I’ve written recently about importance of open government, for itself and for its positive effects, but a simple truth about open government is that it requires a consistent policy of openness. Open sometimes, closed others, isn’t open government: it’s caprice.
I’ve a draft of a series open government in progress, and in cases where openness is sporadic, one starts from the beginning: what’s stated as policy, what’s legally possible on one’s own initiative, and what conditions without properly recorded and published meetings looks like (in comparison with those recordings).
This last element requires having solid, defensible criteria by which to compare news accounts with actual recordings (and then, of course, making many such comparisons).
Slow going, as one needs to be thorough, but well worth doing.
For earlier posts on this topic, there’s an open goverment category here at FREE WHITEWATER.