Georgia

September 29, 2008: The Georgia Public Policy Foundation (GPPF) announced the launch of a new interactive transparency website that tracks education spending for the state's 180 school systems. See the Show Me the Spending update, 10/01/08 for the full story.

Library board work session appears to have violated open meetings law
September 26, 2008: Coweta Library Board Attorney Pat McKee reiterated Wednesday that last week's private board work session was legal, but he refused to back up his assertion with any explanation or legal citation.

The work session appears to have been held in violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act. Read the full article here.

Library trustees call meeting for today
September 23, 2008: Under Georgia open meetings laws, all meetings of government bodies must be open to the public. The library board is subject to the law.

A closed session, often known as an executive session, is legal, but only for specific purposes. Those are: to discuss personnel issues, to discuss acquisition or sale of real estate, and to discuss pending or potential litigation. To qualify for the litigation exemption, there must be a valid threat of litigation. Read the full article here.

Taxpayers push for public records
September 19, 2008: A judge has ruled against a taxpayer activist group, but the Association for Fair Government isn't giving up.

In an Open Records lawsuit involving access to public records in the city of Augusta's Procurement Department, Judge Carl C. Brown Jr. ruled last week in the city's favor. He ruled the documents the association was requesting were actually a compilation. Read the full article here.

Transparency & Government

• Ten point checklist for statewide organizations
• Georgia government corruption
• Georgia Transparency Legislation

School Districts

• Georgia School Districts
• Georgia Department of Education
• Georgia School Spending

FOIA Laws

• FOIA procedures
• Past FOIA requests in Georgia

Blogging resources

• Georgia blogs

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