CalAware Today

On a bipartisan 51-0 vote the state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill allowing local government bodies under the Brown Act to meet privately with the Governor, reports Judy Lin for the Associated Press. The bill is being carried by Republican Assemblyman Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita as a favor to Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich.  The supervisor persuaded his colleagues to tell the county’s lobbyists to seek the legislation less than a week after Californians Aware sued the county for violation of the Brown Act on … Continue Reading

The California Public Utilities Commission, which for years has been allowed to receive information from gas, electric and other regulated industries without having to share it with the public, is reacting to political aftershocks from a huge gas leak explosion in a San Bruno residential neighborhood in 2010 by announcing it will seek an end to most of its traditional secrecy.  Marisa Lagos reports for the San Francisco Chronicle. Continue Reading

California’s recent D-minus for transparency in state government was awarded not just because it has no official agency assigned to police violations of the open government laws. It’s at least as much because in an era when state of the art transparency is coming to mean full display of financial information on “checkbook” Internet sites, California is not even trying. John Diaz explains in the San Francisco Chronicle. Continue Reading

A Los Angeles judge has ruled that the public has a right to know the performance evaluations of deputy district attorneys seeking the top job in an election—if the evaluations are positive. The Metropolitan News-Enterprise reports. Continue Reading

The late I.F. Stone was a legend among fellow journalists, who gave him high praise for keeping a close eye on official Washington, D.C. But his admirer’s did not follow his example, which did not depend on a fierce competition for “access” to “informed sources” but rather a quiet, patient and tedious-seeming technique: He simply read publicly available government documents that few if any others did and reported what he discovered in his newsletter.

As this year’s Sunshine Week stirs proclamations and manifestos stressing the need for open government, it’s easy to forget that transparency assumes a citizenry that cares enough to scrutinize that which is made available. But how often do we encounter such persistent, painstaking watchdogs, with steady attention to open information rather than a clamor for details concerning a particular controversy, after which keen interest in public issues fades?  And how reassuring, even inspiring it is when we do come across the few who seem to pay close and constant attention to what public records show—and who share what they find interesting with the rest of us, not for pay but out of a sincere sense of public service? Consider this remarkable citizen profiled by Sena Christian in the Roseville Press Tribune (photo by Philip Wood). Continue Reading