The End of Session
The General Assembly’s session has officially wrapped up. The single best roundup of all the disclosure and FOIA bills that were considered this session is hosted by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Here are a few we found noteworthy.
- Bob Marshall’s (R-Loudoun) bill to double the fines for FOIA violations passed.
- Sal Iaquinto’s (R-Virginia Beach) bill to put requests for proposal and invitations to bid online was successful.
- Sen. Toddy Puller’s (D-Mount Vernon) bill to clarify FOIA enforcement passed.
- Sen Walter Stoch’s (R-Glen Allen) bill to create a state inspector general passed.
Virginia
- The Virginia Coalition for Open Government details events for Sunshine Week, March 13-19.
- The Coalitions latest Sunshine Report is now online.
- Blue Virginia drew our attention to the City Forward initiative, a tool that pulls in government data from cities around the country and allows users to create detailed graphs.
Around the Country
- Government Technology has honored 25 “Doers, Dreamers and Drivers” in the field of public sector technology. All of the honorees are doing fascinating work on bringing government into the modern age, but especially noteworthy here in Virginia is the inclusion of the CIO of Chesterfield County, Barry Condrey.
- Nieman Journalism Lab had a fascinating piece on public crime data and private companies. A recent legal settlement in Utah raises a troubling precedent in cases where governments contract out publication of crime data to private companies.
- Sunlight Labs provides an update on the Open States project.
- The Sunlight Foundation has an interesting piece on advances in online financial transparency in Oregon.
