Open Meetings

  District government officials agreed this Sunshine Week that they have made progress toward increasing transparency, but concede they still have room to improve. Read more »

  In an Nov. 28 letter to Robert Spagnoletti, chair of the D.C. Board of Ethics and Public Accountability, the Coalition reported findings regarding public bodies' compliance with the Open Meetings Act since it took effect in April 2011. Of the five bodies surveyed, Kathy Patterson, Coalition president, said:first-year compliance with basic requirements of the law was very mixed, and there were major gaps. Read more »

  In a Nov. 28 letter, Kathy Patterson, Coalition chair, cited the D.C. State Board of Education's failure to comply with basic requirements of the Open Meetings Act which became effective April 1, 2011. She told Laura M. Slover, Board chair, that in the statute's first year, the Board of Education has not fulfilled its responsibilities to keep the public informed about its meetings. Read more »

  When the D.C. Council Government Operations Committee met June 25 to vet the mayor's nominees to the Ethics and Government Accountability Board, Coalition President Thomas M. Susman advocated appointment, long overdue, of a director for the Open Government Office created in December 2010. The Freedom of Information and Open Meetings statutes are not the new board's main focus, but the Coalition wanted to highlight the importance of government transparency as a means of bolstering ethics in government.

  Susman told the committee: Read more »

  In an order issued on his first day in office Mayor Vincent C. Gray said “My Administration is committed to creating a transparent and open government that extends to all departments, agencies, boards, commissions and offices of the District government.” Less than 18 months later he proposed legislation that would seriously limit the information available to the public and make it easier for agencies to delay or avoid disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Read more »

At a roundtable on proposed ethics and accountability legislation Nov. 30, the D.C. Open Government Coalition sought amendments to a provision that would establish the District's Open Government Office within a new Ethics Board. Robert Becker, chair of the Government Relations Committee, praised Council Member Muriel Bowser's effort to stand up the Office through her bill. But he warned that, as currently drafted, the bill would cause confusion, lead to pointless litigation over access to records and meetings, and would weaken enforcement of transparency laws. Read more »