Concord lawyer honored for fighting for free press

I was honored to attend last night's Nackey Loeb Dinner in Manchester to benefit the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications. The Union Leader reports on this year's honoree for his work in opening up government records to the public.

Concord attorney William Chapman said winning the Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award is like getting an award for skiing. Fighting for a free press and open access to the government isn't work, he said, it's fun.

Chapman, of the Concord law firm of Orr and Reno, was honored last night at the seventh annual Loeb First Amendment Award Honors dinner at the Radisson Hotel for his 37 years of work in media law.

Chapman is considered a top authority on New Hampshire's freedom of public access and media law and has argued dozens of cases involving access to records and government proceedings on behalf of New Hampshire media outlets. Chapman also helped set the standard for protecting reporters' sources in criminal cases and public access to court and government records.

Our work on the Josiah Bartlett Center often relies on getting access to public records from state officials, who are sometimes cooperative and sometimes not. As the distinction between free speech and free press continues to diminish in importance, we are happy to salute Mr. Chapman for his life's work.

Robert Foster, the recently deceased publisher of Foster's Daily Democrat, received the annual Quill & Ink Award for his years of work putting out one of New Hampshire's finest newspapers. His contributions to journalism are noted, and will be missed.

Amendment X: Government Transparency in Michigan

Yesterday, we highlighted the fine work being done by the Show-Me Institute to open Missouri government to the public. Today, we look at the Mackinac Center's ongoing battle to shine a light on the hidden workings of Michigan's government. After been given a bill of almost $7 million for a FOIA request.

$6,876,303.90, to be exact. That's what the Michigan Department of State Police is charging for documents that I requested via the Freedom of Information Act regarding the state's handling of federal homeland security grant money from 2002 to present (see image at right). This is definitely a record for Mackinac Center FOIA requests. In fact, this may be a record for any FOIA request. Even the $3,438,151.95 down payment seems likely to be a speck above the average FOIA asking price.

The Michigan bureaucrats who are blocking public access to public records should be promptly removed from public service. Attempting to keep public data hidden away with the rouse of an unpayable price tag is obscene, and should not be tolerated by anyone claiming to value open government.

Amendment X: Government Transparency in Missouri

Our colleague Aubrey Spalding at the Show-Me Institute found the state's transparency website lacking, since it didn't allow the public to access the data behind the spending and revenue reports it offered. So she asked for them to do better.

While MAP had readily searchable tables of employee salaries, state spending, tax revenues, and tax credits, the large databases behind those tables weren’t available for download as a whole; instead, they were exportable only in bite-sized tables. This made analyzing, say, state expenditures during the past decade impossible.

I left a voicemail; they left a voicemail. I left another voicemail. And then, on Friday, I was told that the web page was up.

That’s right, not only did the folks at MAP fulfill my request, but they thought they might as well fix this problem for everyone. Here’s the link: http://mapyourtaxes.mo.gov/MAP/Download/Default.aspx. On this page, you can download: state expenditures for the past decade, either by year or as a gigantic database; stimulus revenues and expenditures; a database of employee salaries for the past three years; and the amounts that the state has given away in tax credits during the past decade. Oh, and the spreadsheets for this year are updated each night — so you don’t get stale data.

We need to remind our state officials that such transparency is not only possible; it's necessary.

Charles M. Arlinghaus: NH can do better than an 'F' in transparency

By CHARLES M. ARLINGHAUS

New Hampshire routinely ranks among the worst states in the country on the transparency and responsiveness of its government. This one blind spot in an otherwise accountable government almost certainly contributes to the bitterness of recent policy confrontations.

In general, the people of New Hampshire have long subscribed to the philosophy that transparency, open meeting laws and public access to government records form the basic cornerstone of holding its government accountable. Our right-to-know law was an early sign of our commitment that the government is an agency of the people and its records and meetings should be readily available to us.

Our legislative Web site is a model of easy access to information, providing bill text summaries and access to any legislator's voting record with a convenient drop-down menu. In some states, watchdog groups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars developing this information privately so citizens can know what their elected officials do. Our elected officials provide it readily.
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On the other hand, much of our government's information is difficult to find or difficult to access. While the somewhat archaic language of our right-to-know law does provide access to data eventually, our state is only beginning to catch up in the technology to make that access easy.

In any state, there are two aspects of transparency. The first is the nominal strength of a state's freedom-of-information laws -- what areas are covered, what are excepted, what form the data are available in. By this measurement, New Hampshire is something of a middling state.

The Better Government Association, an Illinois-based group originally founded to thwart the growing influence of gangster Al Capone, conducts national studies. By its freedom-of-information ranking, New Hampshire's right-to-know law places us 31st in the country. It's not great, but not horrible.

The Better Government analysts also understand that state governments are a little behind the outside world in transitioning to the computer age when it comes to accessibility. In virtually every state, information is available through a gatekeeper. I am entitled to the government information, but I have to request it and wait for a bit while it is gathered, processed and sent.

In the BGA's responsiveness study -- how quickly the information is accessible, etc. -- New Hampshire received an F. To be fair, slightly more than half the states received an F, so we are not alone.

Most of us who have dealt with state administrators on right-to-know requests would not have guessed at these rankings. The administrators I've dealt with have been responsive and helpful. I think that is generally true. What we discover, however, is that many other states are doing a much better job. Part of the reason is more modern computer systems. The state's transition to a new system will dramatically improve the process.

For example, the Josiah Bartlett Center's effort to put the state's entire detailed transaction register online in a gatekeeper-free database is six months into a right-to-know request despite a strong working relationship between our staff and the state's. If I had to guess, the same data request that takes six months now will probably take days next year, after the new system is running and bugs are sorted out.

One example of why this matters is the current friction between the State Employees' Association and the administration. The SEA has become a huge supporter of placing all the state's financial information in a free and open database because so much of the union's disagreements with management are governed by information disputes.

The most recent issue happened when the union claimed the state has 1,400 part-time employees making $75 per hour. Its source is a summary statement a state department did for the Legislature. The department denied that data in a newspaper column. There's no way to know who's right without independent access to detailed payroll records. A public database would sort this out simply. However, the only option today is to submit an official request to people whose workload is stretched, and wait.

When a list of every detailed exception to the spending freeze was submitted to the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, legislators of all stripes eagerly pored over and questioned every check and every dollar. Easily accessible information without gatekeepers would make that kind of activity not an unusual sight, but typical and commonplace.

The current dreadfulness of our budget demands every available tool. We have the culture and soon the technology to at least be one of the states that doesn't get an F.

Charles M. Arlinghaus is president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in Concord.

Charlie Arlinghaus- Public officials no longer keep their own scorecards

By CHARLES M. ARLINGHAUS


In just 20 years, we've moved from a political culture in which elites preferred that the peasants trust them to do the right thing to one of transparency in which there is a widespread presumption that every file and process should be open and accessible to anyone.

Twenty years ago, Vinnie Palumbo, the Republican majority leader of the state House of Representatives, famously opposed adopting a legislative ethics system by saying that everyone in the House was a gentleman, and "gentlemen keep their own scorecards." For a time, he was right. Neither gentlemen nor gentlewomen in the Legislature were subject to plebian ethics rules. The people's business was at least an arm's length away from the people, and ethics was based on the honor system.

But then, convicted of seven counts of bank fraud and three of tax evasion, Rep. Palumbo went off to spend 15 months in federal prison. His snobby witticism became the sarcastic rallying cry of those who were more inclined to the Reagan philosophy of "trust but verify."

As New Hampshire entered the Internet age, a bias toward more open government developed. Even as political watchers forgo and open government became the watchword.

Twenty years ago, representatives were constantly reminded that recorded votes cost money and they should refrain as much as possible from putting everyone on record, ostensibly because it cost too much (printing costs, largely). Today, roll call votes are commonplace and accepted.

In some states, outside groups have to post votes and compile voting records. In New Hampshire, roll call votes are posted often by the afternoon of the morning vote. There is also a database searchable by elected official. Today, the scorecard is kept and maintained on the Internet, not in the hip pocket of canary yellow golf pants.

This presumption for disclosure colors the thinking on many of the summer's thorny issues. As the state closes its books on the fiscal year that ended in June, there are a number of unresolved issues, such as the Joint Underwriting Association lawsuit, which put holes in the budget. The state's numbers chief, Linda Hodgdon, explained to Union Leader reporter Tom Fahey that the key to maintaining confidence is to completely disclose the situation. Hodgdon is commissioner of Administrative Services, which for more than a decade has completely disclosed the state's revenue picture each and every month in good times and bad.

Two recent complaints over state contract awards are unresolved, but they are signs of the transparent culture. When the transportation commissioner decided against putting a railroad contract out to bid and instead renewed it for a railroad owned by a state representative who sits on the appropriations committee, the Executive Council was forced to ask for an investigation.

An associate attorney general found no criminal conduct, but referred the matter to the Legislative Ethics Committee. The AG did not issue a report, but open government has progressed to the point where the entire file will be made public (and organizations like mine will put it online) so people can follow all the details and reach their own conclusions.

Similarly, some apparent irregularities in the process of awarding a $31 million contract for an online lottery have generated heated allegations between a vendor and the attorney general. Decades ago, a few inches in a column on state government was all most of us might expect to see. Today, we all anticipate that every document, including the report of the contract review panel, will be made public and put online.

In each case, someone will still be annoyed, and some of us may disagree with the final ruling. Yet we will all be able to see everything and read everything that led to the final decision. What the reporter saw or the Executive Council saw, we expect to see, too -- no hidden contracts or reviews.

Even in recent years, contracts were a way to hide government from the public and sometimes from the Legislature. In times of hiring and equipment freezes, contract spending details were (and still are) out of sight so quasi-employees could escape the scrutiny regular state employees did: There's a freeze on, so we'll have to pay for that with contract money. It's time to break down that wall.

Today, the people expect to know every dollar and to be able to review it themselves regardless of the payment mechanism. We trust the decisions made by officials, but we want to verify them. We expect every wall that might shield some government activity from scrutiny to be broken down. Gentlemen keeping their own scorecards seems like the embarrassing joke that it was.

Charles M. Arlinghaus is president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in Concord.

Amendment X: Transparency in PA

Our colleagues at the Commonwealth Foundation have won a victory for open government in Pennsylvania:

Commonwealth Foundation president and CEO Matt Brouillette issued the following statement today in response to the General Assembly’s decision to make Conference Committee meetings on the state budget open to the public:

“The Commonwealth Foundation applauds the General Assembly for opening Conference Committee meetings on the state budget to the public and the press.

Until now, budget negotiations have been secretive, with the Conference Committee meeting only after legislative leaders and the Governor had privately struck a deal. By opening the Conference Committee to the public and press, lawmakers are giving taxpayers insight into negotiations and helping to prevent back-room deals. (more)

Where's tax money going? Check and see

The Concord Monitor argues that new websites designed to track stimulus spending at the state and federal level are a break from the past, and a welcome shot of transparency into the opaque actions of government:

The American public has come to expect that its tax money will be wasted or stolen. Its cynicism is justified. Consider the recent arrest of 44 people, among them three mayors, in a crackdown on government corruption in New Jersey. The state and federal stimulus fund tracking sites are an attempt to avoid that sort of thing. The sites may also help to prevent political favoritism, discriAmination, waste and fraud. If they do, they could be the best proof yet that sunshine is indeed the best disinfectant. (more)

Sunshine Week looks at NH Court System

The Nashua Telegraph continues its Sunshine Week with a look at New Hampshire's Court System:

The state’s Supreme Court posts its rulings and hearings schedule online, and there is a wealth of system wide information on the state courts’ Web site.

The courts are years away from offering online access to lower court case records and officials already have decided to keep most of those documents off the Internet due to privacy concerns. Online case records will show the persons involved and the status of each case, such as hearing dates or notes on the final disposition, but not actual case documents.

Check out the Telegraph's complete Sunshine Week Coverage.

Telegraph launches Sunshine Week

The Nashua Telegraph has launched Sunshine Week, a special report on open government in New Hampshire:

During the course of the week, we will present you with a series of news-you-can-use stories to better familiarize you with the information available on state and local government Web sites.

Specifically, you will learn:

• What state government is doing to help you track how New Hampshire's share of the federal stimulus money is being prioritized and spent.

• What kind of information can be found (standardized test scores) and not found (teacher certification status) on the state Department of Education Web site.

• What court records are available on state and federal government Web sites.

• An overview broadly detailing the type of data you are likely to find on your city or town's Web site.

Check here for complete coverage throughout the week.