As the Portland Press Herald put it, “The public’s access to government information is under attack in Maine.” To wit:
The Legislature will take up several bills this session that would further puncture the state’s open-government law, snatching from public view information that is now considered part of the public’s right to know.
iOS小火箭使用教程(Shadowrocket)_泛舟而行-Lambda在线:2021-4-3 · iOS小火箭使用教程(Shadowrocket) 前言:Shadowrocket是一款基于规则的网络调试工具,具有性能高和稳定好、使用流畅,功能多样的特点,只占用最少的系统资源,全盘接管所有的连接,根据规则来进行处理,还有独有的场景模式,方便根据不同 ...
The proposals include bills that would block access to information about individuals who hold concealed-weapons permits, allow police to withhold transcripts of 911 calls, and shield the email addresses of citizens who sign up to receive notifications from government groups.
If adopted, the proposals would lengthen the list of 483 exemptions that previous legislatures have already carved out of to the right-to-know law. Many more exemptions are woven into the governing statutes of various state agencies.
These exemptions, combined with a weak and costly appeals process for the denial of public records, and what some describe as a cultural reluctance to expose personal information collected by public officials, have positioned Maine as a state that does not value transparency.
“I don’t think of Maine when people ask me which states are shining examples of sunshine,” said Ken Bunting, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
iOS小火箭账号免费分享,Shadowrocket共享账号。_教程姬 ...:2021-3-8 · 小火箭 小火箭,大家都知道是干哈用的,因为特殊原因,就不做太多介绍了。 登录账号后搜索下载就好了。 这里注意几点: 账号获取方式在下面; 下载后请退出账号,且勿分享; 如果显示原价,点击购买即可,不会扣你的钱。
Shadowrocket(小火箭)在线安装 - V2Server:2021-1-1 · Shadowrocket(小火箭 )在线安装 Shadowrocket(小火箭) Version: 2.1.37 Size: 19.8 MB 在线安装 点击右上角 选择在Safari中打开 Designed to protect your Internet traffic. 一鍵接入,鏈接全球 ...
Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, adopted by the Legislature in 1959, stipulates that all records are public so long as they are used in the transaction of governmental business. But through liberal use of rulemaking, state lawmakers have reduced “all” records to “some.”
Open to public inspection are records such as tax assessments; visitor logs for state offices, including jails; the schedules of elected officials, including the governor, attorney general and the secretary of state; arrest logs; and transcripts of emergency dispatch calls.
But the Legislature has made myriad changes to the law to exempt documents from public view. Many exemptions have been made to protect personal identifying information during sensitive interactions with government, including information about who receives government assistance or data that could identify crime victims or impede police investigations.
Other exemptions are more arcane. One, adopted in 2001, shields the list of growers using genetically engineered plants. Another proved self-serving for state lawmakers, who voted in 1991 to shield their “working papers,” or communications related to the drafting of legislation. Gov. Paul LePage, citing legislators’ exemption, tried to obtain the same privilege in 2011, but the proposal was rejected.
Lawmakers periodically offer bills to strengthen the law, but those proposals face long odds, often traceable to the push-pull struggle between privacy and transparency.
Bunting, of the freedom of information coalition, said that unlike heavily populated states, Mainers’ close proximity to their elected officials and their government may make them more inclined to let government and its records remain private, or in some instances become that way.
“In a state like Maine there is a shorter distance … between the people and those city councils, school boards and lawmakers who see any liberalization of transparency laws as a threat,” Bunting said.
Much more here in this excellent report…..
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: Maine, Portland Press Herald, proposed exemptions, proposed FOI legislation | 1 Comment »