Coalition Advocacy in Recent Years

Activity in 2023

  • D.C. OGC continued community conversations and open government training held in partnership with the D.C. Public Library in 2023, with sessions in multiple branches on accessing D.C. school, police, and other records. We shared our experience and access tips with student journalists from Howard University and the University of Maryland. This year we plan more work to help student journalists and activists on college campuses and in high schools, as well as a new training series in library branches.
  • Our board members testified more than 15 times before D.C. Council, including opposing the mayor’s ACT Now crime proposals in a marathon November hearing. The mayor now asks the Council to reverse the transparency provisions of the police reform bill passed unanimously just a year ago (that enhanced public access to body-worn camera video and opened police complaint and discipline files for the first time after years of Coalition advocacy). The mayor earlier had refused to request funds in the fiscal year 2024 budget to pay for the police transparency work processing requests and creating a new database on complaints, so we had a busy agenda to keep the law strong and achieve full funding.
  • The Coalition filed a lawsuit in the D.C. Superior Court to establish the important principle that 21st century digital government databases are records subject to FOIA requests like any file drawer full of papers. We helped dozens of citizens, reporters, and researchers with FOIA requests and appeals. And we achieved results. Our advocacy, with community partners, led to Council support for finally completing backlogged FOIA appeals from the pandemic era; a start on planning for digitization of D.C. records; needed funding for a new D.C. Archives building; and improvements in records and information access in multiple parts of D.C. government including ANCs, the Rental Housing Commission, and the central Office of Administrative Hearings.

Advocacy in 2022

Issues we addressed

  • Open Meetings Act
    • access issues arising in new virtual meetings
    • record-keeping and public access to meeting records
    • edge cases – application of law to novel public bodies
  • Freedom of Information Act
    • online publication required by E-FOIA
    • processing problems in many agencies 
    • backlog in agencies responses during and after COVID
    • appeals to the mayor – advice, drafting, backlog issues
    • Advisory Neighborhood Commission capability to find and release records
    • Metro Transit police public access to new body cam video
  • DC Archives – advocacy to assure new building serves public
  • Court records – sealing policy, and expanding online access to records
  • Electronic government – advocacy for better user experience

Products

  • DC Council testimony – more than a dozen on oversight, FY 23 budget, senior appointee confirmations
  • FOIA policy complaints
  • Open Meetings Act violation complaints
  • FOIA requests and appeals
  • Agency letters
  • Public comments
  • Amicus brief in DC Court of Appeals on key FOIA case
  • 75 public inquiries answered by phone and email

Results we achieved

  • Agency direction and funding for more open government in six Council committee reports
  • Successful FOIA appeals (agency delays and denials overturned)
  • Direction to DC agencies (including to consult with Coalition) from the chair in Council hearings
  • Complaints to Office of Open Government on FOIA implementation and policy affirmed resulting in recommendations to agencies  
  • Court of Appeals online records access began after years of advocacy

Who we assisted

  • university researchers
  • public school parents  
  • labor union 
  • press members and freelancers
  • community blogger
  • legal service organizations
  • advocacy groups and other nonprofits
  • community groups

Coalition agenda during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Coalition beginning in March 2020 emphasized two goals:

  • maintaining the most open government possible as D.C. government takes emergency actions during the pandemic, and
  • increasing police transparency as a key response to rising concern following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 about over-policing and irresponsible use of force.

Accordingly, the Coalition’s effort in 2020-21 included:

  • protesting secret daily “coordination” meetings of the mayor and D.C. Council at the start of the pandemic (until they were stopped);  
  • publicizing growing FOIA backlogs and successfully advocating in late 2020 for legislation reinstating deadlines for processing requests and appeals on January 15, 2021;
  • supporting emergency legislation requiring fast release of police videos of shooting deaths and other serious uses of force and advocating for better access to other police video and to police complaint and other misconduct investigations (including researching police video and records access policy elsewhere);
  • publicizing technical limits in the design of virtual hearings that reduced public access to Council committees’ FY21 budget proceedings and updating the analysis for FY22 oversight and budgetv hearings (somewhat imprioved);
  • publicizing D.C.-funded charter schools’ refusal to answer questions about receipt (or not) of pandemic bailout funds;
  • advocating for public access to virtual court proceedings as courthouses closed because of the virus;
  • commending D.C. agencies for early publication of data on infection status of key employee groups such as police and jail guards, and on institutions, but calling out missing data (such as on schools);
  • advocating successfully that the Police Reform Commission include access to unredacted body-worn-camera video and to police discipline records in their April 2020 report and recommendations.

Advocacy in prior years

The Coalition has publicized open government law and agency practice since our founding in 2009 –both successes and areas for improvement. From testimony, public education and litigation the Coalition has many accomplishments to point to.

  • Opening up access to government
    • Won FOIA access to official email on D.C. Council members’ private accounts
    • Won FOIA access to police body cam video (successfully opposing secrecy plans)
  • Auditing DC government performance under open government laws
    • Evaluating whether public bodies follow rules for meeting notices, minutes, closings
    • Analyzing FOIA processing by DC agencies each year for delay and errors
  • Researching best practices to help DC officials do the right thing
    • Reviewing laws nationwide on access to officials’ text messages on official business
    • Reviewing regulations elsewhere to help draft D.C. rule for open meetings complaint process
    • Reviewing police body cam video access elsewhere to win best-in-nation D.C. law
  • Defeating unwise policies
    • D.C. Council’s claim of “speech and debate clause” exemption from FOIA
    • D.C. attorney general’s claim that police video shown in court was closed to press
  • Filing complaints – exposing secret meetings of board of United Medical Center and mayor’s education task force
  • Using FOIA to help press with research – D.C. officials’ emails used in education story in City Paper
  • Assisting community groups with open government issues – charter school teachers seeking more transparency in schools’ data and decisions
  • Fighting for the Office of Open Government
    • Annual oversight and budget testimony to Council
    • Advocacy for fair treatment of Office director and against weakening independence of Office
  • Bringing together officials and the community – annual “Sunshine Week Summit” in March
  • Answering hundreds of questions from those puzzled about how to use D.C. open government laws
  • Keeping D.C. open government issues in the public eye with “Transparency Watch” blog posts
  • Promoting law enforcement accountability by opposing automatic expungement of arrest records