The Massachusetts Campaign For Open Government: Update Of Local Government Websites

I am in the middle of updating the information about local government websites posted on the Massachusetts Campaign For Open Government website. The review process should be completed in the next two weeks.

Thus far, it looks like the number of towns which have all the major public records on line may be fewer than when the website was originally launched in October 2005. This could be because I got it wrong or because the towns in question have not posted recent versions of one of the targeted records, such as the most recent town meeting warrant or the FY 2006 final town budget. Hopefully this preliminary finding will turn out to be wrong.

Once the review is completed, I will announce it here and post a new version of the list on the Massachusetts Campaign for Open Government website. In the meantime, check out the websites for Amherst (2000 population 34,874) , Boxborough (2000 population 4868), Brookline (2000 population 57, 107), and Concord (2000 population 16, 993) as examples of communities that have posted the local government's major public records online. If your community does not post its public records online yet, maybe you can use the example of these communities to convince the local officials to do so.

More on International Efforts for Open Government

The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) issued this report in 2003 entitled Open Government: Fostering Dialogue with Civil Society. It is the result of an international roundtable discussion about building open government in southeast Europe. The roundtable had 100 participants from 28 countries.

Open Government Is a Global Phenomenon

The movement for more open government is a global movement. As the author of this 2003 article, Wayne Hanson, points out, "Open government is a good, if deceptively simple idea: 'Take government records and put them on the Internet for all to see.' In one stroke, government becomes transparent and accountable to the public. But while the principles are commendable, implementing open government is much more difficult. " The article goes on to state that there has to be the political will to support public access. Having a law on the books is not enough.
The same could be said for open government here in Massachusetts.

There are a number of international websites devoted to the issues of open government, some of which are listed at the end of the Hanson article. Here are a few of them:

The Commonwealth Centre for e-Governance, a British group which studies and provides information about e-government methods around the world.

Freedominfo.org, which is based at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., but tracks freedom of information movements around the world.

Open Government: A Journal on Freedom of Information, an online journal launched in March 2005 and devoted to research and communications about freedom of information legislation. It is based in the U.K. It also links to a blog which mostly is focused on British freedom of information issues.

More on Proposed Changes to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law

I found this article about the proposed changes to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law on the City Solicitors and Town Counsel Association's website. It has a discussion about the pros and cons of the proposed changes.

The article also indicates that there have been numerous times when the Open Meeting Law has been violated, sometimes intentionally. The Middlesex District Attorney's office reported receiving 29 complaints, issuing 11 formal opinion letters, and finding 6 violations in 2004. As of the date of the article, July 11, 2005, the office had issued 4 letters and found 3 violations in 2005. District Attorney Martha Coakley, who is running for Attorney General this year, notes that the district attorneys need more resources to be able to enforce the law which she feels is violated often because of a lack of understanding of the law.

Besides more resources and better enforcement of the Open Meeting Law, we also need to make people more aware of the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Law. Most people seem to know what FOIA means, which applies to the federal government, but few people seem to know what the state laws are. There should be an effort to educate the public about the state laws as well.

In addition, local public officials must stop perceiving any one who invokes either of the two laws as the enemy. Instead, they should be welcoming such participation by citizens. One way to do this is to start posting more public records on the internet.

Another Guide to The Massachusetts Open Meeting Law

I found this guide to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law on the website for the Massachusetts League of Women Voters.

League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters has information about Sunshine Week (March 12 - 18) on its website. In November 2005, the League launched "Openness in Government: Looking for the Sunshine", a project to make people more aware of the issues concerning government accountability and transparency. As part of its Openness project, the League has selected 14 chapters around the country to host forums during Sunshine Week. Unfortunately, no Massachusetts community was chosen.

The Massachusetts League of Women Voters has an event during Sunshine Week at the State House, but it does not look like it is related to the Openness Project. In fact, I could not find anything on its website referring to the League's Openness project. I guess they do not see it as a very important issue in Massachusetts or maybe the Massachusetts chapter is just too busy with other issues.

Openness in the government, however, should be an important issue for any group like the Massachusetts League of Women Voters that believes in improving voter awareness and participation. What better way to improve voter awareness than to make information about what the government does more freely available. Maybe when the League members meet with Senate President Travaglini and House Speaker DiMasi at the State House on March 15th, they can discuss putting more of the General Court's records online.

Campaign for Openness in Corporate Political Donations

The Boston Globe reports today that the Center for Political Accountability is coordinating a campaign among shareholder activists to encourage over 30 corporations to publicly reveal their political contributions. The strategy is to place the question before the shareholders at the various corporations' annual meetings. Some of the corporations, such as Staples, are located in Massachusetts and other states in New England.

This sort of transparency helps shareholders learn more about the corporations in which they have invested their money. More importantly for good government, it helps the general public gain more knowledge about what may or may not influence decisions made by their elected officials. You can find more information about the campaign on the website for the Center for Political Accountability.

More Information About the Massachusetts Public Records Law and the Open Meeting Law

Here is another Web resource on the Massachusetts Public Records Law and the Open Meeting Law. It is a piece written by two Massachusetts attorneys and published by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has been around since 1970 and was created when members of the national media were served with a number of subpoenas to reveal their sources.

Sunshine Week March 12 -18, 2006

The second annual Sunshine Week is being held from March 12 - 18, 2006. The purpose of Sunshine Week is to focus attention on the public's right to access to information about what their government is doing. For example, the PBS program "NOW" will devote an hour on the issue. (The same program has links on its website to information from earlier shows on the same topic, including commentary from Bill Moyers who was in the White House when FOIA was first signed into law. It is very interesting reading.)

The Sunshine Week blog has more information about the specific plans for the week, but anyone can get involved. It is a perfect time for people to start talking to their local government officials about putting more public documents online for easy access by the public. I have decided to use it as a starting point in my community to convince the town officials to post the important town documents online. I will report here on my efforts. Hopefully, my experience will help others get started where they live.