New State Law Promotes Open Government

Freshman Rep. Paul DeMarco (R – Homewood) gave us a good bill (that passed!) that promotes open government for the “more than 300 public bodies created by governor’s executive order or law, which have statewide jurisdiction or regional jurisdiction.” Some of them control “millions of dollars” related to public issues, yet it could be difficult to know “what they are, who sits on them, when they meet and when they have a vacancy.”

DeMarco’s bill requires information on them to be displayed on the Secretary of State’s Web site that will include: name and contact information, names of all appointees, their date of appointment and when their term expires plus the name and position of the appointing authority for every appointee.

More information is good.

Legislative Dispatch

A Look from the Rearview Mirror

This Thursday will mark the last day of the legislative Session.  For some, it was a Session that seemed would never end.  For others, it was one that ended much too quickly.  It may be early, yet, to write an obit on this Session, but as we approach the finish line, some perspective may be in order.

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Putting Students First

As you know, a very important piece of legislation will be presented for our consideration in the House tomorrow in Montgomery – Senate Bill 310 – the “Students First” tenure and fair dismissal reform bill. Like me, many House members have been inundated with phone calls and emails from opponents of this bill, and some have been [...]

Legislative Transparency

There are a lot of issues to debate before we begin the final days of this session. In fact, I am quite certain there will be some comments on this post debating many of them. Before we get into the last seven day of the session I wanted to bring up a topic that [...]


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