Open government is the law.
Georgia law states: “The General Assembly finds and declares that the strong public policies of this state support open government.”
The state's Sunshine Law correctly states that “open government is essential to a free, open, and democratic society.”
We couldn't agree more.
However, it does not matter whether local officials agree or disagree with the basic principles of open government because it is the law.
County commissioners, city council members, school board members, and all members of local government boards, commissions, boards, and authorities, recognize that all the government work they do is the work of the people. must be recognized.
Citizens have the right to know everything about their business.
Documents kept in government buildings belong to the people, not civil servants.
The public has a strong interest in government transparency. To hold government accountable, it is important to be able to attend public meetings and hear all public business deliberations.
Access to public records, including financial records, is equally important.
Open government laws do not exist to protect and support the media. The Sunshine Act exists to protect the public.
A government of the people and for the people must always stand before the people.
Although there are narrow exceptions to the law regarding open meetings and records, those exceptions should not become the rule or the norm.
All exceptions should be interpreted as narrowly as possible.
Lawmakers have made clear that there should be a strong presumption of openness whenever the question is whether a record is a public record or whether a meeting should be a public meeting.
Therefore, if local authorities are in doubt about whether something can be discussed at an executive meeting, they should choose public rather than private.
If you are in doubt whether a requested record should be made available to the requester, you should grant the request rather than deny it.
If they're going to err in either direction, it's always best to err on the side of openness.
If elected officials had discussed in good faith in a public meeting what could have been discussed behind closed doors, they would not have violated state law by doing so.
If a records custodian provides a record that would be exempt under the Public Records Act in good faith and fails to disclose personal information related to national security or proprietary trade secrets, the records custodian may You will not be held legally responsible for retaining the . I did that.
Hiding official business is not only a violation of the law, but also a violation of public trust.
It's a shame that we even need a state law to tell local governments to do what comes naturally. Keeping the public's business open to the public.
