A couple of disputes surrounding state public information practices by school districts have recently shone light on the precarious balance between transparency and public safety as well as between transparency and government operational costs. In Vermont, a lawsuit filed by Addison Rutland Supervisory Union against a student parent over a
A recent article in the University of Illinois independent student newspaper The Daily Illini, cited an increase in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the University. Kathy McCarthy, Assistant Director of the FOIA administration, mentioned that with the increasing requests there is an increase “with the amount of work required to
In Michigan, State Representative Amanda Price has proposed an amendment to the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that will allow building permit records and information related to single and two family homes to be exempt from the FOIA. The proposed amendment reads, “A public body shall exempt from disclosure records
The City of Victoria has applied to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia to cap the number of requests for information made by three individuals associated with Focus magazine, and anyone working on their behalf. If granted, the magazine’s team would collectively be limited to one active
Government travel costs are hitting the news again as Bloomberg News reports this week that “only about half [of the 57 major federal agencies] provided the records and costs” required under the Freedom of Information Act when Bloomberg News filed requests for the out-of-town travel records for fiscal year 2011 for
The ongoing controversy involving a former University of Virginia professor and his work on climate change has reached an interesting, if temporary, conclusion. A Virginia judge ruled earlier this week that Michael E. Mann’s email correspondence regarding global warming was exempt from the Virginia FOIA. The American Tradition Institute has
On his first day in office in 2009, President Obama issued a memo to federal agencies emphasizing the importance of administering the FOIA in favor of openness. The memo opened with a statement committing the Obama administration to “creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.” However, as a recent evaluation by
Amsterdam-based design and research firm Metahaven has developed a social media service, called Nulpunt (“zero-point”), on which users can access, share, comment and collaborate on public documents. The goal of this service is increased government transparency and accountability. The online database of FOIA’d documents functions like a social RSS reader; users
As a recent alumna of the University of Virginia, I have no doubt been following the recent controversy over the sudden and surprising ouster of our most recent president, Teresa Sullivan, who was in office for a mere two years before the Board of Visitors, the governing body of the
A woman has won a lawsuit that was filed against the Jacksonville Police Department. The lawsuit filed in September 2010, claims that the police department did not properly respond to her FOIA requests. After being pulled over for speeding by the Jacksonville police on June 24, 2010, Partne Daugherty submitted a
