Maine: Governor Paul LePage is proposing a measure to hide all working papers from public access, reports the Bangor Daily News.  The state legislature currently enjoys such protection of its working papers, or “anything written down that could contribute to proposed legislation.” The state’s right-to-know advisory committee has approved the proposal by a vote of 10 to five. Dissenting members of the committee advocate not only for the governor’s proposal to be rejected, but for the legislature to lose its current protections of working papers.

Judy Meyer, co-chairperson of the committee and managing editor of the Lewiston Sun Journal, said that ”this runs completely contrary to what the governor has said about transparency.” The governor’s deputy counsel, Michael Cianchette, argues that the proposed protection ”doesn’t cut against transparency because as soon as a bill is presented, all documents become public. This just protects the decision-making process.”

Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post reports that some top city officials in D.C. have used personal email accounts for work purposes. Speaking for Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, who testified at a deposition last month, Gandhi’s chief of staff said, “There may have been an issue that we wanted to discuss, but did not necessarily want it to be FOIA-able to the press and, so, we would have perhaps had a conversation on personal email.” Gandhi explained at the deposition that he used his personal email account when emailing colleagues from home, citing difficulty accessing his work account. D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray may also be under fire after the Post uncovered several emails he had sent to aides from his personal account.

California: In good FOIA news, a California state senator has introduced a bill that would require more transparency and ease of access to public files among government agencies. Rather than posting graphics and scans of documents, which are not keyword-friendly, Sen. Leland Yee’s bill would require public documents and data to be uploaded in user-friendly formats such as word-processing and spreadsheet files. On Saturday, a conference/”hack-a-thon” was hosted to allow software developers to create applications that can help the government open and streamline its operations. Read the story from the Central Valley Business Times.

– Abby Henkel

Abby Henkel is SPJ’s communications coordinator and a 2011 graduate of Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs master’s program. Reach her at ahenkel@spj.org.

Win: After proposing a controversial rule change that would allow government agencies to deny the existence of national security documents, last Thursday the Department of Justice withdrew its proposal.

Potential Fail: The Tennessee County Commissioners Association is pushing county governments across the state to adopt a law that would allow elected officials to meet in private, as long as the group does not meet quorum. Bob Barnwell, president of the Association and Williamson County Commissioner, has toured the state urging local governments to adopt the law. He claims the Sunshine Law, which requires government meetings of more than two officials to be announced and open to the public, is overly burdensome. The current Sunshine Law applies to county commissioners but not to the state General Assembly, according to The Tennessean.

Win: Detroit citizens achieved a victory in open government Nov. 8 by approving a new city charter. Loopholes have been closed and the representative structure has been reworked, including new citizen advisory councils and anti-corruption measures. Read about the changes from Michigan Radio.

-Abby Henkel

Abby Henkel is SPJ’s communications coordinator and a 2011 graduate of Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs master’s program. Reach her at ahenkel@spj.org.

The Open Government Partnership Forum last week marked a step forward in its goal of encouraging transparency and accountability efforts among governments around the world.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the OGP as a support network for leaders and citizens committed to improving transparency in countries worldwide, according to an article from the Brookings Institution.

The program’s emphasis on multilateral cooperation is key, as it will take efforts from all levels of power and influence to achieve its goal.

Civil society organizations were mentioned during the forum as important factors in encouraging open government.

The OGP has a tough road ahead – promoting transparency on a global scale is a tall order to fill. But starting a discussion on these issues is an important first step, and the forum last week succeeded in that respect.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

“OG Pod,” a new open-government podcast focused on transparency issues in Washington, is available for listeners to access online.

The program provides advice for people searching for certain public records or planning to attend various government meetings. It will include rundowns on developments in the courts, legislature and media regarding transparency issues.

For those who need advice on the nitty gritty details of the Open Public Meetings Act or Public Records Act, this podcast will dish out plenty of helpful tips.

The Freedom Foundation and Greg Overstreet of Allied Law Group, which specializes in open government legal matters, host OG Pod. Its author is Michael Reitz, who serves as General Counsel of the Freedom Foundation and is the director of its Constitutional Law Center.

Listeners can access the podcasts from iTunes and Facebook as well.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

CIA leaker throws down with subpoenas for gov. employees

Ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling is tossing his own subpoenas into the mix in the court case investigating his alleged leaking of CIA information to New York Times reporter James Risen.

He is subpoenaing three current or former Senate Intelligence Committee employees, according to Politico.

Sterling’s lawyers filed a motion Monday for subpoenas of records from three committee employees, including its budget chief Lorenzo Goco. They also requested permission to subpoena official records from the Senate.

The staffers were working for the committee when Sterling complained to the panel in 2003 about the CIA’s Operation Merlin, which targeted Iran’s nuclear program and was detailed in Risen’s 2006 book “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”

Sterling’s subpoenas could lead to legal conflict over whether internal Senate records are exempt from a defendant’s subpoenas.

These aren’t the first controversial subpoenas filed in the case. Risen has received three subpoenas so far, and is awaiting U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s decision on whether she will honor his request to quash the third.

If Sterling’s Senate subpoenas are honored, it could help bolster his defense’s argument that Senate staffers were the culprits for the leak, according to Secrecy News.

U.S. hosted Open Gov Partnership meeting

The State Department held the first major Open Government Partnership meeting Tuesday.

OGP is an international project focused on getting solid commitments from various governments to promote transparency and fight corruption, among other things.

The program could help advance the Obama administration’s plans to use technology to develop better governing methods and strengthen democracy and human rights efforts worldwide, according to the State Department’s website.

Topics at the Tuesday meeting included breakout sessions on encouraging civic participation and promoting transparency efforts. Also covered was technology that could be helpful open government tools for governments.

Scan the meeting agenda and OGP brochure for more details.

Put this one in the “win” category for international cooperation on some of the most important issues in government: being open with citizens about federal information and welcoming their participation.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

Kenya bolstered its FOI efforts with the July 8 launch of a web portal that provides free information access to the public.

The Kenyan Open Government Data Portal has been heralded as the first project of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa and will provide a variety of data, according to Yahoo! News.

The right to information was included in the new Kenyan constitution adopted in 2010, although the country hasn’t enacted a freedom of information law yet.

The system provides information on government spending, 2009 census data, health and other topics. The website includes a catalog of all available data (currently clocking in at 160+ datasets) for visitors to explore.

The Kenyan government is making this information more easily accessible not only to improve transparency, but also because it can help policy makers develop plans based on the data available through the portal, according to the website.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

Editorial argues against lax ethics disclosure rules under new governor

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s first official act was to relax ethics disclosure requirements for public officials – a move the Tennessean criticized in a July 10 editorial.

Under the new rules, Haslam and his aides must provide information about their sources of income, but not about the financial worth of that income or their investments.

The editorial raised an important point: that disclosures of both income sources and amounts allow the public to get a better picture of who their officials are.

Knowing where officials’ money comes from and their past business interests, as well as how much money they are making, can provide important clues as to how they will lead in public office.

Tennessee residents only have half the picture right now due to Haslam’s new ethics requirements. They can see the source but not the amount, but they have the right to know both.

The Tennessean has called for Haslam to rescind his January executive order relaxing disclosure requirements, which would show the people of Tennessee that their right to know is respected in the governor’s office.

FOI in Pakistan: Editorial calls for enactment of FOI law in Punjab

The provincial government of Punjab in Pakistan has a draft bill that would give its citizens greater access to data about their officials and the quality of the public duties they perform – if it’s ever implemented.

The Punjab Freedom of Information Act 2010 has not been enacted into law yet. The government has put it to the provincial assembly for approval – a move that Zahid Abdullah, an employee for the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, argued in an editorial is indicative of the government’s desire to postpone the act’s adoption.

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has said his government is waiting for a federal information law to be passed so the provincial bill can complement the spirit of the national legislation, according to the editorial.

Abdullah countered this argument with the insistence that because the right to information is now included as a constitutional right for Pakistani citizens, Punjab should become a role model for other provinces by passing a freedom of information law that reflects this right.

He also called for the draft bill to extend the ability to access government information to all Pakistani citizens. It currently authorizes such access only for Punjab residents.

For more information on the fight to get Punjab’s FOI bill enacted, peruse some of the recent press releases on the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives website.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

FOIA requests are the bread and butter of quality reporting, but sometimes they can be incredibly annoying. Filling out the forms, hassling agencies to respond to your requests, bugging them again when they ignore your initial hassling – it can get tiring for a reporter who has three other stories to write by 5 p.m.

MuckRock, an open government tool, takes some of the pressure off of reporters by handling the FOIA requests for them.

To get your FOIA request taken care of, go the MuckRock website and type in what information you need. MuckRock staff helps with the rest, getting your request completed and providing the documents in a scanned and searchable format.

The website also provides regular updates on FOI issues on its blog.

You can also browse through the database of other FOIA requests that MuckRock is handling. It includes information on the statuses of various requests.

If a request has been completed that matches the information you’re looking for, you can check out the documents at MuckRock rather than having to file another FOIA request for the same information.

You can also see if someone else has submitted a FOIA request for the same data that’s been denied.

MuckRock was founded by journalist Michael Morisy and Mitchell Kotler, who has worked at various high-tech startup companies.

The Sunlight Foundation, which has provided grant money for the program, is among MuckRock’s supporters.

The next time you need to make a records request for a story, take a few minutes to check out MuckRock’s services first. The site could be a huge help.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

90 candles for the GAO

The Government Accountability Office can blow out 90 candles for its birthday this month.

Since its creation in 1921, the GAO has been keeping watch over government spending. It oversees how taxpayer funds are used and how money is spent on everything from the Iraq war to NASA’s latest project.

The GAO was known as the General Accounting Office for the better part of its existence before former comptroller David Walker changed its name to the Government Accountability Office in 2004.

Check out the anniversary video the GAO has released about its long history.

State Dept. slacking on FOIA requests

Despite President Obama’s calls for government agencies to become more efficient in responding to FOIA requests, some are still lagging behind in their response times – particularly the State Department, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

CPI received notices from the State Department asking it to withdraw requests from 2007 that have yet to be completed.

The documents in question were requested by former CPI reporter Devin Varsalona for a story on how Obama and other presidents traditionally provide diplomatic postings to major donors. Many of the journalist’s requests were still unfilled when the story was published in 2008.

This isn’t the first time the State Department has been called out for being unresponsive regarding transparency issues like FOIA requests. As of March 10, the State Department still had not provided a final response to Obama’s memo on open government according to a National Security Archive study.

White House meetings not as transparent as promised

The Obama administration is supposedly in favor of transparency – but not if they’re talking about debt reduction.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at a press briefing June 30 that the executive branch was so serious about reaching a debt-reduction deal with Congress that it would hold meetings without notifying the press corps about them.

Carney did backtrack during the press briefing, saying that there aren’t meetings with major leaders that are kept secret even though not all presidential meetings are publicly noted.

Obama met with House Speaker John Boehner Sunday – but the White House meeting wasn’t on his public schedule. Politico writer David Rogers was the first to report the meeting on Tuesday, but Carney would neither confirm nor deny news of the meeting on Wednesday.

He also justified the secrecy surrounding meetings by arguing that reaching a solid budget deal was more important and that having up-to-date information on presidential meetings is of little concern to members of the general public, according to Politico.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).

Google: U.S. government biggest requester of private info

Google released transparency information showing the U.S. government to be the biggest requester of private information.

From July to Dec. 2010, the U.S. requested user data 4,601 times. Google complied with 94 percent of those requests, according to a Guardian article.

Brazil had the second-highest number of requests at 1,804, while India took third place with 1,699 requests. The United Kingdom placed fourth with 1,162 requests.

Google’s compliance rate varied by country – India had 79 percent of its requests filled, while the U.K. had 72 percent of them partially or entirely completed.

Private user information was requested more than 14,000 times in the second half of 2010 in 26 developed nations.

NYT articles scrutinize open government under Obama

Two recent New York Times articles took aim at transparency under the Obama administration.

The first piece, a June 25 story by Natasha Singer, focuses on the need for faster, more comprehensive FOIA compliance and overall transparency at the federal level.

Obama called on government agencies to become more open on day one of his presidency, yet only 49 of 90 agencies have made changes to their FOIA procedures in the two-and-a-half years since Obama entered the Oval Office, according to a National Security Archive study.

The story explores some problematic government practices regarding FOIA and methods being pursued to potentially improve the situation, such as the Faster FOIA Act.

It also looks at the still-undisclosed records regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage companies bailed out by the government using taxpayer dollars, as examples of government information that should be readily available but remain private.

A June 26 NYT editorial by Geoffrey Stone, a University of Chicago law professor, questions whether Obama has been a strong supporter of transparency as president.

The verdict: Kind of, but not really.

Stone acknowledges that Obama has taken some action to scale back the Bush administration’s legacy of anti-transparency, but he also points out ways in which Obama has perpetuated it.

One open government success for Obama was his repeal of a 2001 directive by Bush-era Attorney General John D. Ashcroft that allowed the government to classify any information that might hurt national security if disclosed.

As for Obama’s transparency failures, Stone mentions a few key problems. These include the president’s lack of support for whistleblowers and his flip-flopping on the issue of a federal journalist-source privilege, which would allow reporters to better protect their sources’ identities.

When he was a senator, Obama supported the Free Flow of Information Act, which aimed to provide federal protections for journalists. As president, he raised objections to the proposed bill before it later stalled in the Senate.

SPJ has been one of many journalism organizations and news outlets calling for such a law.

– Morgan Watkins

Morgan Watkins is SPJ’s summer Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern and a University of Florida student. Reach her by email (mwatkins@spj.org) or connect with her on Twitter (@morganwatkins26).