Louisiana transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
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| Report It • | The Good • | The Bad • | The Ugly | |
The non-profit Riz Up! Louisiana received at least 2 contracts through the state Department of Social Services to aid their mission of teen pregnancy prevention. It also received earmarked money in the state budget, according to state documents obtained in response to a public-records act request that the The Pelican Institute submitted.
Problems within the department led the state to drop its contract with the non-profit earlier this year. Gov. Bobby Jindal has strict guidelines for financing such organizations, thus he vetoed $335,000 in budget earmarks for the current budget year and the preceding year.
"Non-profits provide a range of valuable services," said Pelican Institute president Kevin Kane. "But if they receive taxpayer support we should expect transparency and accountability. This is particularly important when the organization has ties to a legislator. We commend the Jindal Administration for increasing reporting requirements and vetoing more earmarks."
In 2007, the amount of state money flowing to the group jumped in 2007. The non-profit's former executive director, Regina Barrow, settled in to her position as state representative for District 29 in north Baton Rouge at this time. Barrow was elected in mid-2005 to fill the remainder of a term for the state and she was chosen to lead the Legislative Black Caucus in July of 2008. For several years, the agency had been getting about $110,000 a year, but in 2007, the figure rose to nearly $300,000. This was after Barrow's first full year in office.[1]
"A battle over open records laws expanded beyond the Legislature with the state Republican Party chairman requesting numerous records from a Democratic lawmaker critical of Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The Republican governor's administration on Wednesday helped squelch laws that backers said would make the workings of the governor's office more transparent. One would have made many public officials, including the governor, gather and include in a single report information on people they appointed to government positions who also gave them campaign contributions; the other was designed to make governor's office records subject to the same scrutiny as those of other public officials."
"With the backing of Gov. Bobby Jindal, a House committee killed a bill that would have opened nearly all records of the governor's executive office to public inspection, a move that the legislative sponsor said would bring real transparency to a state that touts the concept."
"State Rep. Wayne Waddell is again trying to pass legislation to get a look at Gov. Bobby Jindal's records.
Similar legislation by Waddell failed to gain enough support for passage. The Republican from Shreveport pre-filed House Bill 169 that he describes as allowing the public to 'peek behind the curtain' and 'see what the governor is hiding.'"
"In the latest twist in a bizarre City Hall drama, a judge has blocked the release of New Orleans City Council e-mail messages from the past three years that were sought under several public records requests received by Mayor Ray Nagin's administration.
At the request of attorneys for the City Council, Civil District Judge Kern Reese signed a temporary restraining order Monday that prohibits City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields from distributing the e-mail until an April 29 hearing is held on the matter."
"Gov. Bobby Jindal likes to brag about passing legislation that advances a gold standard for ethics in state government. Jindal also likes to promote himself as a standard-bearer of government transparency.
Advancing a high standard of ethics in government and promoting strong transparency should go hand in hand. When people can see more clearly what government officials are doing, that openness helps encourage officials to do the right thing."
"A trial court decision regarding a retired policeman's public records requests to the city of Pineville has been overturned.
Louisiana's 3rd Court of Appeal found Pineville did not fulfill its duties under the Louisiana Constitution or Louisiana's Public Records Law after it received a pair of requests from Kenneth Johnson in October 2007, according to the 3rd Circuit's ruling."
Louisiana judge Janice Clark ruled that two Louisiana state agencies displayed "deliberate indifference" and "ineptitude" in responding to requests for records under the Louisiana Public Records Act.
"Terrebonne Parish government officials want to create a new way for the public to view records by using a computer rather than traditional paper files.
Parish law requires studies, letters and memos sent to and from officials to be kept in a publicly accessible “reading file,” available on demand since 1983.
Parish President Michel Claudet proposes keeping the records in a computer available for public use at downtown Government Tower instead of filing the hundreds of papers in a cabinet at the same place."
"Sunshine Week, which began Sunday, is an annual effort to shed light on the ongoing fight for transparency at every level of government.
Often, when newspapers write about trying to gain access to public records or public meetings, we focus on what we are trying to see.
As a result, there may be a misconception that this is a fight that belongs to the news media. In reality, though, the fight is for the public, any member of which should be able to gain access to records and meetings that are public."
