This week's round-up highlights some major issues affecting state transparency from the East Coast to the Pacific. Here is a quick look at the topics that made news:
- Residents of Santa Ana City are concerned about the closed-door meetings held by their city council. CalAware Today reports here that these closed sessions critically prevent public comment.
- Incoming Honolulu city mayor, Peter Carlisle will have a tough challenge in attempting to enforce a citywide public disclosure of rail contracts. As Ian Lind of the iLind.net blogs, the city needs some help getting its transparent policies in line with its actions.
- Jennifer Pebbles of Texas Watch dog critiques public officials who use transparency as a weapon towards their opponents yet fail to be transparent themselves. She emphasized that transparency should be a genuine goal for all public officials.
- Fort Collins city council in Colorado is not using the public email account specifically set up to help residents access information about their council members. Amy Oliver Cooke of Colorado Spending Transparency considers the city’s lack of transparency in official communications.
- Still in Nevada, we discover how publicizing overpaid government employee information can be a way of promoting accountability in government. Eric Davis showed how the cities of Laughlin and Pahrump made the list of overpaid public employees. (Bell, California, anyone?) Transparent Nevada has more.
