If a resident wants to know about a city construction project going on in her neighborhood, she can get information about it through an open records request.
If a parent wants to know how much school administrators are being paid in his child's school district, he can ask for that data.
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Read More… from How Rockwall- and Rowlett-area agencies scored on handling open records requests
Fort Bend District Attorney John Healey said Wednesday that he doesn't believe open government laws were broken when county officials refused to provide details about a wage increase proposal in advance of a vote by commissioners Tuesday and that he has no plans to bring charges in the matter.
"I haven't heard anything yet that leads me to believe the law has been violated," said Healey, the county's top prosecutor for more than two decades.
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Read More… from Fort Bend DA: Delayed information release didn’t break law
There is no better protection of our democracy than the public’s right to know — and its power to know — about the doings of its government.
Secrecy and darkness are the breeding ground of corruption and the succor of incompetence.
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New Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has appointed a veteran open-government expert to be the newly created position of open-government director for the state's General Land Office.
Hadassah Schloss had previously served as the General Land Office's records coordinator. She also was formerly the cost rules administrator for the Texas Attorney General's office.
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Read More… from Veteran open-government expert hired by General Land Office
The Board of Assessors should not have discussed former assessor John Speidel’s employment the way it did in an April 7 executive session, a state office has found, calling it a “serious violation of the Open Meeting Law.”
Board members should have given 48 hours notice before discussing Speidel’s performance and should have allowed Speidel to be present at the meeting if he chose to be, according to the state Attorney General’s Division of Open Government.
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Read More… from State says Arlington Board of Assessors violated Open Meeting Law
The open government track at the 2014 Texas Tribune Festival featured panel discussions on what legislators should disclose, open records, state budget transparency and "dark money" vs. donor privacy. Listen to audio from each session:
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Read More… from The Texas Tribune 2014 TribuneFest: Audio From the Open Government Track
Defending the U.S. Constitution is popular these days, when it centers on gun rights, states’ rights or search and seizure protections.
As we guard the principles of our nation’s founders, let’s not overlook the all-important First Amendment of the Constitution and its guarantee of free speech and free press, which, along with public access to government information, are crucial to our democracy.
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Read More… from GUEST VIEW: Open government essential to a democracy
Fulfilling a campaign promise by Mayor Betsy Price, Fort Worth is jumping on the open data government bandwagon. Last month, the city launched an online portal that provides direct access to a wellspring of public information.
Open data sites like the city’s new data.fortworthtexas.gov are based on the principle that government data is a public asset — like parks and roads — and should be made readily available to everyone.
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Read More… from City website a good first step toward government transparency
Vision Internet, innovators in online government, today announced the winners of its inaugural “What’s Next” Awards competition, which recognizes local government websites for excellence in five categories: transparency, citizen engagement, online innovation, green gov and visual impact.
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