The FOIA Project at Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse is reporting today that legal appeals of withheld information requested under FOIA rose 27% in the last fiscal year. More at: http://www.foiaproject.org.
Docs Sue State over Records of Medi-Cal Cuts
Journalists are not the only users of public records laws. The Sacramento Bee reports:
Doctors and pharmacists are suing California over the latest round of Medi-Cal budget cuts, saying the state has refused to show what impact the reductions would have on health care for low-income patients.
The state Department of Health Care Services must document that Medi-Cal cuts will not undermine access to care to receive federal approval. As part of the state budget this year, Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers approved a 10 percent cut in reimbursements to Medi-Cal mandatory co-pays and a soft cap on doctor visits.
The state told the Obama administration this summer it would show how the cuts maintain care for Medi-Cal patients consistent with federal law.
But state officials have refused to make public any such findings, rejecting a Public Records Act request filed by the California Medical Association and the California Pharmacists Association. DHCS rejected a similar request from The Bee in August.
Adovocacy groups praise Obama transparency plan
The Obama Administration has committed to sweeping improvements in federal government transparency as part of its year-long open government initiative. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has published a lengthy story on the openness push today. It says, in part,
“The plan builds on — and often borrows — from pledges already made in the administration’s year-old Open Government Initiative. In it, Obama commits to, among other initiatives, proposals to further digitize government records, improve Freedom of Information Act processing, strengthen whistleblower protections and implement various measures to increase the kind of information the government proactively makes available….As part of the push for open government, Obama’s plan makes specific pledges to increase public access to information, ranging from improving records management and FOIA processing to taking new transparency measurements such as declassifying national security information and publicly disclosing government revenue from oil, gas and mining.”
The federal government has a long way to go to reduce a huge FOIA request backlog and increase transparency. The results of this push likely won’t be determined for several years and it could collapse if Obama loses reelection. Republican front runner Rick Perry has a dismal transparency record as Texas governor.
Read more here: http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=12169
School superintenent fined for not reporting income of spouse
The superintendent of schools in San Bruno Park, San Mateo County, was fined $800 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission last week for failing to report on several statements of economic interest that his spouse worked for a company that leased space from the school. Read more by Neil Gonzales of the Bay Area News Group here: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_18972090?nclick_check=1 Did superintendent David Hutt recuse himself from the decision to lease the space, which was used for an afterschool program? Was the decision made to simply give Hutt another source of family income?
LA Times Sues for Records
The LA Times is suing LA County for records of children who died while under supervision of socal service agencies. Details here:
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