One of the best ways to hold government accountable is through access to official records.
Del. Warren Miller, R-Howard, is sponsoring a bill that would make state spending records available in a Googlelike database, and at least two county councils are considering similar bills. The federal government already makes your records available at usaspending.gov.
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Baltimore City, on the other hand, is trying to make it easier to hide your records from oversight. Democrat Del. Curt Anderson, by request of Mayor Sheila Dixon?s administration, along with other members of the city?s delegation, are sponsoring state legislation to deny access to records related to legal action against the city.
Dixon spokesman Sterling Clifford said, “Law firms that are involved in litigation with the city use Information Act requests to burden the city legal office with additional paperwork.” Who cares. Those suing the city cannot surrender their right of access to information ? nor should any citizen interested in the documents, for whatever reason.
The government is not “The Decider,” a term President Bush made popular. As David Rocah, staff attorney for the Maryland Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said, “What the government seems to forget is that it?s called ?public information? because it belongs to the public, not the government. A citizen could have a good reason, bad reason or no reason to request public information; it?s not up to the government to decide whether citizens have a right to see it or not.”
The city already makes it extremely difficult to access information about what they are up to with your money. In order to research a city contract, you must know the date it was approved or other specific information like the contract number. And you have to go in person to look for it because nothing is online.
The Dixon administration must withdraw its request for, and the Baltimore City delegation its support for, House Bill 615 and Senate Bill 549. Instead, Dixon should throw her support behind local legislation to make city documents and spending habits easily accessible online, and the state delegation should lobby on behalf of Del. Miller?s statewide transparency bill. Only those with something to hide try to conceal facts from the public.
