A citizen's lawsuit against the city of Athens and its city manager takes aim at multiple potential violations of the open meetings and public records laws, including overcharging for copies and failing to keep minutes of meetings involving a suspension of the city manager.
The Legislature passed comprehensive legislation closing several loopholes and adding more transparency and accountability to campaign finance reporting and ethics measures Thursday. House Speaker Cameron Sexton describes the bill as bringing money flows "from the dark into the light." One provision of the bill requires nonprofits organized under IRS code 501(c)(4), (5) and (6) to report expenditures related to a candidate during election periods, causing pushback from such groups, but the bill goes much farther than this one change.
Three bills that improve open government have cleared both the House and Senate. One will improve the transparency of public meetings of hundreds of state boards and commissions. Another brings more transparency to deaths that occur in local jails and state prisons. And the third clarifies language in the public records law that sometimes causes confusion over ID requirements and the responsibility of government to search for records.
We are monitoring several bills during the 2022 legislative session, including a bill that would create new fees to inspect public records.
A bill that proposed allowing county legislative bodies to satisfy the public notice laws by posting notice of public meetings on a "social media platform" was amended this week in a House subcommittee to remove the mention of social media platforms.
