Blog Posts
November 17, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
DC defense attorney Amy Phillips can proceed to trial in her unique case alleging high officials of the Metropolitan Police Department interfered with public records requests from department critics. That’s the conclusion of a federal judge, that Phillips has shown “enough evidence for a reasonable jury to find that the Chiefs’ subordinates instantiated a custom […]
New Portal at D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings Offers Opinions Online, But Search Is Limited
October 15, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
Opinions by the 36 judges who hear thousands of complaints yearly about government agency errors are now accessible on a public online portal, a result of years of Coalition and community advocacy to end Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) longstanding practice of secret law, where most opinions (called “final orders”) have been accessible to parties […]
October Meeting Will Dive Into Future of Transparency in DC and Link to National and Global Efforts
September 26, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
UPDATE 11-20-24: GSA has posted video of the session, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pb56u-xRrs&list=PLvdwyPgXnxxUZ9uzcRN7M32TvlOZYNF2S&index=5. The DC Open Government Coalition has announced an October 15 in-person event: Global to Local: Lessons for Open Government & Civic Engagement for DC. This event is co-organized by the DC Open Government Coalition and the U.S. General Services Administration’s, U.S. Open Government […]
Eagle Charter School Sudden Closure Again Raises Transparency Questions
August 26, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
UPDATE: Charter Board response is available here: https://chairmanmendelson.com/2024/09/10/public-charter-school-board-response-re-eagle-academy/ UPDATE: D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has written the Public Charter School Board asking for answers to almost two dozen questions so “we can learn from the Eagle Academy debacle.” The questions probe the deep details on how “corrective action might have been possible months ago to […]
D.C. Police “Lateral Hires” Come Out of the Shadows After New Court Ruling
July 20, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
Police hiring in the District can come under stronger scrutiny following a Superior Court decision opening records of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) lateral hires—as officers are known who joined MPD after experience in law enforcement elsewhere. The ruling this week (18) by Judge Yvonne Williams came on requests last year under the D.C. Freedom […]
D.C. Begins Using New Online Portal for Requesting Public Records
June 15, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
Requests for District of Columbia government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) must be submitted at a new portal as of June 14, 2024, according to an online notice. The link is https://myfoia.dc.gov. Public records access is the latest exhibit in the government’s efforts to keep up electronic services as legacy software requires […]
June 13, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
Repairs to fix sidewalk dangers such as uneven bricks take hundreds of days and injured pedestrians collect millions in damages from the District each year, while drivers are the real priority—pothole complaints total only half as many as sidewalk problems but get fixed in 5-10 days. These findings emerged from research on sidewalk safety and […]
June 7, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
The District of Columbia will pay $400,000 in legal fees as part of a deal to end a legal battle by advocates seeking release of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) records of high-tech surveillance, according to a court filing June 6. The District had released 700,000 pages of records during two years of wrangling under the […]
Washington Post Gives Rare Showcases to Freedom of Information Law
March 25, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
The Washington Post recently devoted most of a full page in the front A Section to “A visual guide on how to FOIA,”—referring to the laws at the federal and state levels that empower the public to get government records. Supporting the equivalent law in D.C. is a major mission of the Open Government Coalition. Nate […]
March 3, 2024, by Fritz Mulhauser
“Prediction,” goes an old Danish proverb, “is hazardous, especially about the future.” For the D.C. Council cost estimates of new laws, recent evidence shows it’s exceptionally so. The Open Government Coalition reported new findings to the Council in February hearings that seriously question the Chief Financial Officer’s (CFO) multi-million dollar cost estimate for a half-dozen […]
