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.