Washington’s local government is theoretically supposed to be open to the public, but corruption scandals and everyday laziness often prevent the District from achieving that goal. The introduction of the Open Government is Good Government Act by Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) last Tuesday brings the operations of Washington’s local government closer to full transparency.
Bowser introduced her legislation to coincide with Sunshine Week, the week from March 14 to March 20 that celebrates access and openness in government across the country.
owser’s bill relates to open meetings laws in the District. Currently, legislative groups such as the D.C. Council only have to hold open meetings when “official action” occurs. This has come to be interpreted as only applying to meetings where votes are cast, meaning that councilmembers can meet in closed-door sessions to come to agreements on everything that will happen in public—and it’s entirely legal. Bowser’s bill would require all policy-making bodies to open all of their meetings to the public as long as a quorum is present. It’s good news that Bowser’s bill has gained six co-sponsors in Council, although Georgetown’s councilmember, Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), has not offered his support.
In Georgetown itself, this bill would change the way our Advisory Neighborhood Commission operates. Currently, the commission only meets publicly once a month for votes on resolutions and to hear community comments. However, commissioners can meet privately in “executive” meetings that are closed to the public. As a result, there is little discussion over often-contentious resolutions at the ANC’s public meetings.
According to a source familiar with the meetings, these executive meetings are scenes of much more acrimony and debate than the public meetings. Opening them would give Georgetown community members a better understanding of the ANC and a greater opportunity to influence the resolutions it passes.
While Bowser’s legislation will improve meetings, another part of government transparency in Washington—the District of Columbia Freedom of Information Act, is deeply flawed. DC-FOIA is intended to provide all government documents—with privacy and security restrictions—to citizens who request them.
DC-FOIA can be a valuable tool for getting information to the public, but Washington has an incredibly restrictive release policy, with some departments refusing to even release their request logs. Although DC-FOIA requests are supposed to be processed within 25 business days, administrators often treat the mandated response time as a joke. Others, like the members of the ANC treat the whole DC-FOIA process as a nuisance, threatening to stop talking with reporters who file the requests.
If passed, Bowser’s legislation would be a valuable tool for citizens interested in holding the District’s government accountable. The next step should be the reform of Washington’s powerful, but hamstrung, Freedom of Information laws.
