Our trip to Utah last month to deliver your letters to the National Governors Association (NGA) -- asking our governors to support open government -- was a first in many ways. As Laurenellen mentioned in her descriptive recap of the trip, the energetic press conference that culminated in a march to the conference venue may have ended with rejection from the NGA staffers, but not before we saw the power in real citizen engagement.

The day before, as a prelude to the press conference, we had a round-table chat with some of the key open government advocates in a session that had initially been designed to be a “watchdog training” but in fact turned out to be an intimate discussion on the issues surrounding transparency in Utah government. Nearly 20 leaders representing groups like the Utah Foundation for Open Government, Alliance for Better Utah, League of Women Voters, Common Cause and journalists came out to meet us. Over the course of our discussion it became clear that all seemed to agree on the need to increase the level of citizen engagement while involving legislators in partisan issues.

However, when it comes to engagement of lawmakers things get complicated when party lines are involved. We often say at Sunlight that the party out of power is the biggest supporter of transparency, and as Utah is primarily a one-party state, the incentives are low to implement open reforms. But this should not be the case. Parties in the majority should still be transparency supporters, and citizens have the power to remind folks on both sides of line that open government is a virtue. Though most of the legislators in Utah were noted to not be the most technology savvy (thus affecting their concept of electronic government), a suggestion to find a way to get modern (even) partisan leaders to support technology in government was well received. When incorporated with resources such as Facebook and Google Groups that help facilitate personal conversations to build understanding of otherwise complex issues like civic hacking and government data mashups, technology adaptation by both legislators and up-and-coming open government organizations can be made easier. Forming a common interest group provides a platform for discussion. The open secret here is to pull your resources and centralize them -- in other words, to organize.

One of the commendable cases of citizen organizing from Utah is the GRAMA campaign. If you look closely you will see that public records -- which are an issue of common interest across different civic communities -- helped bring people together in Utah. If it fits into the basket of common interest, then it goes into the realm of prioritization. But as the citizen effort to repeal the bill slaying GRAMA succeeded -- as the people won -- energy and activism around the issue of public records faded, leaving transparency advocates in the lurch.

Challenge: How do communities sustain interest in an issue after the crisis has passed?

The discussion with Utah’s transparency leaders revealed that the blogging community in Utah is fading. Political blogging in the state might have fizzled down because the audience for it has reduced. When bloggers are not concentrating on national issues and are jumping ship to become legislators (like Holly Richardson who is one of the state’s notable female political bloggers but is now an elected House representative), staying involved in local issues can be trying.

Some resources for both individuals and organizations to help build strength (and numbers) in their activist pools include:

• The Better Government Association’s educational tips on how to become a better watchdog.

• The CityCamp unconferences model: a great way to get out the local community around open government issues, find out who’s interested/invested in the space, and maybe even inspire a few new bloggers.
• The 10 Principles for Opening Up Government Information, a guide writte by Sunlight and several other #opengov groups which can be used for conversations about budget portals, public records databases, legislative data, campaign finance, etc.)

Other thoughts, ideas, and tips we shared at the meeting that may be helpful:

• When tackling specific legislation, getting violations of the law documented, especially on camera can create credibility and traction if you choose to send it to media. Here is an example from Sunlight’s home turf: DC.

• Sending out a report card/questionnaire to city councils on where they stand on specific open government issues can be a great way to get some attention for these issues. (OpenAustin did just that here).

• The Utah.gov campaign money in politics is supposed to be open but some values have N/A on where the money came from. How does your state website look like?

• Entrepreneurial journalism - a fancier term for journalism that involves reinvention of the trade, and for the citizen watchdog, an appropriate way to tell the story of local issues happening bearing in mind what the people --- formerly known as the audience-- would like to see. The Internet is now making it possible for anyone who can write, to be able to publish, so get going!

• Identify communities that have bad open government (public records laws) as projects which can bring people together. An example could be looking at the different types of public records responses to the same requests. Charles Davis offers more in his book Art of Access.

• As a follow up to problems identified in public records acquisition, people can merge a citizen network to educate themselves on how to submit a request. You could even create an informal document with tips on how to file effective public records requests just as The Utah Foundation for Open Government did. (Just make sure you put the resource in an easy to access location). Again, this is where the idea of creating a Google Group or listserv network comes in handy!

• Another suggested idea could be looking at how procurement codes are currently being regulated (or not) -- as is the case in Utah.

Do you have other tips to share? Join the discussion in the comments section.

Big thanks to Tubbytwoshoes for the awesome image.

Last week, a few Sunlighters and I journeyed to Salt Lake City, Utah to do something -- er, many things -- that we usually don’t do. For one, we definitely don’t walk into swanky hotels (like the Grand America) followed by about 40 people, many of whom are wearing shirts that say -- “WE DEMAND #OPENGOV” -- and attempt to speak with the governors staying there.

Our trip to the Grand America was driven by you -- especially if you’re a reader from the state of Utah. In March, inspired by events in the Beehive State, we wrote an open letter to governors (which you can see here) calling out the trend of governors playing tacit and overt roles in rolling back transparency legislation across the country. We said that, if you signed, we would deliver your letters to the National Governors Association (NGA). Thousands of you responded.

We went to Utah because the NGA went to Utah: July 15th was the first day of the NGA’s annual meeting, which just happened to be hosted in Salt Lake City this year. That same morning, Sunlight, in coordination with a coalition of Utahan open government activists and civic leaders, addressed the NGA in a press conference on the steps of the Scott Matheson Courthouse, a mere two(ish) blocks from the Grand America Hotel, the convention’s location.

The press conference featured statements from Maryann Martindale of the Alliance for a Better Utah, Linda Petersen of the Utah Foundation for Open Government, Sherilyn Benion of the League of Women Voters of Utah, Representative Brian King of Utah State Senate, Sunlight’s own Gabriela Schneider and yours truly. We stood with a crowd of about 50 others as we reviewed not just our “Open Letter to Governors,” asking for the rollbacks of transparency legislation to cease, but also the developments that have happened in Utah. (You can get a picture of how our press conference went down below. To watch the full event, check out the video at the end of this post.)

THE UTAH SPRING

HB 477. Those letters and numbers may or may not seem familiar to you, but if you live in the state of Utah, they’re infamous. HB 477, aka House Bill 477, is a piece of legislation that nearly derailed Utah’s public information law this past March.

Utahans love their GRAMA -- that is, the Government Records Access and Management Act, which HB 477 overturned -- and with good reason: GRAMA was the only law in the country that gave public access to state legislature records. (Most freedom of information (FOI) laws don’t apply to the legislative branch; our federal FOI Act, for example, only applies to federal agencies...) It was hailed by journalists and concerned citizens, activists and investigators. And when the state senate moved suddenly to repeal the law, people reacted.

And I don’t just mean they tweeted.

I mean that people got off the couch, out the door and stood outside the state capitol. You’ve heard of the Arab Spring? Well, this was the Utah Spring. Winter Thaw, even. People waking up to the value -- the personal value -- of open government legislation and taking action. Quang Dang, of SaveGRAMA.org was one of these people. Dang says he had never been active in politics before he became interested in advocating for his public records laws. He had seen how powerful the Internet could be in changing government through the events in the Middle East, and when the HB 477 hit, he felt compelled to act with that knowledge. When I asked him why he was motivated respond to the roll back of transparency laws in his state he looked confused.

“I don’t have a ‘motivation.’ I’m a concerned citizen. This is what I’m supposed to do.”

Citizen action and coordination didn’t just repeal HB 477. It prompted the creation of a bipartisan working group composed of members of new and old media, citizens, lawmakers and staff to review GRAMA and make suggestions for updating the legislation to meet multiple interests -- governed and governing alike.

In light of all this, it would be hard to think of a better state in the Union for the NGA to have picked to host its conference this year, at least from the POV of a group of activists looking to make a statement about the popular importance of state-level transparency legislation. Sure, Governor Gary Herbert’s involvement in the transparency rollbacks amounted to little more than pen strokes -- one to sign HB 477 into law and one to repeal it -- but those pen strokes have immense consequences. And complacency in turning over open government laws is just as bad as pushing for them to be put into place.

THE OPEN LETTER

Although we organized the press conference, it wasn’t the Sunlight show. In fact, our presence there was to highlight two things: (1) that the open government rollbacks Utah has been fighting for months are not unique to Utah (we’re looking at you, Other 49 Governors of the US of A) and (2) that citizen response to transparency rollbacks aren’t “idle threats.” (We follow through.) The majority of the time was devoted to listening to Utahans speak about the progress that has been made and the work and vigilance required to see that progress through. To learn more about Utah and to get some inspiration for thinking about your home state, I encourage you to listen to their full statements in the video below.

The press conference ended with energy, not anger. Our presence was never meant to be an assault on the governors or the National Governors Association, but rather, an invitation. In the weeks leading up to our trip and the conference, we’d been in contact with the NGA three separate times, requesting information about the schedule (turns out, it’s private!), permission to deliver the open letters and to alert governors to the opportunity to address the crowd. The response was a polite, but firm version of, “No, but have you considered emailing each governor’s office?”

We told you we’d deliver your letters to NGA, so, at the end of the press conference, nearly 10AM on a Friday morning, we took that morning stroll I mentioned earlier. I imagine we were quite the sight for the swarms of security hovering around the entrance of the Grand America: a merry, but calm, band of opengov-ers, strolling right through the front door of the hotel, weaving down the lush hallways to get to the registration table for the NGA meeting. Needless to say, they were not pleased to meet us and did not take the "letters" (USB cards!) that we had in hand. Instead, they asked us to leave.

We did. But we didn’t leave those USB cards behind. We mailed them. It took a few more days than I expected (the perils of wrangling envelopes!), but soon, every governor’s office in the USA will receive a copy of the open letter and the signatures of those who support this petition.

WHAT NOW

At the podium last Friday, Linda Petersen of the Utah Foundation for Open Government, and well-known leader in the fight against HB 477, declared that in delivering the letter with us, her organization and the individuals and others gathered that day were reiterating the statement that defined the Utahan defense of GRAMA:

“No more. Bring the work out into the sunlight and let us judge for ourselves.”

Keeping public information accessible to the public -- free, open and online -- is critical to any system of government accountability. The “Open Letter” that we brought with us to Utah and that will soon land on the desks of governor’s (staff) all around the country isn’t a panacea that will ensure that public information remains open from here on. But, signing that letter and demanding the security of our right to know -- our free access to information -- is a necessary first step in securing greater wins in government transparency. We can’t expect government officials to act in our best interests if we don’t define what we value, how we want to be governed or what legislation we need to be better citizens.

In the few months since we wrote the Open Letter, some states have seen change for the better and new states have had change for the worse. You can read more about these developments here, but that’s not all you can do. You can also call your governor. At http://sunlightfoundation.com/openletter, we’ve made it easy for you to connect with the leader of your state. Take a page from the activists in Utah and realize that by telling your governor that the kind of government you want is one that’s open in practice -- not just in promise -- you can have an impact.

Stand up for transparency in your state. Tell your governor to stop rolling back transparency and to start thinking bigger.

Several months ago, we noticed a trend in states rolling back transparency legislation. Disturbed, we put up a campaign to call attention to it. In the months since then, here's an update:

In Utah, Governor Gary Herbert made a call to repeal and replace HB477 and a working group comprising of journalists, the public and representatives from the governor's office met to offer recommendations basing on 36 policy questions. The recommendations are currently being reviewed by the governor's office. Meanwhile, in Maine, Governor Paul Lepage put on hold his plans to establish a business advisory council whose activities would be exempt from the state's Freedom of Access Act.

But Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker went back on his promise of not keeping the public in the dark about their government.

AND we started learning about problems that were even more widespread. Fresh on the transparency rollback list are Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Montana and Washington State. This reinforces our desire to see even more transparency from our governors.

This week, we'll be delivering the "Tell your governor to support open government" letter with your signatures to the National Governors Association to make sure every governor knows that transparency isn't just a campaign promise -- it's fundamental to a healthy democracy.

   

Today we introduce and welcome Jason Williams as our guest blogger. Jason is a Political activist and blogger on both local and national issues since 2005. He also hosts a daily afternoon political talk program in Northern Utah.

With a 21-7 vote, the Utah State Senate last week approved an overhaul of the state's Government Records and Access Management Act (GRAMA). HB477 would shield lawmakers' voicemail, text messages, instant messages possibly even email from public record. Only one Republican voted against the bill. Senate sponsor Sen. Lyle Hillyard explained in an email exchange with a constituent his reason for co-sponsoring the bill:

Some people who know me don't know there is a difference and some think that when I am out of the office that my senate e-mail is the only way to contact me. Our staff is tired of the threats from the media and we plan on working with them if they want after the bill is passed if there are changes to be made but let's do it without threats of going to court.

First introduced in a surprise hearing by House sponsor Rep. John Dougall, the bill would also allow agencies to charge "professional rate" fees for requests, and guide courts to seek a "preponderance of evidence" justifying a releasing documents. The current GRAMA law instructs courts to focus on the public benefit of release. The bill passed the house 61-12 on Thursday, and the Senate less than 24 hours later so as to avoid, in the words of Senate President Michael Waddoups, letting it "fester" over the weekend. Sen. Hillyard declared proudly, "I'm doing this for future legislatures!". The House released this statement after final passage:

A core concern with GRAMA is the distinction between a conversation and a record. When GRAMA was created it wasn’t fathomed that day-to-day conversations would be considered as records. But what you and we now consider a digital conversation is now considered public record: text messages, voice mails, instant message logs. If that’s the case, why not just mic up every elected official and the tens of thousands of public employees across the state? Not only is it an impossible task, it’s also a gross invasion of privacy. And so we come to Rep. John Dougall and House Bill 477. The bill resets GRAMA with today’s technology in mind and clarifies legislative intent where court decisions have swung the pendulum dangerously far in one direction.

The Senate majority issued a statement, as well as the audio of Rep. Dougall's bill introduction. Lawmakers quickly moved on to controversial immigration reform bills, hoping to regain control of the narrative.

What they didn't count on was an enraged public.  This bill has drawn criticism from both progressive and conservative state organizations. Even Eagle Forum president Gayle Ruzicka, normally kind to the legislature, said "I hated the process," and called parts of the bill "outrageous."

Reaction was broad, bipartisan and decidedly against the changes proposed. By Monday morning, the Governor's office had been flooded with calls and emails demanding a veto of the bill, an online petition had garnered nearly 1,000 signatures in a matter of hours, and two separate rallies had been planned for the final few days of the legislative session. Even after veto threat from Governor Herbert resulted in a rare recall of HB477 to change the implementation date a rally organized on Facebook by local blogger Bob Aagard drew more than 150 protesters to the Capital Rotunda. But that night, the Governor signed the bill into law, promising a non-binding "work group" will be formed to consider amendments before implementation. The Utah Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists responded:

Perhaps worst of all, HB477 strips from Utah’s public records law language stating clearly that government records are presumed to be public and that the burden is on government to show why records should not be disclosed. This is critical language, language recognized by the statutes or common law of every state in the country.

“With one scribble of a pen, the governor made his state the most secretive in the nation, as well as more backward than most countries, including Mexico and Albania,” said SPJ FOI Committee chairman David Cuillier. “This will price citizens out of their government, encourage corruption and online sweetheart deals, and embolden those who would undermine democratic principles.

Legislators have responded to the backlash from transparency advocates, angry voters and journalists by scapegoating local media as unable to report objectively on the issue, accusing the public of not understanding the bill, and anecdotal misleading justification for the changes. Bill sponsors Dougall and Hillyard have said they only seek to protect legislators' private communications. What they don't explain is that the current law already does.

HB477 represents an arrogant legislative body placing their own position and power above the right of citizens to know what business is done in their name. In a state already challenged by one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country, Utah legislators have acted selfishly and in bad faith, placing themselves above increasing the confidence of Utah voters in the integrity of their public institutions.

A second rally is planned at the Capitol tonight, the final night of the 2011 legislative session, at 6pm, and a citizen referendum petition to completely repeal the law has been filed with the Attorney Generals office. With the Governor's signature, HB477 is set to take effect July 1st.

The Utah Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Utah League of Women Voters are hosting an HB477: What's Next? event to build a strategy:

Utah SPJ/League of Women Voters Sunshine Week event:

"HB477 May As Well be Law - Now What"? March 17, 7 p.m. Salt Lake City Library, Lower level, Rooms A&B

More resources:

On Facebook: Repeal Utah House Bill 477 and Utah's Right to Know. Shine a Light on Government Rally.

Organizations: Utah Society of Professional Journalists and RCFP Utah.

Local coverage:  The Salt Lake Tribune and The City Weekly.

For more of Jason’s work, check out these blogs: (Utah) The SideTrack (National) MyDD (Radio) Host, KVNU's For the People

The health care debate is raging on, and a big part of it includes having versions of the bill available so people can Read the Bill.   The great thing about having the bill online for everyone to see is that citizens will start looking for the  substantive details of the legislation themselves and add value to the debate.

Citizens of Montana, the home state of Sen. Max Baucus, have been busy reading their senator's proposed bill.  Left in the West has been looking into the bill and comparing what people are saying about what the bill contains.

Frankly, the more I look at this thing, the more it's obvious we need both a public option and to open the health insurance exchange to everyone. If you want a better analysis of this bill, got to Jay Rockefeller, who says this is what's wrong with the bill:

• CHIP is put into the exchange.

• No public option.

• Already existing policies from big companies not affected by new regulations. You read that right! Almost half of the nation's consumers will have no protection from pre-existing condition clauses or lifetime caps!

• Affordability.

See, that's the thing. If you have crappy, employer-provided insurance, you have to keep it. As Baucus' bill is written now, you can't ditch it for something better in the exchange. That's unacceptable.

Anyway. Still reading this thing.

Also in Utah, The Side Track has taken up the task of answering state Sen. Chris Buttars' questions about the health care bill by actually reading the bill.  See their answers here, here, here, and here.

For those of you who missed it, Sen. Chris Buttars has questions. ...

I'll be honest, I thought we were taking on quite a challenge. 1,000 plus pages really isn't that large for a piece of legislation (Bush's final budget was over 1,300 pages long... and speaking of which, did Buttars print that one out on the tax payer's dime too?), but it is a challenge for several bloggers with many other obligations. We assumed.

We assumed wrong. In fact, it's been embarrassingly easy, and a bit of a bore, as research challenges go.

No matter where you stand, the debate is always better when you take actual details from the bill, instead of hearsay.  This is why every bill should be available for 72 hours. Call your congressman today and ask them to sign the discharge petition for H. Res 554.

Some open government/transparency posts from around the web:

The Food and Drug Administration, in conjunction with their Transparency Task Force, launched a transparency blog to discuss ways to make their operations more open to the public.

The White House is asking for more help on the Open Government Directive. They are looking for people to tell them the "three most important pieces of information you think every agency should be required to disclose about its operations." Also, they are seeking input on how the private sector could help the government mash up data.

Utah launched a new state government web site that looks very cool. Let us know in the comments what you think about this as a state government portal.

And in today's least surprising news, contracting in Iraq is plagued by a lack of oversight and corruption.

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.

Several states are starting to get pressured to strengthen ethics laws after several incidents of corruption.  Major ethics changes are being pursued in New York, Massachusetts, Utah, and New Jersey.

In New York, reform groups want more disclosure regarding state lawmakers personal finances.  Right now lawmakers are part time and are allowed to have outside jobs.  While it is required that they report the source of the outside income, the actual income is presented in ranges not specifics.  Critics say that by not allowing for more scrutiny of where lawmakers are getting their money it can never be determined if they are truly working for the citizens that elect them.  Lawmakers say that more disclosure of personal finances would intrude privacy and could deter people from running for office.

In New Jersey, Gov. Corzine has introduced an ethics reform package, which focus on campaign contributions and local ethics laws.  The package includes measures that will be passed through executive order.  In response a State Sens. Kean, Oroho and Batemen have introduced legislation that they say will fill the loopholes by requiring contribution limits by individuals, as well as, PACs.

Massachusetts has been rocked by a major bribery case involving State Senator Dianne Wilkerson (Who I happened to have interned with when I was in college.)  There is a lot of debate going on as to what the next step to tighten ethics issues in the state legislature should be.  The state's lobbying laws conflict with each other about the amount a lobbyist can gift to a legislator.  The Secretary of State has no subpeona power to enforce regulations and reporting requiremesnt are narrow.  These loopholes let lobbyists make a lot of money in Massachuestts so the state has a lot of clean up to do.

In Utah, the state legislature is considering broad ethics reforms after several allegations of bribery.  State legislators are trying to get campaign donations to be more transparent, prevent lawmakers from using campaign funds for personal purposes and possibly creating an independent commission to deal with ethics violations.

From Municipalist

As more states investigate use of YouTube as a multimedia portal (see California and Virginia), the state of Utah is working at building its own video platform. Dave Fletcher, the State of Utah's Chief Technology Officer, says he is not only excited about Utah GovCast as it is, but about its potential. "More is happening," he says simply. Is it ever.

"The site now provides a video search for several hundred videos as well as access to almost 30 different multimedia channels in Utah government," Fletcher told Municipalist.

"Previously video content on Utah.gov had been uncoordinated and difficult to find," Fletcher said. "We wanted to create a home for multimedia content that would eliminate this problem.

"We hope eventually to get everyone using a more standard format which will allow us to move to an even more visually appealing functional site in the future. We are also developing a better coordinated Utah.gov YouTube site that will be available in the near future.

"At the same time, we hoped to gain some momentum with agencies by making it easy for them as well to see what others are doing and benefit from their ideas." Fletcher recommended these videos: Wasatch Fault Flyby,  Utah Is the Answer, and Utah Golf. Fletcher pointed out that Utah also has various YouTube channels which are somewhat consolidated here.

This is very cool. I hope make the videos embeddable and downloadable.  After Congress finally loosened its YouTube restrictions it is great to the states moving in a positive direction as well.  Excellent work Utah.  Can I suggest calling it Utahbe!