An Enquirer article this morning relates Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's stressing to lawmakers this week the importance of passing a bill which would push governments to do a better job of granting citizens access to public documents.
An audit conducted in June 2004 by the Ohio Colition for Open Government, representing more than 40 newspapers, the Associated Press, Ohio University, and the University of Dayton, sought to determine how accessible public records were in the State. 50.1 % of those records requested were obtained on request, with another 2.6% made available the next day. According to Tom O'Hara, managing editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, one of the biggest compliance problems stemmed from public officials' ignorance of the State's public records law.
House Bill 9, introduced Jan. 24th., has several key provisions, including the requirement that the Attorney General "develop, provide, certify, and require all elected public officials to attend training programs and seminars on the Open Records Law."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment