Tie federal grant money eligibility to basic open government standards
I think the Obama administration should come up with some basic standards for open government (full FOIA compliance, robust record keeping of all hearings and meetings conducted by government at state & local levels, default posting of all public records online in a reasonable period of time) and make meeting these standards a pre-condition for eligibility for federal funds. I live in Chicago and the city government ...more »
I think the Obama administration should come up with some basic standards for open government (full FOIA compliance, robust record keeping of all hearings and meetings conducted by government at state & local levels, default posting of all public records online in a reasonable period of time) and make meeting these standards a pre-condition for eligibility for federal funds.
I live in Chicago and the city government does not even keep minutes of committee hearings as required by IL state law because of their lack of commitment to open government. Some federal funding to subsidize the transition to open record keeping (carrot) and the prospect of losing federal funding for failure to conduct business in the sunshine (stick) would go a long way towards nudging state and local government into the daylight, where citizens can then make better communities.
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