Public Records Show ....

"Mayor Jerry Landcastle told then Planning Director Tom Black to allow a business to relocate from Bellingham without a cityrequired site plan, according to e-mails obtained in a public records request by The Bellingham Herald."

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/91080.html

Editorial Re: City Getting Slapped With Big Fine

"Anyone who doubts the power of the state’s open records law ought to take a look to the east at Spokane, where city fathers are learning the lesson the hard way." (Note: the Tacoma News-Tribune is editorializing about events in a city on the other end of the state. Newspapers care a lot about open government. Agencies should remember this.)

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/73375.html

Seattle Times on Overstreet's Move from AG's to Allied Law Group

This story describes some of the things Rob McKenna and Greg Overstreet did during Greg's time as the open-government ombudsman.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003726973_overstreet30m.html

Overstreet Leaving AG's Office to Form Allied Law Group

Here is Postman's reporting on Greg's departure from the AG's Office. It provides some good information on Tim Ford, the terrific attorney and all-round good person replacing Greg as the open-government ombudsman. Tim will do a great job. I am so glad, but not surprised, that the Attorney General appointed someone like Tim who will keep the open-government mission alive and thriving.

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2007/05/new_open_records_chief_for_ag_mckenna.html

Public Records Show ...

According to the Tacoma News-Tribune, a high-level Tacoma School District official apparently had some hard-to-explain claims on her resume. Another story people probably would never have learned without prompt access to public records.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/66687.html

Candid Remarks About Open Government

The Bellingham Herald describes some of Greg's thoughts on open government.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/291/v-print/story/82187.html

Public Records Show ...

"According to records obtained by the Spokesman-Review ... A Spokane teacher is still being paid seven months after he resigned for viewing large amounts of sexually explicit material on his [school] computer." Another story people probably would never have learned without prompt access to public records.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=9919

Overstreet Wins Open-Government "Key" Award

Greg won a Key Award for open-government efforts from the Washington Coalition for Open Government. He told me that he's never won an award and was really honored. Greg's boss had some nice things to say about it. The others who won this award are an impressive lot.

Washington Coalition for Open Government
http://washingtoncog.org/news/PressRelease_wcogpr51707.doc

Boss
http://www.atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?id=15002

Public Records Show...

According to the Seattle Times, some city workers in Seattle are making almost $250,000 per year because they have to work so much overtime. These workers are not the kind of people who should be tired on the job--they work on electrical lines. Massive amounts of overtime raise safety concerns and point to a potential management problem: why so much overtime instead of hiring more electrical workers? It's not that easy because electrical workers are hard to find, but the story at least starts a discussion about the problem. Another story people probably would never have learned without prompt access to public records.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003702551_overtime11m.html

Seattle Times Does Magnificent Work Opening Up Sealed Court Files

I know it's an "old" story (a few months old) but it was so important that it merits mentioning here. I wanted to resurrect this story because it is exactly the kind of thing og-blog will be talking about and disseminating to a wider audience. The Seattle Times spent an enormous amount of time and money opening up court files hiding important stories that I think everyone would agree should be told. Thank you, Seattle Times.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/yourcourtstheirsecrets/

Here We Go

This is it. Launch time. We hope everyone enjoys og-blog. But more than that, we hope people learn from this. We hope we've started something good here.