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Over at the WikiFOIA blog, they’re talking about the :

This issue of justifying the recording of open meetings came up during one of our weekly Friday FOIA chats. During this chat, the participants of FOIA Friday also developed a laundry list of reasons most of which help to overcome the justifications of the Chicago area school boards [who have stopped posting meetings].

The blog includes a long list of reasons governments should archive their videos online. The reasons taken together should be enough to help governments overcome anxiety about making their meetings easily accessible.

Be sure to checkout for updates on issues and legislation. Also, join us on Twitter every Friday from 2-3 EST for , our live conference on FOIA issues and the original source of the discussion on open meetings.

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Perhaps the immediately obvious effect of government transparency is transparency as a tool to battle corruption and to uncover unethical behavior.

Social media, the internet, and technology in general consistently change the scope of public records. So it makes sense that most people don’t consider text messages when using , since it is a relatively recent technological development.

Of course, many government officials use government-issued phones to fulfill their daily duties. And because of the casual nature of text messages, they can be particularly revealing as to the nature of relationships.

In , the Daily Herald was able to confirm suspicions that by having a romantic relationship. They did this by requesting text messages exchanged between the officers’ phones. Being able to for those text messages, and the city’s ability to fulfil that request, was crucial to uncovering that scandal.

But not every city is able to provide those records. In between city employees after the city was unable to fulfill a FOIA request asking for text message records. Until the city figures out how to resolve that issue, communication must be in an archivable format. It makes sense for the mayor to take the issue seriously, because when questions of openness aren’t resolved locally, they will be resolved in other ways. In , the Wind Gap requested text messages from police Chief Craig Armitage and in March of this year, Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has ruled that the . Kudos to the for making the city accountable to its citizens. The borough originally responded that it did not keep such records. If no such text message record exists, the open records office ruled, the borough is required to provide an affidavit saying that.

There seems to be much that isn’t decided yet on the matter of open government and text messages, and it seems many governments aren’t prepared to make such records available. Please share any experiences or information you have regarding text messages and open records requests.

(I began researching the matter after joining today’s , a live chat on every Friday from 2-3 pm EST. I’ve found it to be a thought-provoking, and it’s a great resource for speaking with open government advocates and FOIA experts.)

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Yesterday, I wrote about the strides being taken in into the state’s plans. But Maryland doesn’t have a completely pristine record on the matter, according to some.

An editorial in the this week called the The author of the editorial has experience with Anne Arundel, which he recognizes as having “an award-winning Web site [that] happily provides tons of noncontroversial information.” The author had experience with requests, and in turn faced intimidation and incompetence from the county’s staff on several ocassions. Another problem he noticed was very lax compliance to the , like the lack of a public notice to alert the public of special meetings and a lack of responsiveness from county officials when the problem was brought to their attention.

The Post article concludes with the recommendation that local governments adopt legislation similar to the federal Public Online Information Act of 2010, which would make all documents subject to a Public Information Act request be online and free to the public from the moment of their creation.

I’ve also written about Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s mixed transparency record. The governor, like the state of Maryland, has some people lauding his transparency accomplishments, and others saying they are less than perfect. Apparently, his lack of follow-through on his transparency promises has landed . That is the consequence of not addressing transparency concerns.

Whether the problems found in are generalizable to the rest of the state is yet to be determined. However, good transparency recommendations should be addressed, regardless of their premises. Our friends at the have been saying for awhile, the sentiment echoed by the Post editorial, and this may be the opportunity for Maryland to lead the way.

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In January, passed a law that improved its FOIA, which needed improvements after allegations that secrecy was the rule in Illinois, openness the exception. The most conspicuous case was the University of Illinois not releasing information to the , making the Tribune . Supported by the Attorney General, the law made it so that governments had 5 days to respond to a request and would penalize those that failed to do so.

But the improvements with some law makers creating a weaker alternative to the new law. That effort : John Millner is sponsoring a plan that would significantly weaken the new FOIA in Illinois, according to critics. His proposal would:

-Broaden protections against disclosing personnel and disciplinary information.
-Cut down public access to law enforcement records if the information could hurt another department’s investigation
-Relieve government bodies from having to pay legal fees for successful lawsuits against them.

A proposal introduced by another state senator, Senator William Haine, would exempt law enforcement personnel’s performance evaluations from disclosure, as well. Lawmakers and Gov. Pat Quinn have already approved exempting teacher evaluations from disclosure.

The Illinois attorney general’s office, which was , said it’s too soon to change it.

But the new FOIA has critics on the side, too. State Representative Sidney Mathias is working with the , which opposed last year’s changes to access laws and is a taxpayer-funded lobbying association, to change requirements that may be “too burdensome,” especially requiring government bodies to reply to requests within five business days. He also would consider doing away with a provision that requires local governments to pay attorney fees if someone sues to get information and a court rules that information should be turned over, a similarity to Millner’s proposed changes.

According to Representative Mathias, its in citizens’ interest to place limits on the requirements of government to meet this law. “Who ultimately pays that? It’s the residents. So there’s got to be reasonable limitations on these requests, also.”

Still, it’s one thing to have , and another thing to have spending that is justifiable. As far as protecting investigation and police officers, this is also an important priority. However, the presumption should be openness, and a denial of information must be justified. While a realistic law that doesn’t overly burden officials is important, the emphasis should be on the citizens and on providing information in a way that is beneficial to them, not on making life easy for public officials.

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is really taking transparency to heart. He’s taking part in a series of talks around the state that invite citizens and the media to suggest improvements to the state’s sunshine law.

The Attorney General is “very eager to hear people’s experiences and take input.” A great idea, since the one thing people want when they are upset or frustrated is a sympathetic ear. The people in attendance for this first talk were happy to have an outlet for their concerns, while a handful tried to point fingers about alleged corruption in the court system.

Still, the general feeling of the citizens in attendance was one of collaboration with the government. One citizen said “It’s not a matter of pointing fingers, it’s ‘let’s be as transparent as possible.’”

The talk went on in the same vein of constructive progress. Attendees made suggestions about how to improve , including putting public records online, cutting fees and limiting what sometimes can be lengthy responses to public-record requests.

The attorney general’s office has taken several steps to promote . Kroger’s office has put public records and meetings manuals online, created a citizens guide to public records and meetings for laypersons, and has posted records requests online, among other things. A last step to improve Oregon’s law, according to Kroger, is to take suggestions from the public meetings to the Legislature.

This is exactly the type of personal initiative we believe in at Sunshine Review. Attorney General Kroger takes it one step further by actually asking to hear from people who have experience requesting information. And we think it pays off; the option is either becoming a transparent government voluntarily, or waiting too long until your legitimacy takes a hit and you’re .

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Although has become Ground Zero for , there is still a long way to go until state and local governments can really develop a reputation for clean and efficient government. After reading local LA news, I have a couple of suggestions for any public servant’s transparency “to do” list.

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Example you should not follow: Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price has recently found himself in (again) when an found he had misused his city credit card to purchase private vacations and other personal expenditures. Some city councilmen commented publicly that they had no knowledge these expenditures were taking place. My solution? Put all expenditures online for journalists, taxpayers, and even the city council members to scrutinize and take a proactive stance against corruption and sneaky spending with public funds.

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Example you should not follow: Robert Morgan of TheTownTalk.com points out in a that government employees often do not understand basic open records law, and may choose to delay the delivery of requested documents in error. Mr. Morgan names names in his article, citing examples from Rapides Parish Schools and the city of Alexandria.

I will continue to watch Louisiana’s media and for updates on how they are finding their way to the land of milk, honey, and open government.