Jan
26
States need to adopt Obama-style transparency
January 26, 2009 |
The fight for open government is not over until somebody takes it to the state capital and to city hall.
President Obama moved quickly on Jan. 21 to make government more transparent, participatory and collaborative. And those are kind of changes we like to hear about.
The only problem is that people in your state capital–and in every city and township office across your state–do not report to Barack Obama, so the memo doesn’t directly apply to them.
We think it’s up the rest of us to petition our respective governors so that the same forward-looking policies can be adopted by states, and fostered at the local level.
We have decided to set the ball rolling by asking Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm for a policy that would put Obama’s freedom-of-information policy in effect at the state level. We are asking for several things:
1.) Approach public records with the presumption that they will be released rather than withheld. And issue and executive statement articulating this position.
2.) Strive to make all public records available online–especially those used by deliberative bodies and commissions to make decisions. Citizens and journalists should be able to access important documents instantly, rather than send a letter and wait ten days for a reply.
3.) Make it possible for local governments to do the same–right down to villages and townships–by providing technical assistance.
We equally support Obama’s additional goals of “collaborative” and “participatory” government (mentioned in his second memo)–but they depend on having transparency in place first. Improved FOIA laws are going to be the keystone to creating the kind of America that previous generations have only dreamed of.
If you blog in Michigan, join us by writing a post about the changes necessary in state freedom-of-information policy. And send a message to the governor’s office, to make sure they notice you.
If you live and blog elsewhere in the U.S., it’s up to you to push for the same kind of openness in your own state. Feel free to cut-and-paste our platform into a letter to your governor. Or at least write your own post calling for transparency at the local level–strike now, while the iron is hot.
(And p.s., if you live outside the U.S., get to work now. If you don’t have a blog, we’ll help you set it up, and we’ll host it on our server.)
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