Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog.

Introducing our guest blogger, Ryan Ozawa. Ryan wears many hats, in addition to being a lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he is also a technology Cohost at Hawaii Public Radio and a Communications and Project Manager at Hawaii Information Service. You can read more of his thoughts at Hawaii Blog or follow him @hawaii.

If a good compromise is one in which neither side is satisfied, a new bill passed by the Hawaii state legislature is an unmitigated success.

The state Office of Information Practices, dedicated to "ensuring open government" but headed by a political appointee, supported amendments to Hawaii law that would give government agencies a process by which they could fight requests for information in the courts.

Open-government and media organizations fought the measure, saying it created a costly and cumbersome process that goes in the wrong direction. Yet, even some of the government bodies that would be given more options to fight information disclosure decisions by the OIP were against the bill, saying the measure “goes too far.”

The OIP was designed to administer Hawaii’s two main open records laws: the Uniform Information Practices Act , and the Sunshine Law, coverning public meetings. Those laws were instituted with the clear intent to guarantee the public’s access to government information, and the UIPA goes as far as to say that a government agency “does not have the right to bring an action in circuit court” to contest a ruling by the OIP to release requested information.

Unfortunately, the Sunshine Law -- which has been around since 1975, but was only added to the OIP’s responsibilities in 1988 -- had no such provision. So after the OIP told the Kauai County Council it had to release requested information, the council sued the OIP, and won.

The OIP, which has already been consistently underfunded and understaffed, perhaps rightfully concluded that the Kauai case created an opening through which all its rulings could be contested in court. So SB2858 puts a process in place for judiciary review.

Open government advocates pushed instead for lawmakers to close the door to lawsuits under the Sunshine Law the same way the UIPA did. Alas, the courts are often the final arbiter on any law... even laws written specifically to limit their authority.

SB2858 requires government agencies to notify the OIP of their intent to contest a ruling to release information within 30 days. And the OIP would have 30 days to compile and present its justification for its ruling to the court. Watchdog groups and journalists say SB2858 will only add even more delays to the already slow and arduous process of obtaining government records, delays that can often kill the relevance of the requested information.

But government agencies may not be so eager to contest every request automatically. While SB2858 does set up rules by which they can take OIP decisions to court, it also sets a high standard for them to make their case.

First, a government agency can’t merely tell the OIP it will fight its decision, saving all of its justifications for the judge. Instead, government agencies have to make their best and most complete case to the OIP, because except where there are “extraordinary circumstances,” the courts will only be able to review the same information the OIP had when making their decision.

And secondly, the courts are only allowed to overturn an OIP ruling when it was “palpably erroneous,”or obviously or clearly wrong. If the OIP’s ruling that a record should be released is merely shaky or fuzzy, then, the OIP’s ruling should stand.

These restrictions, as a result, made some government agencies oppose a bill that seemed designed to empower them in resisting public records requests. Danny Mateo, chair of the Maui County Council, testified against the bill, which he said granted the OIP “quasi-judicial authority.”

Nonetheless, SB2858 SD1 HD2 CD1  passed its final reading in the House on Thursday last week, and will most certainly be signed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

The Office of the Governor submitted testimony that said it “strongly supports” the bill, as did Cheryl Kakazu Park, whom Gov. Abercrombie appointed to head the OIP. Of course, Park got the job after her predecessor, Cathy Takase, was fired, a move that just happened to come after Takase ruled against the governor’s attempts to withhold a list of names of juidicial candidates. A list that he ultimately and reluctantly was forced to release anyway.

Ryan is also organizing a Sunlight Meetup in Honolulu on Wednesday this week which you are welcome to join.

All is not well in the Aloha state. “Sunshine” advocates including Rep. Barbara Marumoto are rising up to oppose a recent attack on Hawaii’s open government. A new bill that was introduced earlier this year is set to intentionally delay responses to public records requests. SB2858 “Creates a process for an agency to obtain judicial review of a decision made by the Office of Information Practices relating to the Sunshine Law or the Uniform Information Practices Act, and clarifies standard of review.” In other words the bill ironically referred to as “relating to open government” instead takes a jab at everything open and has been likened to a closed government bill.

In summary, SB2858 will make it more difficult for the public and media to find out what is going on in state government by:

• Delaying the release of information under the Uniform Information Practices Act.
• Forcing the public to spend money on legal fees in order to access data which should be made available in the first place.
• Giving agencies the freedom to challenge an Office of Information Practices (OIP) ruling in court.
• Setting state agencies in opposition against each other in a bid to comply with practices within the Uniform Information Practices Act.

It goes without say that if this bill is approved, Hawaii’s history of maintaining a decent record in keeping an open government will be tainted. Worse, we will have no idea what the government is doing and when it is doing what it’s doing -- unless of course if we are willing to go to court to find out. Effective July 1, 2030, the anti transparency bill sadly has the support of Gov. Neil Ambercrombie who is already said to be a secretive governor.

Allowing government agencies such as Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (a supporter of the bill) to appeal unfavorable Office of Information Practices rulings -- as this bill proposes to do -- shows that government is clearly putting their own first and the public second. Hawaii’s legislature has a Submit Online Testimony where the public can send in their testimonies and hopefully convince everyone involved that this bill is bad for transparency -- just as Common Cause Hawaii did.

 

Common Cause Hawaii Testimony on SB2858

• While summarizing the changes Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst hopes to implement with the Senate Select Committee on Open Government, Curt Olsen reminds, “Initiatives for 'open government' either improve access or hinder it." Olsen maintains that each change should be watched carefully, as, “ State lawmakers can pass laws that enhance openness and transparency or they can pass laws that cause mischief and erect a new hurdle for taxpayers to have access to government." The proposed changes include: “The use of new technologies and future technological advances as relates to the creation of public information” and “Study ways to define and address frivolous and/or overly-burdensome open records requests. “State lawmakers can pass laws that enhance openness and transparency or they can pass laws that cause mischief and erect a new hurdle for taxpayers to have access to government.” For the entire list and Olsen’s opinion, check out his post on Texas Budget Source.
• In her assessment of the state of Minnesota transparency, Mary Tracey maintains, “What matters to most citizens is the right to access to information by and about state, regional and local government information – state agencies, county boards, advisory committees and regulators, every entity from the Governor’s office to the local school board. In her post on Poking Around With Mary, she summarizes the open government portals available to Minnesotans: The twin pillars of access in Minnesota are the Data Practices Act and the Open Meeting Law.  Essential guides to each include these:  Open Meeting Law,Government Data Practices Act.  The Legislative Reference Libraryalso offers a comprehensive list of guides and information about parallel laws and regulations in other states." She urges citizens who are concerned with government transparency to “be aware of the agencies’ responsibilities to assure compliance with the spirit and the letter of the law.”

Joining us today as our guest blogger is Jason Hibbets. Jason is the project manager at Red Hat and lead administrator for opensource.com. Sunlight is a great supporter of the CityCamp initiative and continues to highlight efforts in City and State open government.

The theme that emerged from the first CityCamp Honolulu, held on December 3 (the 17th CityCamp held worldwide), was restoring citizen confidence in their government. In a very collaborative and participatory atmosphere, organizers looked to citizens to generate ideas for the City of Honolulu's upcoming Code for America project and to harness the power of design thinking to rapidly prototype ten topics generated during the unconference.

Government panel and first break out sessions

Burt Lum, a CityCamp Honolulu organizer, kicked off the day and kept participants on track during the event. Lum provided a brief introduction about what to expect. The day started with a government panel to provide an update on current and future initiatives in the City and County of Honolulu. The panel included Gordon Bruce, CIO at City and County of Honolulu, Forest Frizzell, Deputy Director at City and County of Honolulu, and Doug Chin, Managing Director, City of Honolulu.

Forest Frizzell, also an organizer for the CityCamp, shared a timeline that highlighted initiatives that have already happened, such as Can Do Honolulu, an online portal for citizens. The timeline then showed the CityCamp event and a 24-hour hackathon scheduled for January 2012. The momentum from these events will feed the Code for America kickoff in February 2012 and an anticipated Open 311 project also in 2012. Bruce talked about the vision to create a smarter citizen. He said if government IT can present a clear vision that improves services, saves money, and manages IT costs, the results will lead to engaged citizens who participate in their government. Bruce also touched on the Office of Information Practices open data policy. If they get a request for open data, they produce the data set and open it to the public. "If media X comes in and asks for data, instead of just giving it to the media, we're going to give it to the public. We'll get it on the Can Do site," Bruce stated.

"It's a real change in how we think and how we do things," he said. It's this type of shift in mentality that is making real progress in open government. More IT departments should take note and look to establish similar policies to provide open data to citizens in this manner. After the panel, attendees transitioned into unconference mode. Voting for the day's sessions concluded, and the first five sessions were announced. Participants moved to the breakout rooms and started to collaborate on their chosen topics. I attended and participated in a session about S.W.E.E.T.S.: Surf, Weather, Emergencies, Events, Traffic, and Services. The idea was to create one platform that brings all of the city and county departments together. It would leverage real-time, location-based data to keep citizens informed on what's happening right now.

Business panel and second break out sessions

After a short lunch break, the second panel of the day provided perspectives from outside of Hawaii. I joined the panel with Alissa Black, Government Relations Director at Code for America and Steve Bretches, a consultant at IBM. Our goal was to provide insight to the audience from what we're seeing around the rest of North America and beyond. Black highlighted Code for America projects like Change By Us, Classtalk, and Where's My School Bus. Bretches helped to draw comparisons between technology and the people who use it. "It's not about technology, it's about the cooperation with the government, community, and businesses," claimed Bretches.

I added lessons we could learn from the open source world, such as creating a participatory and inviting environment that would lead to a culture of transparency and accountability. I also provided examples of what's happening at other CityCamps. In Colorado, they are looking to advance adoption of the Open Government Directive. In Raleigh, we are continuing the CityCamp movement with quarterly meetups and project follow-up. The second round of sessions started. I jumped in and moderated a session on making the City of Honolulu's budget more transparent. The participants and I made an outline of what is currently available from the city and drafted action steps to explore how an open budget would be citizen-friendly by prototyping several use cases and scenarios.

Design thinking

The final charge for the day was to begin prototyping the top ten ideas that had been generated. The organizers prepared a brief introduction by showing a video from NYU Wagner on design thinking for public policy and social impact. Participants then broke into ten different groups began to rapid prototype the ideas from the day that included:

•  S.W.E.E.T.S.: Surf, Weather, Emergencies, Events , Traffic, and Services (real-time city information)
• Adopt-a-node (wifi)
• Real-time bus arrival
• Standard API
• Expand online service
• Trash to treasure
• Pay for parking/find a parking spot application
• Map a bike lane/find a bike route application
• City tax revenue/spending trends (transparent budget)
• City reminders

Each team drilled down into its topic. Some came up with action plans; others developed design mock-ups. All the teams shared their prototypes by presenting to the larger group.

Inspired by CityCamp

CityCamp Honolulu was a huge success. Frizzell reacted at the end of the day, "I'm overwhelmed. I can't believe how many people showed. Today was a huge success. We got a ton of ideas that we could act on—that we could develop in-house or in partnership with the local development community. Citycamp was so useful, and we inspired a lot of people." I was inspired by the attendees, ideas, and the participants at CityCamp Honolulu. And I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one. In closing, organizer Frizzell charged CityCampers with a mission. He challenged the community to help transition the CityCamp event from an emotional movement into a reality. "How do we inspire people to become involved?" he asked.

Frizzell proclaimed, "It's not about the app; it's not about the open data; it's about people taking a more active roll in their community." What can a CityCamp can do for your community? As Frizzell pointed out, it's a movement that can engage your local community. I'll add that CityCamp can restore trust in government. The activities and projects from the CityCamp movement are re-engaging citizens who think they don't have a voice in government. It's giving people a reason to participate and not just the latest hot topic of debate.

From the event

•    Tweet stream
•     Photos on our Facebook page
•    Pictures on Flickr: bytemarks, hawaii, madmarv00
•    Media coverage: Hawaii joins the "city camp" initiative
•    YouTube - CityCamp Honolulu

 

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. This week I have highlights from Pennsylvania, Texas, Hawaii and New York.

In Pennsylvania, Commonwealth Foundation has a post about the need for more transparency in the state contractor awarding system. The Department of General Services has been reprimanded for their lack of competitive bidding for state contracts.  Also quite problematic is that they don't have any information on changes to contracts so taxpayers don't have a good idea on how much they are spending.  The end of the post they ask for a state spending database, I'll go a step forward and say they need a state database that is also updated in REAL TIME, so these change to contracts aren't hidden through a slow update schedule.

Texas Watchdog has a post about one of the candidates for mayor of Houston, who made her's and her partner's personal tax returns public voluntarily to Texas Watchdog.  Her opponent has not responded to requests.  The tax forms are now online for citizens to see.  It is great to see candidates voluntarily submit their financial information to third party watchdogs.  Especially if the city or state don't post that information publicly or don't do it quick enough for citizens to see before they vote.

In Hawaii, Ian Lind has a post about an information request that the Department of Human Resources filled for him.  His version was complete with the information clear and not altered in anyway.  Hawaii has a Docushare system that provides information that was requested, however  the same document Ian requested has been altered to exclude information that he is able to see from his personal request.  There is clearly a problem with how documents go from the private request to the public system.  I hope they figure out a way to go from one to another without changing the document because this doesn't serve the public trust.

In New York, Politics on the Hudson has a post about NYPIRG putting online the handwritten financial disclosure forms from state officials.  Lawmakers are required to file these forms but the law doesn't require them to show how much they make in outside income or any outside dealings.  These forms should be online already it is a little ridiculous that they have to be computerized by a third party.  With the improvements that New York has been making I hope this is on their list to improve.

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news.  This week I have highlights from Oklahoma, Missouri and Hawaii.

In Oklahoma, Batesline has a quick post about the city of  Tulsa’s charter being in PDF form on their Web site.  This wasn't alright for Beau McElhattan who made a hyperlinked HTML version of the charter and city policies and procedures.  I think everyone knows how Sunlight feels about PDFs.  Which is why I think someone taking the initiative to turn a PDF into a HTML linked document is fantastic!  It shows that this measure really isn't hard and cities and town can do it easily if they ask someone who knows how.

In Missouri, The Turner Report has a post highlighting the relationship between bills introduced and campaign contributions given.  The Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields represents a district with casino interests, in turn, he receives a great deal of campaign donations from casinos, then he introduces pro casino legislation.  There isn't anything wrong with this, in fact it makes sense, however Turner Report makes a good point.  This information should be public and not just for Shields but for all elected officials.  There isn't anything necessarily wrong with pressing legislation that an interest from district wants, but it shouldn't be hidden.

In Hawaii, Ian Lind has a post on the University of Hawaii Board of Regents possible violations of Sunshine Laws.  Apparently Hawaii’s Sunshine laws are very specific regarding closed to the public meetings.  If a public entity has a closed to public meeting they must have a schedule, detailing everything that will be discussed, available before hand.  However, the UH Board of Regents had a meeting and discussed a topic that was not on the schedule.  The Board is open to some repercussions, but this is clearly a case where the law is clear and there should be consequences.

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news.  This week I have posts from Texas, Hawaii and Illinois.

In Texas, Lubbok County Register has a story about the county withholding public records. Apparently the author has had several requests denied or ignored.  It seems Lubbock needs to catch up on their FOI requests because this lack of transparency is not doing them any favors.

In Hawaii, ILind.net has a story about fundraisers thrown for Lt. Governor Aiona in California.  And reflects on how events like this will be affected if Hawaii puts limits on nonresident campaign donations.  Also enjoy the video of meal time with eight cats.  It might just be me, but there seems to be a certain similarity between a political fundraiser and a house with eight cats.

In Illinois, Prairie State Blue has a story about stimulus transparency in Illinois.  Apparently according to the Good Jobs First study, Illinois has scored a whopping ZERO on transparency measures.  There is a lot of transparency work that needs to be done in Illinois in every facet.

Also in Illinois, Capitol Fax Blog has a story about "Illinois State’s Attorneys Association and the Illinois Municipal League sent separate letters to Gov. Quinn that lobbied against the proposed FOIA rewrite bill."    The bill wants to create a Public Access Counselor who would have the final say in FOIA requests, the attorneys association says that the final say should be by the courts and so are not supporting this legislation.   This is an interesting change to policy.  Are there any other states that have a Public Access Counselor?

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news.  This week I have highlights from Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Texas.

In Alabama, Left in Alabama highlights a scandal about Attorney General Troy King’s apparent conflict of interest.  Apparently King went to a party thrown by a developer and then three months later his office issued a legal opinion that said the developer could get a bingo permit for their upcoming project.  According to the author this isn't the first time King has been entertained by a special interest.  Alabama Power apparently treated King to a few luxury box baseball tickets back in 2006.

Florida Politics is copying a great idea started by Aldon Hynes in Connecticut.  He created a newswire “where the various state agencies, municipalities, state legislators, advocacy organizations, etc., could send their press releases and the like.”  This is a great idea a one stop shop for public relations people to send there info and for bloggers to get it.

In Hawaii, ILind.net has a post about the two special advisories that the State Ethics Commission had.  Apparently there had been complaints filed about legislators receiving free tickets to events from non profits.  The commission advised that taking these gifts would violate state ethics laws.

Kentucky’s The Bridge, uses Party Time to keep track of  what fundraisers Congresspeople are attending.  It is a pretty decent list of where their members of Congress will be.

Pennsylvania’s Keystone Politics has two interesting stories. The first one is a post about how four elected judges in Northampton County have presided over cases that involved a donor to their election campaign. Apparently the decision for what a conflict of interest is, is left to the judges to decided, so they don't have to recuse themselves if a donor appears before them.  This brings up whether the rules should be changed to require judges to recuse themselves if a donor is involved or if you want a favorable outcome you should make some quick campaign donations.

The second story is about former state democratic house leader Bill DeWeese who gave bonuses to his staff, who then donated that amount or close to that amount back to his campaign.

Capitol Annex, in Texas, talks about a bill that would give bloggers the same protection main stream media gets.  This allows bloggers to cover "matters of 'public concern,' such as legislative proceedings, school board meetings, and the actions of state officials" and not be sued for libel.  The author and a few other bloggers successfully testified, in favor of the bill, to the committee and seemed confident he received a fair hearing.

This week I have highlights from California, Hawaii, Delaware, Idaho, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico.

California Progress Report has a post about two new bills that would increase public access to campaign finance reports and lobbying records.  They are being introduced by freshmen Assemblymember Alyson Huber, " AB 1181 would require all state candidate committees, ballot measure committees and slate mail organizations to file contributors online with the Secretary of State’s office."  Apparently there is already a free online form for filing campaign donations but they are not required to file that way so they don't.  Hmmm sounds familiar.  The other bill "AB 1274 would require the California Secretary of State to link reported lobbying activities to specific legislation."  I hope these bills pass because they would make California more transparent and the elected officials there more accountable. In Hawaii, ILind.net has a post about lobbying disclosure. The State of Hawaii requires lobbyist to file expenditure report every two months and January and February were due this week.  ILind observes that McDonalds Corporation, despite having an annual legislative reception, did not disclose the costs associated with it.  He goes on to discuss that this could be an ommission on McDonalds side or that the requirements for disclosing need to become more stringent.  Either way Hawaii needs to consider stronger enforcement procedures for lobbying disclosure. Delaware Watch blogs about his experience meeting with Gov. Jack Markell, who went to meet bloggers at a local Panera Café. I think it is fantastic that Gov. Markell takes time to meet with bloggers and answer questions in an informal way.  I hope this is a consistent event in all parts of the state. Idaho’s Eye on Boise reports about the unanimous vote by the state senate to expand sunshine law and add the personal financial disclosure requirements.  This bill is now onto the house, hopefully it will pass with as much support. New York’s Fighting 29th has a post about Rep. Eric Massa’s decision to fight Time-Warner Cable’s broadband cap. This despite Time-Warner being a major donor.  I like this post because it is a good example of why making campaign donations available in a timely manner can build trust with elected officials.  Rep. Massa's decision to not support Time Warner's policy even though they are a major donor means that his constituents don't see a conflict of interest and can trust him. Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Foundation has a post about PA house republican leader Sam Smith’s 12 point government reform plan.  It is a decent list of reforms that should be done to make sure elected officials are being transparent and accountable.  I look forward to see how these reforms go through the legislature. New Mexico’s Independent reports that they will soon have an online, searchable database of state government contracts, but only ones worth more than $20,000.

Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series to highlight local blogs that do a great job of covering local, state, and congressional political news.  This week I have highlights from Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Hawaii.

Loaded Orygun has an interesting post on how to improve Oregon’s Freedom of Information laws. The problem with current Oregon public records law is a loophole that doesn’t specify how long an agency has to take to give the documents up. This seems like an easy fix.  There is no reason to string people along unless they have something to hide.

In Pennsylvania, Above Average Jane has been looking into some missing reports on the FEC.gov site. It seems some reports that were available through electronic filing are now only available through paper filing.

Rhode Island’s 12^th has a great list of questions to ask about your local government Web site. These are great ways to access how good a town Web site also check out Sunshine Reviews Ten Point Check list.

In Utah, The World According to Me has tips on how to effectively contact your elected official.  I think these are excellent tips that would help constituents and legislators communicate better. 

In Hawaii, iLind.net has a fascinating post on the Hawaii Freedom of Information movement and how Hawaii is trying to change the way government responds to request. He also tells a moving story about visiting his dad.