AG Drummond partners with OPA to hold Open Meeting, Open Records seminars this fall

2023 Open Meeting/Open Records seminar

Open Meeting, Open Records seminars to be held across Oklahoma this fall

Free meetings, open to the public, registration required

OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 3, 2024) – After overwhelming success in 2023, the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General is partnering again with the Oklahoma Press Association to host seminars on the state’s open meeting and open records laws in five locations across Oklahoma beginning late this month.

The seminars will be presented by Thomas R. Schneider, deputy general counsel to Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

Attorney General's Open Meetings, Open Records seminars see record turnout

Open Meetings, Open Records seminars see record turnout 

OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 14, 2023) - More than 900 Oklahomans attended a series of Open Meetings and Open Records seminars presented this fall by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and the Oklahoma Press Association in different regions of the state. 

AG Drummond announces personnel, tipline to ensure compliance with open government

Drummond announces personnel, tipline to ensure compliance with open government

OKLAHOMA CITY (March 17, 2023) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced today that former state senator Anthony Sykes has joined the Office of the Attorney General to serve as public access counselor. As an assistant attorney general, Sykes will work with state, county and municipal government agencies and commissions to ensure they strictly comply with the Open Meetings and Open Records Acts.

Gann bill would prohibit government abuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements

Gann Bill Would Prohibit Abuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, this week filed a bill to prohibit the abuse of non-disclosure agreements, providing greater transparency in government.

House Bill 1378 would require businesses of any kind seeking state or local incentives to fully disclose who they are and what they do and also would prevent government officials from entering into non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

Gov. Stitt launches 'Oklahoma Checkbook', putting easy online access to state spending

GOVERNOR STITT LAUNCHES OKLAHOMA CHECKBOOK ENSURING EASY ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT’S SPENDING LEDGER

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 12, 2019) — Governor Kevin Stitt announced today the launch of Oklahoma Checkbook, fulfilling a campaign promise to provide Oklahomans with an easy-to-navigate site so they can understand how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. The interactive website, which provides near real time data on the state’s expenses, ensures citizens can quickly and easily review the state’s ledger, providing a greater means of accountability and transparency.

“Since day one I have said we need to put our state government checkbook online so the people of Oklahoma can hold their agencies and elected officials accountable,” said Stitt. “Oklahoma Checkbook creates a level of accountability and transparency within Oklahoma’s government that is unprecedented. I look forward to seeing how this user friendly tool helps keep us on track to becoming a top ten state in budget transparency.” 

Oklahoma Checkbook can be accessed at checkbook.ok.gov. The initiative is a partnership between the Stitt Administration and the Office of the State Treasurer.

“Today we are opening a window to let the light shine brightly on state government spending,” State Treasurer Randy McDaniel said. “The use of taxpayer funds should be transparent and readily available. I’m honored to work with Governor Stitt and his leadership team to improve openness and accountability in state government. “

The site is built on extensive datasets. Users can visualize the data using the interactive features and dive into the details of each expense down to the transaction level. It is powered by OpenGov, the leading cloud-based solution for government budgeting, performance, and communications.

“Oklahoma Checkbook will shine a bright light on our financial records and uncover potential accounting errors in state government,” said Sec. Ostrowe. “The interactive website will provide Oklahomans with much-needed transparency and help the agency heads and elected officials, charged with keeping our financial house in order, make more efficient and effective decisions.”

About OpenGov
OpenGov is the leader in cloud-based solutions for government. The OpenGov Cloud™ is the only integrated cloud solution for budgeting, performance, communications and reporting. This multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") solution connects stakeholders to the budget process, engages them for real-time feedback, accurately forecasts personnel costs, and integrates with key government systems, resulting in improved outcomes, enhanced internal efficiencies, and more time for strategic planning.

Over 2,000 public agencies use OpenGov -- including the State of Ohio; the City of Richmond, VA; and Minneapolis, MN. OpenGov was founded in 2012, and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Emerson Collective, 8VC, and Thrive Capital.

Gov 2.0a Conference this weekend

Last year, I was able to attend the Gov 2.0a conference in Oklahoma City. The 2011 sequel is being held this weekend, at the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it this year, but I highly recommend this conference if you can do it (registration closes tomorrow).

From the website:

The second annual Gov 2.0a conference is focused on applications of technology to government problems. The conference will be a forum to learn about successful Gov 2.0 applications through case studies, to learn about best practices for Gov 2.0 applications, and to network with other professionals from city and state organizations, community groups, non-profits and the private sector who share interest in the application of technology to improve the functioning of our government.

You will have the chance to see over a dozen talks on the Gov 2.0 themes of Open Data, Crowd Sourcing, and Citizen Participation. The speakers are nationally known Gov 2.0 experts who will share their experiences and lessons learned that will inform your own efforts to improve government. You will have the opportunity to meet and talk with speakers and attendees during one of the many scheduled breaks and networking events.

For more information on this truly outstanding event, go to Gov20a.com.

Gov. 2.0a Conference Recap

I attended the Gov 2.0a conference in Oklahoma City this past week, and came away with a lot of valuable information.

What exactly is meant by "Government 2.0"? Applying new technology to how government is run, in order to make it more efficient, transparent, accountable, and participatory.

Speakers at the conference spoke on a variety of topics, from utilizing social networking to interact citizens/constituents, to how using technology can save money and improve services, to how a transparent government can spark (as speaker Laurel Ruma said) an "innovation economy".

Here are just a few quotes and tidbits from the conference.

• Laurel Ruma: "People are moving from using Social Web to participating in Civic Web."
• Carolyn Purcell: "Web 1.0 was the government giving citizens information. Web 2.0 is two-way interaction and communication between the government and its citizens."
• Mark Mitchell: "eGovernment encourages citizens to get "online" instead on "in-line" to interact with government."
• Mike Koehler: "People are hungry for information, and for participation."
• There are 192 members of Congress on Twitter - 65% are Republicans.
• Crowd-sourcing is a way to get citizens and employees involved. Sam's Club has saved $1M by unscrewing lightbulbs in their store vending machines - just one idea that came from crowd-sourcing with their employees.
• 75% of people get some of their news from blogs or social media. Kind of like you're doing right now!
• Facebook has 400,000,000 users, and Twitter has 105,000,000 users.
• SeeClickFix is an amazing tool that local governments should take advantage of. Citizens can post issues (i.e. potholes, graffiti, etc.) on a map of their city. The city is then made aware of the problem, and takes care of it. Not only does the citizen know that the issue was resolved, but it builds goodwill between the government and the citizens (as opposed to the all-too-often situation of a local government that seems unresponsive to citizen input).
• Manor, Texas, is on the forefront of the Gov 2.0 scene. They utilize social networking, crowd-sourcing, SeeClickFix, and a very interesting way to communicate with the public called QR-Codes, just to name a few.
  

I can't give the conference justice in a post here, but video from the event will be up on Gov20a.com soon. Once it is posted, I will link to the videos.