#opengovernment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #opengovernment, aggregated by home.social.
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Public testimony may be "online" yet remain practically unreadable. I downloaded 700+ pages from a Salem City Council record, removed duplicates, redacted contact information, summarized 187 testimony records, and linked each entry back to its source page.
Concerning: Google's $5 Billion NDA #Datacenter
https://salemdata.net/johnpress/?p=1156
#CivicTech #OpenGovernment #PublicRecords #GovernmentTransparency #LocalGovernment #CivicEngagement #DataJournalism #DigitalHumanities #PublicParticipation #SalemOR
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Hello Mastodon! Deflock Broward here. We use public records to track license plate reader (ALPR) surveillance, then publish sources + plain-English explainers.
Starting with Weston: https://deflockbroward.org/weston
#DeflockBroward #Deflock #WestonFL #Broward #SouthFlorida #Florida #PublicRecords #SunshineLaw #OpenGovernment #Privacy #Surveillance #ALPR #LicensePlateReaders #FlockSafety
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"The FOIA has taken a serious beating over the past five months. The mass firing of federal workers has hollowed out FOIA offices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the US Agency for International Development, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and other agencies.
Now, add the State Department to that list. I’ve learned that a hiring freeze has stymied the agency from filling critical leadership positions, including roles that administer the agency’s FOIA operations and litigation. Additionally, contractors who review records and have classification authority were suspended through the end of the fiscal year as a result of cost-cutting measures. On the whole, the number of State Department employees and contractors who process FOIA requests has been cut in half due to the deferred resignation program and budget cuts, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News.
These cuts and departures will only exacerbate the State Department's awful track record when it comes to FOIA. The agency currently has more than 23,000 FOIA requests in its backlog, according to the latest stats on FOIA.gov. I alone have more than 50 requests pending at State, 46 of which have been stuck in a backlog for more than five years and 22 that have lingered for more than a decade.
To be clear, it’s certainly not the fault of FOIA analysts. While the FOIA is statutorily mandated, there’s not a single government agency that allocates funding specifically for FOIA operations."
#USA #Trump #DOGE #FOIA #FreedomOfInformationAct #Transparency #OpenGovernment
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Some drivers and mechanics at Metro, the transit agency in St. Louis, earned more than $40,000 in overtime in 2022, a Post-Dispatch analysis of payroll data shows. 🚌 💰
The agency says it has been grappling with a nationwide labor shortage that has left it scrambling to fill positions.
#stl #stlouis #stltoday #metro #journalism #localjournalism #datajournalism #pay #transparency #salary #government #opengovernment
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Partying like it's 2006 on Twitter, here's my #introduction post:
Terminally online ex-pat #Tasmanian with a head removal scar to prove it. I've lived and travelled in a bunch of places.
I live with my partner and BIL (a person with disabilities)in the bush in Djiringanj Yuin country and run a B&B in the mountains of the Bega Valley (https://rocklily.com.au/) in a place called Brogo (NSW, Australia).We're 25km from the nearest town (Bega) living on 100 acres of primarily remnant endangered forest (https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10110).
I also work on a large #dairy #farm (1800 acres/728ha) where we run between 800 and 1000 cattle supplying to the Bega Group.
I've spent the past 20 years as a service designer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_design) with expertise in #government and the #publicsector, #userexperience, #servicedesign, #orgdesign, #opengovernment, communications, #innovation, designful #leadership, and organisational #culture. I'm mostly retired (but hire me, I'm good) from client work.
You'll see posts from me about #bushlife, our journey to #offgrid, #conservation, #biodiversity, #homesteading, and ethical feral species #hunting, the #outdoors, #sustainability, #righttorepair,
#diy and #handyperson things.I'm into #archery, being a husband, dad, and carer, #gaming (console #PS5, #RPG, #ttrpg, #boardgames), and #progressive politics, particularly #auspol. I'm a fan of many sports, with a competitive background in #gymnastics (coaching), traditional #taekwondo (practitioner and instructor), and #powerlifting (elite masters competitor). I support the #Brumbies in Super Rugby, #Vikings in the NFL, and #FCStPauli in football.