The New York State Committee On Open Government, led by Executive Director Robert Freeman is a great resource regarding New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) and New York’s Open Meetings Law. Mr. Freeman is very accessible by telephone, mail and e-mail and always willing to provide guidance to anyone with questions about accessing governmentRead… Read more »
The listing of police calls contained in the weekly Bee Newspapers in Western New York can be quite interesting. It is amazing what people will call the police for and what crazy situations people get themselves into. The Bee Newspaper published there best of the police blotter calls for 2012. My top favorites follow. WhichRead… Read more »
A culture of secrecy exists among local government officials The business of government should be conducted as openly and transparently as possible. Every organization has a culture, a predominating attitude and behavior by which it operates. Government officials are supposed to serve the interests of the public, yet many government entities including those at theRead… Read more »
The City of Washington DC has embraced social media tools such as blogs, twitter and facebook as a unique way to grade the performance of city departments on a monthly basis. In the first report card issued in June not one of the five initial agencies being graded scored higher than a C plus, basedRead… Read more »
Every state and just about every county has a child support collection office responsible for enforcing Court ordered child support. Receiving child support is critical for parents with custody of children. Child support income can prevent parents from being on public assistance and it can also result in reimbursing public assistance costs. States/counties looking toRead… Read more »
Through the leadership of Mayor Thomas Menino, the city of Boston tracks an extensive amount of data in an effort to answer three questions: 1) What is City government doing?2) How well are we doing it?3) How can we do it better? Since 2010, the City of Boston has created a Performance Management Scorecard forRead… Read more »
Public referendums are an interesting way to allow citizens to have a direct vote and say on a particular issue. At times referendum issues can get a little strange such as the recent Los Angeles vote on whether porn stars should be required to wear a condom in adult videos. Requiring the wearing of condomsRead… Read more »
Genuine conversations occur when people are truly interested in what you have to say. Some cities are genuinely interested in the ideas their employees and citizens have and they put forth an effort to communicate that interest. A recent Next American Cityarticle highlighted how some city’s have tapped into ideas from employees and citizens. PhiladelphiaRead… Read more »
Brian Sandoval had it made with a life time appointment as a federal judge. However, Sandoval walked away from his safe life time appointment to run for Governor of Nevada. After he won the Governor’s race in 2010, Sondoval walked into a tough situation: – Nevada had the nation’s highest unemployment rate– a crushed housingRead… Read more »
Control of the New York State Senate has been a bitter fight the past several years. With the number of Democratic and Republican seats being one close, control of the Senate has shifted by buying off individual legislators. After the 2010 elections in Oregon, the state legislature ended in a 30 to 30 tie betweenRead… Read more »