"As Sunshine Week begins, I want to applaud everyone who has worked to increase transparency in government and recommit my administration to be the most open and transparent ever, an effort that will strengthen our democracy and ensure the public's trust in their government," said President Obama today (3-14-10).
"Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.
Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of News Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.
Though spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.
Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan initiative whose supporters are conservative, liberal and everything in between."
Oregon is one of very few states in which not a single member of the Oregon press corps. nor a single Oregon attorney has volunteered to be a state coordinator.
Not a single member of the Oregon press corps., nor a single Oregon attorney, nor a single member of the Oregon legislature has expressed any concern that Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk has neutered the Oregon Public Records Law in Multnomah county by issuing the following legally binding opinions.
1. A public entity may withhold information indefinitely by merely refusing to send a letter of denial to the person requesting public documents.
2. Information kept by a public jurisdiction on a computer database is considered, "nonexistent" and cannot be compelled.
Not a single member of the Oregon press corps., nor a single Oregon attorney, nor a single member of the Oregon legislature appears to be the least bit concerned that a public entity, the Housing Authority of Portland - ostensibly governed by unvetted appointees, has been placed above the Oregon Public Records Law so that its public policies and annual spending of $80,000,000 of public funds remain In The DARK and so deliberately deprived of SUNSHINE the Housing Authority of Portland is UNACCOUNTABLE to taxpayers and the 700,000 citizens of Multnomah county that must live with the consequences of its decisions.
So the question arises: Is open government and freedom of information a value of Oregon's ruling class or not?