Transparency News 6/8/16

State and Local Stories

ICYMI, dates/times of upcoming FOIA Council and subcommittee meetings. Note that there is one change in date from the last time I posted these -- meetings that had been scheduled for the 22nd have been rescheduled for the 23rd.
 

FOIA COUNCIL

Thursday June 23 - 10:30 AM - House Room D
Monday July 18 - 1:30 PM - House Room C
Monday September 19 - 1:30 PM - House Room C
Monday October 17 - 1:30 PM - House Room C
Monday November 21 - 1:30 PM - House Room C 

RECORDS SUBCOMMITTEE

Thursday June 23 - 1:30 PM - House Room D
Wednesday July 20 - 10:30 AM - House Room C 

MEETINGS SUBCOMMITTEE

Monday July 18 - 10:30 AM - House Room C
Thursday August 11 - 1:30 PM - House Room C

National Stories
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New York's taxpayer-funded weather system has dropped its $250 fee for data requests after Syracuse.com pointed out that policy might violate the state's Freedom of Information Law. The weather system, called the New York State Mesonet, also dropped many restrictions on the data after the story ran Friday morning. Before Friday, the data access policy of the weather detection  system required almost everybody to pay $250 to get any archived data, even it was just a single reading of wind speed or temperature. The policy had also set limits on how the information could be used by the media, among others. (Newspapers could print it, for example, but couldn't put the data online.) After the story, however, most of that that policy was scrubbed clean from the weather network's website.
Syracuse.com

Even as smartphone mapping apps have become ubiquitous, many Americans still rely on paper maps issued by state transportation departments. After all, paper maps don’t disappear when you lose wireless signal. Putting together a state highway map is no easy task. It involves plotting and updating thousands of miles of roads as well as the names and locations of landmarks like cities, parks, colleges and hospitals. But one state has figured out a way to automate much of that task, which means maps are more accurate and more up-to-date. Missouri is believed to be the first state to draw its highway maps using GIS technology -- a standard for displaying geographic information that can be shared easily -- rather than commonly used CAD ("computer aided design") files, which are more proprietary. Other states are following suit.
Governing

A proposed change in financial rules would shed more light on what the federal government gives up in tax breaks to state and local governments. If approved, it could provide ammunition to groups that want to reduce those benefits as a way of eliminating the federal budget deficit. Justin Marlowe, a Governing contributor and public finance professor at the University of Washington, says the change "would draw more attention to the particularly big areas of deductions and exemptions," and help critics of those expenditures make a case for getting rid of them. The new accounting proposal, however, isn’t meant to attack any of the federal government's tax breaks. It simply aims to give those tax policies context, said FASAB Chairman D. Scott Showalter.
Governing

With technical barriers soon to be cleared away, all that remains is working out access policies for the public to get court records online just as easily as at the courthouse. This was the consensus in remarks Monday (6) at a candidates’ forum sponsored by the Council for Court Excellence at the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law featuring four judges under consideration to be the next chief judge of the D.C. Superior Court—Judith Bartnoff, Erik Christian, Robert Morin and Hiram Puig-Lugo. The fifth candidate, current chief judge Lee Satterfield, did not attend the forum and did not address the question in his prepared statement read to the audience.
D.C. Open Government Coalition

Editorials/Columns

In theory, a state ethics commission would curb questionable behavior and unseemly practices by elected officials. Such a council could resolve questions and quandaries involving lawmakers and public workers. It could define the gray areas of operating in the public sphere. Its very presence could even act as a deterrent to unethical behavior. All of that, however, depends on a few basic principles. An effective ethics council must be fair. It must be transparent. It must engender public trust and confidence. And violations must have consequences. These measures are worth a review, especially in light of some decisions handed down recently by the bodies in Virginia and North Carolina.
Virginian-Pilot