• The Salt Lake Tribune covered a  University of Utah honors class project: developing a set of five guiding principles to help local governments throughout the state increase transparency. The project’s goal is to persuade all 270-plus county and city governments in Utah to adopt their  principles to make their government more open. The projects focused on transparency in the age of the Internet. Moreover, the class itself operated in a transparent manner: “Every lecture was videotaped; every class presentation, too. Students had to comment daily on Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blogs. Anyone who wanted could see what the Think Tank and its individual members were up to — and some students developed notable followings.” Theresa Krause, one of the participating students, maintained  "Information is the currency of democracy. It is the key to citizen engagement.  "The Internet has made data available and changed the way we think about transparency and access to government." For the whole story, check out Mike Gorell’s post on the Salt Lake Tribune.
• The week, the Maine House rejected a bill that would have exempted the governor’s working papers from the state’s Freedom of Access laws.  The bill would have also exempted some members of the governor's staff from Freedom of Access Act, at least until the end of the legislative session. They include the governor's chief of staff, legal counsel, director of policy and employees under their direct supervision. Representative Kim Monaghan-Derrig told her colleagues that she worried the bill would  hurt the state’s transparency. For more information, see Susan Sharon’s post on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. 
• In order to avoid a violation of the Massachusetts Open Meetings Law, Scituate selectmen met for a special meeting to reaffirm a vote they took to approve contracts with non-union employees. In an executive session last November, the board voted to approve the contracts, including the contract for the Town Administrator, which is a violation of the open meeting law. They reaffirmed the vote in an open session this week. Selectmen Chair Tony Vegnani addressed the issue and said, “We met this evening to address a ruling from the Town of Carver, in regards to the Open Meeting Law. In November, we accepted three non-union contracts; the Town Accountant, Town Treasurer and Town Administrator and we did it in executive session. A month later in December, a ruling of the Open Meeting Law said that contracts needed to be accepted in open session. We read it in Beacon and talked to town counsel about it and they thought it would prudent, if we actually accepted the contracts in open meeting, as opposed to executive session.” For the whole story, see John Penny’s post on 959 WATD. 
• The McPherson School building is an old Illinois building  with an incredibly rich history. The building will be on the receiving end of a million dollar infrastructure improvement project. The funds will be dispersed by the Illinois Local School Council (LSC).  According to Patrick Boylan, “Our biggest complaint about McPherson is there is a corporate culture apparent that wants secrecy.” He maintains, “The price for those public dollars should be greater transparency at McPherson. Alone, of the LSCs examined by The Bulldog, McPherson has no records available to the public. It puts hurdles up to public access and it may be responsible, in part, for the decision by CPS to restrict public access to LSC election information. That culture of mistrust must change.” He calls on the Local School Council to make their process more transparent by disclosing meeting minutes and agendas online and making meetings more inclusive to the public. For his take, check out his post on the Wells Park Bulldog. 

In our continued effort to highlight the anniversary of January 2010's Citizens United decision, all of this month's weekly roundups will  take a look at what local bloggers across the country are saying about the ruling. Last week, we took a look at bloggers from the primary states. This week, we'll be rounding up blogs from the East coast states, where many campaign donations derive.

• Vermont State Senator Bernie Sanders has just proposed the "Saving American Democracy Amendment" aimed at overturning the Citizens United decision. In a statement, Sanders maintained, “There comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment.” He called the court's ruling "a complete undermining of democracy.” Sanders launched an online petition to garner support for the Amendment. Sanders is bringing the proposal before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by  Senator Patrick Leahy. A Leahy spokesman said that while Leahy supports attempts to undo the damage of the Citizens United, he remains skeptical that the Senate will be able to gather the two-thirds super majority necessary to pass Sanders' proposal. The issue appears to have gained local traction in Vermont; Ben & Jerry’s ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield sponsored a well attended public forum to lend to gather public support for Sanders’ amendment. For more on this story, check out  Shay Totten's post on Seven Days. 

Earlier we wrote about how Maine was moving towards listening to calls for transparency. Now, we are happy that other open government supporters especially those with grassroot foundations based in the state, have stocked up enough fire to prompt the drafting of better legislation. This is not to say that the journey is over. When we each play our role in our individual capacity, its only a matter of time before the grip of graft weakens and ultimately frees the public to demand for accountability from their government.

• The Maine Heritage Policy Center and the Maine Civil Liberties Union has teamed up with other transparency supporters to take on barriers to open government in the state. They are proposing a new bill that would improve Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. The LD 1465 will, among other things, ensure that public is notified about public meetings at least 3 days before they are to happen while setting time limits for government to comply with Freedom of Access Act requests. The bill, which recently had its first hearing, was received with mixed reactions from the crowd in attendance, but Sam Adolphsen blogs that most of its opponents were working in or lobbying for government. See how he breaks down supporters and opposers of the LD 1465 on Maine Freedom Forum.

• The state of Florida has launched a mobile version of its website. Mixing some caffeine with her law degree, Sarah Rumpf tested the site and is raving about how the House of Florida is literally now in the palm of your hands. The site, which lets you navigate session times, committee members and find your representatives, was first mentioned by Peter Schorsch . You can visit the web version here. Read more on Sunshine State Sarah.

• Rhode Island is now posting their assembly committee votes online. The Committee votes help residents select a committee they are interested in and reveals details of each vote and how members of a specific committee are selected. The votes will be available either the day of the hearing or after, and can now be accessed at this website. Randal Edgar shares more on Projo Politics blog.

• South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant is planning to computerize the state’s campaign finance records so that donations will be searchable by donor. Gant hopes to lead by example (he currently posts all his campaign finance reports online) by changing the presently disorganized form of posting reports from flat, non-searchable PDF formatted documents into a dynamic database much like OpenSecrets.org’s Donor Lookup. Cory Heidelberger, who feels no obligation to play nice to small town politicians, is commending the Secretary for this move. See how on Madville Times.

• Efforts to review Illinois’ redistricting reform may have failed last year, but David Yepsen is reminding us that there is still time. His post “Consider California, Florida Redistricting Models”, raises hope that if redistricting is done by commissions and without consideration to party registrations or residency, just as the two states are doing, then the likelihood of drawing district lines in favor of one party will be eliminated. Whichever option the state chooses, Yepsen advises legislators to conduct a transparent process that restores public trust from the voters. More on A Tie to Politics.

Last week the U.S. Public Interest Research Group published a transparency scorecard for every state in the country that assessed their ability to publish their spending online. The scorecard map operates on the belief that there is a new standard for accountability and accessibility, one where spending records are searchable and detailed online.

The 'Following the Money 2011' study [pdf link] classified nine states as "leading states" that published detailed information on grants and economic activities of the government online, even publicizing tax expenditures. Most fell into the "emerging states" category where basic steps were taken to supply residents with less granular information or did not make the data searchable. Finally, the "lagging states" section highlighted the ten least transparent states who did not populate their websites with relevant spending information and Maine doesn't even allow public access to their data. The study notes that there is no partisan leaning between states that excel or fail to provide citizens with this data.

As the press clamors to champion or chide their governments, we hope the states continue to study up on this subject and improve their standings next year. It also couldn't hurt to move the goals posts a little farther too - putting your checkbooks online is a pretty obvious homework assignment for this year kids.

Be sure to look up how your state ranks on the Following the Money map and encourage them to continue the work.

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 Texas, Michigan, and Maine.

Texas Watchdog reports on a loophole in Texas personal financial disclosure filings.  Spouses of elected officials do not have to be included in disclosure filings.  Considering that spouses could have considerable wealth and influence, this loophole should be eliminated.  Spouses could have investments that are affected by policy and potential conflicts of interest should be made public.

In Michigan, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood highlights an OpenSecrets.org article on donations made to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee by the insurance industry. Rep. Mike Rogers is on the committee and is the fourth highest beneficiary of donations .  The post notes that even though Rep. Rogers was elected in 2000 he is prominently placed on the insurance industry's radar.

In Maine, Union Maine posts about Congresswoman Pingee answers some questions they sent to the Maine congressional delegation.  The blog asked her office a few questions about their health care: "What does it cost? How much do they pay? How much do we pay for them? ."   Rep. Pingee is the only office in Maine that responded to Union Maine's questions.  The post goes into more information about congressional health care coverage.  It is a great example of how members of Congress can gain points by answering constituent questions.  It really is that easy.

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, Virginia, Maine, and California. In Oklahoma, the McCarville Report Online posts about State Senator Kenneth Corn’s amendment to ban lobbyists from being hired by state agencies.  His amendment was successfully added a bill that would ban state funds being used to pay for lobbying.

Virginia’s Tertium Quids writes about how the state bill that would create a state spending online database has been approved by the State House Science and Technology Committee only to be moved to the Appropriations Committee in order to assess its financial impact.  The financial impact on transparent state finances this will be a hard one to figure out.

JonB at Turn Maine Blue has a post about the Web site Maine set up to monitor what it spends from the stimulus.  JonB asks people to take a critical look at the site and give feedback on its user experience.   Good for Maine for taking the first step and setting up a space to disclose where the stimulus money is going.  This is definitely a step in the right direction.  Mainers should head to it and give some good feedback on how the site can be improved.

In California, the Liberal OC has a post about State Rep. Jose Solorio being lobbyied on Facebook.  Rep. Solorio updated his status saying he was reviewing the budget and people commented on his wall and status with feed back.  A pretty interesting way to lobby a lawmaker.