2021 Open Government Summit: Save The Date — Thursday, March 18, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

Fritz Mulhauser | February 20, 2021 | Last modified: March 10, 2021

The D.C. Open Government Coalition invites you to this year’s Open Government Summit. Dive in with Coalition leaders and guests to examine public and charter school transparency, the coronavirus pandemic’s ongoing impact on government records access, and the views regarding government transparency of two recently elected D.C. Council members.

This year, the annual Sunshine Week event is sponsored by the Coalition together with the Society of Professional Journalists Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter; OpenTheGovernment; EmpowerEd; Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and the D.C. Office of Open Government. Join us via Zoom (register here).

The program includes three main segments:

• Leading off, Coalition board member Ginger McCall will talk with D.C. Council members Christina Henderson (I-At Large) and Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2). The session will explore their views on the laws about open data, meetings and records that foster greater public knowledge and participation in government and enhance accountability.
• The second segment centers on education, with D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson and EmpowerEd’s Scott Goldstein joining Sandra Moscoso, another Coalition board member, exploring gaps in basic education data on students, teachers, and learning (subject of a new audit), tracking the corona virus in schools and daycares, and special issues of access to board meetings and records at charter schools. They will discuss how greater access can empower parents and teachers to play a more effective role in shaping the District’s school system.
• Third, Nate Jones, FOIA Director for The Washington Post, Niquelle Allen, Director of the Office of Open Government, and Fritz Mulhauser, DCOGC blogger-in-chief, will assess the state of access to D.C. records in an extraordinary year and looking ahead. Expect observations on D.C. agencies’ compliance with public requests during the pandemic, the Metropolitan Police Department’s particularly vigorous resistance to transparency, and agencies’ common failure to post records as the law requires.

Tom Susman, Coalition president, will conclude the Summit with a community call to action, outlining how individuals and organizations can use (and advocate to improve) transparency tools to make local government more efficient and accountable.