Jim Ernstmeyer's blog

In an effort to goad Ohio officials into making more state records available online, the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a private policy think tank, created the Center for Transparent and Accountable Government earlier this week. The center, led by former Ohio Statehouse reporter Mike Maurer, will collect and post online state and local government budgets, employee contracts, public records policies, and other information.

Claiming that Ohio lags behind other states and the federal government in the quest to make government data available online, the new center called on candidates for state office to sign a Pledge for Transparency and Accountability. By signing, candidates pledge to demand full disclosure of government activities.

The Transparency Center also launched the OhioSunshine.org wiki, on the model of the  Sunshine Review wiki created by the nonprofit Sam Adams Alliance. The wiki provides a resource for Ohio citizens seeking information from their state government without itself providing direct access to that information.   read more »

A recent report by the U.S. Attorney General paints a mixed but generally positive picture of progress by the federal executive agencies in improving their responsiveness to Freedom of Information Act requests. Hard on its heels comes a study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government that points to scant progress by the agencies and instead suggests that they squandered a chance to reduce their backlog during a period of fewer requests.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was meant to make government more transparent and more accountable by creating the means for persons to obtain federal government records. Under an Executive Order of December 14, 2005, all of the Executive Branch agencies undertook a dedicated effort to improve their compliance with FOIA. The Executive Order mandates that each agency make a plan "to eliminate or reduce the agency's FOIA backlog, including . . . changes that will make the processing of FOIA requests more streamlined and effective, as well as increased reliance on the dissemination of records that can be made available to the public through a website or other means that do not require the public to make a request for the records under the FOIA." The Executive Order called for the plans to include concrete milestones and timetables that the Attorney General can use in monitoring agency improvements. The Attorney General assessed agency progress in a series of annual reports to the President, the last of which was due June 1, 2008.   read more »