Oregon transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from Oregon.
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| Report It • | The Good • | The Bad • | The Ugly | |
The state legislature gave its final approval to the measure the morning of June 29, 2009 and this House Bill 2500 is a bi-partisan effort of a group of lawmakers. The group includes State Representatives Arnie Roblan, Jefferson Smith, Kim Thatcher, and Gene Whisnant. The measure is on its way to the Governor’s Desk. [1]
Oregonians will be able to watch where their tax dollars are allocated online. Though the state already provides public contracts, employee salaries, audits and other data online, it is buried deep within the files and pages of its website.
The movement will not open the information gates wider, the same accessible information will now be more easily accessible and online.[1]
Salem, OR Last week Oregon Attorney General, John Kroger announced sweeping efforts to improve state and local level transparency, including the appointment of assistant attorney general, Michael Kron, as the new transparency chief. In his new position, Kron will be responsible for advising the state on open records questions and developing a statewide policy and associated training program to help local attorney offices to better understand the Oregon Public Records Law.[2]
Oregon lawmakers have taken steps in pushing back the policies by suspending for two years sections of a voted-in law mandating longer sentences for repeat property offenders and drug dealers. The lawmakers passed a new set of restrictions keeping costly initiative measures at bay.
Washington lawmakers passed a law to save almost $1 billion by essentially ignoring some state education initiatives. One of these called for annual teacher raises.
Washington Democrats suspended a initiative that makes requirements for training for home-care aides who serve the elderly and disabled.
"One of the biggest concerns that lawmakers have is the financial straitjacket that initiatives can put on legislatures through big spending proposals or through spending and revenue caps," said Jennie Drage Bowser of the National Conference of State Legislatures.[1]
"The Oregon House has overwhelmingly approved a bill to limit public release of information about concealed handgun permit holders.
The measure was endorsed Monday after supporters said making that information public would jeopardize the personal safety of concealed handgun permit holders."
"A bill to limit public release of information about concealed handgun permit holders is headed for a vote in the Oregon House.
The measure endorsed Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee was sought by Oregon sheriffs who want to prevent newspapers and others from getting lists of people with concealed handgun permits."
"For going on two decades now, the significant government act of granting a citizen a license to carry a concealed handgun has been a public record in Oregon.
In all that time, there's been no documented case, nothing, demonstrating that including concealed handgun information in the state's public records law has caused any real harm to the holders of those licenses.
Yet Oregon lawmakers of both parties are rushing anyway to exempt the concealed handgun records from public records, throwing a veil of secrecy over the process of granting licenses to carry concealed guns."
"In Oregon, public records are open to everyone and in many cases are free.
So when KATU received a quote of $1.5 million from the city to pull public records from Mayor Sam Adams' office, you can imagine the sticker shock.
It all started weeks ago when the mayor issued a public apology over the scandal involving his relationship with a young intern. During the press conference, KATU requested Adams' phone, calendar and e-mail records from the spring of 2005, when the then city commissioner was developing a relationship with 17-year-old Beau Breedlove."
"Sheriffs around Oregon have been sending an unusual letter to holders of concealed weapons permits with this message: If you don't want the public to know you've got a permit, we'll try to help you out.
The letter from the sheriffs says newspapers and others are trying to get lists of people who have concealed handgun permits, sparking a legal challenge that's pending in the Oregon Court of Appeals.
And as the appeals court mulls the issue, Oregon lawmakers are pursuing legislation to take those records completely out of public view by prohibiting their release under the Oregon public records law."
"A pair of state lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would exempt concealed handgun license information from being revealed under Oregon's public records law.
Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, St. Paul, Newberg, and Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, announced their bipartisan legislation as an "effort to protect gun owners."
"Disclosure defeats the whole point of having a concealed weapons permit," Thatcher said. "The private information about these Oregon gun owners should also remain concealed.""
"A former Multnomah County morgue supervisor filed a federal lawsuit last week against county prosecutors for releasing public records alleging he used a state data system to snoop on his boss.
Robert Boggs, a former chief deputy medical examiner, was fired in 2007 after an investigation by the Multnomah County District Attorney's office into morgue workers misusing the state Law Enforcement Data System (LEDS).
As reported in The Oregonian and elsewhere, the investigation found that morgue employees had used LEDS to look up background info on neighbors and celebrities, including Charlie Sheen and KOIN-6 reporter Amy Frazier."
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