business-just-got-better/

A special legislative committee has been created to review Vermont’s public records exemptions. Nancy Remsen has the buzz on how the committee has already started prioritising topics whose exemptions should be reviewed -- beginning with the tax exemptions. See how privacy is being redefined by the committee on VT.Buzz
http://blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com/politics/2011/09/12/vermont-panel-begins-public-records-exemption-review/

Following the stipulations of New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act, Gloucester County Prosecutor, Sean F. Dalton, encouraged the county’s local government officials to increase their email usage as a way to promote transparency. John Paff has more on NJ open government Notes.
http://njopengovt.blogspot.com/2011/09/gloucester-prosecutor-issues-guidelines.html

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Zubedah Nanfuka
Twitter: @zubie3
Cell: 618-303-5424
Email: zub...@gmail.com
Website: http://mypage.siu.edu/znanfuka/
Blog: http://zubie3.wordpress.com