http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/feeds/topics/sunshineweek Daily news from The Telegraph of Nashua en-us dkiesow@nashuatelegraph.com onlineeditor@nh.com http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953829-196/city-workshop-looks-at-email-tweets-facebook.html NASHUA – State and local workers should be careful in crafting emails, as well as tweets and posts on Facebook or other social media. It’s all part of the public record, Nashua City Clerk Paul Bergeron said. New forms of communication can present problems for government workers, who don’t necessarily know which forms must be kept versus those that can be trashed. Bergeron and two of his colleagues tried to answer some of those questions Friday morning at City Hall during a workshop about email management and the Right to Know Law. Bergeron organizes the presentation every year to coincide with Sunshine Week, the national initiative focused on open government and freedom of information. “Governments are still trying to get their heads around how to manage email and social media,” he said. “There’s a whole realm of records people haven’t even started to address.” With employee turnover, there has to be constant training every year, Bergeron said. He has led city workshops on the Right to Know Law since 2008 and plans to continue them each year during Sunshine Week. Nashua is also in the process of buying new financial and document management software, which would offer tools for record-keeping. Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:34:24 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953692-196/meals-flowers-listed-among-nashua-mayors-personal.html NASHUA – Anyone having a working lunch or dinner with the mayor last year likely dined on a meal from Villa Banca or The Seedling Cafe. Mayor Donnalee Lozeau purchased meals with her designated city credit card for 20 work-related meetings in 2011, according to city credit card records requested by The Telegraph. Those meetings ranged from discussions on education funding and the courthouse to Pennichuck board of directors interviews and meetings for Children in Need of Services. “If things have to happen at lunch- or dinnertime and there’s no way around it and it’s going to be a lengthy meeting, then I will provide a meal,” Lozeau explained. “That happens from time to time.” For more than half of those meetings, Lozeau paid for meals from either of those two downtown Nashua establishments. “It’s usually my choice,” Lozeau said. “It’s really a matter of convenience and who’s open and whether they can pack things up.” Lozeau also provided working meals from Thousand Crane on several occasions, as well as Big Apple Deli, Estabrook Grill and Papa John’s. Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:48:54 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953691-196/bulk-of-182k-nashua-charged-in-2011.html NASHUA – Just as electronic communication has become quicker and easier over the last decade, so has electronic monetary exchange. The city’s increasing use of credit cards is no exception. In February, The Telegraph requested access to all city credit card records dating back to January 2011, along with a record of which departments and individuals can use the cards. In 2011, the city paid $182,492.13 for purchases on its credit cards. The city’s largest department – the schools – was responsible for roughly half of all city credit card charges in 2011. For about 10 years, the city’s use of credit cards have been covered by a brief set of general guidelines written by Treasurer David Fredette. The guidelines, authored in February 2002, are meant to ensure that the city’s plastic is used “sparingly and in a responsible manner.” Fredette’s half-page policy spells out three reasons to spend with a city credit card and how they are to be used. And despite thousands upon thousands of purchases, department heads responsible for authorizing credit card payments say they have never had to deny a charge made by their employees. It is the duty of department heads to ensure that their employees charge responsibly, according to the policy. Who’s using city plastic The city has nine Citizens Bank credit cards distributed among five departments, with combined monthly credit limits totalling $85,000. Credit card payments are generally applied to department operating budgets, Fredette said, though many of the city’s charges are covered by grants that departments receive for training or conferences. Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:38:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953562-196/city-releases-emails-detailing-who-knows-what.html NASHUA – Joe Citizen isn’t the only one hungry for information from PSNH when the lights go out. Emails requested by The Telegraph show Justin Kates, the city’s emergency management director, sent and received more than 30 emails with PSNH officials during Snowtober seeking information about restoration times and sending them information about critical sectors of Nashua that needed power most. “It’s a two-way street,” Kates said of the communication between the city and the state’s largest power utility. “They really rely on the customers to provide information about those outages.” But the emails reveal that Kates doesn’t get much more information from the company than the media does. Most of the emails from PSNH employees to Kates were the “situation reports” the company issued multiple times a day. Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:07:11 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953560-196/partnership-between-nashua-pd-and-telegraph-yields.html NASHUA – A commitment to better communication by Nashua’s new police chief is opening up much more police data to public view in the form of a new interactive crime map, created through a partnership between the Police Department and The Telegraph. The department and the newspaper have been working with CrimeMapping.com to develop the map, which plots all the crimes reported to the department on an interactive map. “I think it’s important that people know what’s going on in their community and their neighborhood,” Police Chief John Seusing said. “We’re hoping to see people have an even more watchful eye and report stuff to us.” Most police activity and reports of crime are public information. Based on that premise, the map uses public information about reported crimes and displays information, which is updated daily from the Police Department’s computers. The software takes incident reports filed by Nashua officers and plots them onto a map of the city, with specific icons for 15 types of crime, including assaults, vandalism, car theft, burglary and more. When clicked on, each of the icons offers specifics about the report, including case number, date and time of the report, the approximate address and description of the crime. The data can be sliced and diced a dozen different ways. Users can search by date range, type of crime, address, radius around a specific address or any combination of those parameters. For example, if you lived at 229 Main St., you could find out that 31 crimes were reported within a mile of your address in the past week (March 8-14). Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:51:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/953597-227/new-hampshire-gets-d-minus-in-report-gauging.html New Hampshire is nearly failing when it comes to transparency in spending. That was the conclusion of the New Hampshire Public Interest Research Group, which gave the state a D-minus in “Following the Money 2012,” a report that ranks states on how transparent states are in reporting spending to the public. New Hampshire’s grade is an improvement from last year when it was one of six states to get a failing grade. Since the last report, New Hampshire has added a checkbook feature on TransparencyNH, which lets users see payment information to vendors from 53 state departments and agencies dating back to July 2008. That can be found at www.nh.gov/transparentnh. However, it’s difficult to find specific payments because the State Expenditure Register isn’t searchable, according to NHPIRG. Forty-six states now have similar tools on their websites, up from 32 last year. Another 29 have information on government spending through tax deductions, exemptions and credits, up from just eight last year, according to the group. The states that led the pack in terms of financial transparency were Texas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Arizona, according to NHPIRG. “Citizens expect information to be at their fingertips the way they can view their cellphone minutes or the location of a package,” NHPIRG spokeswoman Addie Shankle said. Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:17:10 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953447-196/pennichuck-directors-grapple-with-unique-status-as.html If you want to know what the new board of directors of Pennichuck Corp. is up to, just go to one of their Friday morning meetings, if you have the time. Or, you can go online and read the minutes of their meetings at Pennichuck.com. However, be prepared to wait a while. Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:43:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953347-196/hollis-keeps-nonpublic-meeting-minutes-out-of.html Hollis selectmen met in nonpublic session 41 times in 2011 – often twice in a single meeting – and the vast majority of those closed-door discussions are unlikely to ever see the light of day. The 41 sessions was by far the most among three local public bodies surveyed by The Telegraph in an effort to gauge the public’s access to minutes and decisions reached during closed-door meetings last year. The Telegraph requested access to minutes of nonpublic meetings held by Hollis selectmen, the Merrimack School Board and the Hudson Board of Selectmen in 2011. Hollis was unique among the three boards in that it sealed all of its nonpublic minutes. Town officials refused to go back to previous meetings and review whether the minutes could be unsealed in response to the request. Hudson selectmen met in nonpublic session 25 times in 2011, and made copies of the minutes of those meetings available except for a series of three sessions in January and February, which were kept sealed. Merrimack School Board met 13 times in nonpublic session and made all of the minutes available at the paper’s request. The minutes from Hudson and Merrimack include when the meeting began and who was there, what subjects were talked about – land purchases, hiring or disciplining employees in most cases – and in some cases votes the boards took during the session. The Merrimack School Board spent roughly 91⁄2 hours meeting behind closed doors in 2011, according to minutes. Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:32:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953235-196/bills-before-legislature-would-strengthen-states-right-to-know.html Several bills before the state Legislature would significantly strengthen New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know Law if they become law. The group of bills address the existing law in a number of areas, including how violators are handled, and what records, groups and meetings are subject to the law. One bill, which has already been panned by a House committee, would have made the biggest change to the law by opening up the personnel files of public employees. Even though that bill was rejected before it got to the House floor, several others are still alive and have been endorsed by the House Judiciary Committee, including HB 1535 and HB 1223. HB 1223 aims to clarify the penalty for violating the Right-to-Know Law and would impose a fine on individual violators and give judges the leeway to order public employees or elected officials to undergo training. Under the bill, judges would be required to fine a public official or employee $250-$2,000 if a member of that body violates the law “in bad faith.” That person would then be required to reimburse the public entity its legal fees, according to the bill. Judges could also require individuals of public groups to attend training at their own expense, according to the bill. Previously, public agencies that violated the law were subject to injunctive relief through the courts and attorney fees. Walter Robinson, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University and member of the New First Amendment Center, said the law would make New Hampshire one of the few states in the region with fines for public officials who violate the law. “That would be a really good law because it creates an incentive for public officials to stop the deliberate delays and obfuscation, which are too common,” he said. “Anything that brings a stick to the table is a good thing.” Connecticut, generally regarded as the most open of the New England states, also includes fines, as well as making public agencies pay attorney fees if they violate the law. “How a judge would determine what constituted bad faith is a separate issue, and it might be difficult,” Robinson said. The bill was passed by the House Judiciary Committee. HB 1535 would expand the statute by making arrest records subject to the Right-to-Know Law and establish basic information to be included in the reports. The current law doesn’t expressly include arrest records and access to them varies by department, according to the bill. The bill would require not only that the records be accessible but they include, at minimum, the identities of the person arrested and the arresting officers, a description of the circumstances around the arrest, the alleged crime, whether the arrest was made on a warrant, the agencies involved in the investigation and the length of the investigation, according to the bill. The House Judiciary Committee also approved HB 1535, recommending that the House pass it. One bill the Judiciary Committee didn’t like was HB 1506, which was sponsored by Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield. The bill would have removed the personnel records of public employees from the exemptions under the Right-to-Know Law. Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:32:29 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953236-196/not-all-retirees-get-paid-through-states.html AMHERST – Not all workers retired from public jobs are created equal. After last fall’s ruling by the state Supreme Court making the names and amounts of the top pensioners in the state available to the public, only a select few employees get to keep secret how much of their retirement taxpayers are paying. Locally, only Amherst is trying to keep their publicly funded retirement packages blocked from public scrutiny. That’s because of a quirk in the way Amherst contributes to many of its employees’ retirement accounts. The town uses a 457(b) municipal retirement account, into which employees can contribute whatever portions of their salary they want. The town will match up to 3.5 percent, according to Town Administrator James O’Mara. While the pensions of Amhert’s police and fire employees are public since they are part of the New Hampshire Retirement System, O’Mara refused to release that information for employees in the town’s library, town hall and recreation, EMS, landfill, and public works departments after The Telegraph’s Right-to-Know request. For example, Gary MacGuire, at different points was both the town’s police chief and its town administrator. He has since retired from both jobs. Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:02:44 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/953095-196/working-for-city-of-nashua-can-be.html NASHUA – Of the 44 city employees who took home more than $100,000 last year, two-thirds used overtime and other bonus pay to reach six figures. As in years past, the Nashua school superintendent and the police and fire chiefs topped the list of city salaries in 2011, according to records released by the city’s payroll department. Mark Conrad, now in his third year as superintendent, earned $135,810 in 2011; Donald Conley, the city’s recently retired police chief, collected $123,086; and Fire Rescue Chief Brian Morrissey earned $116,520. Also, as in years past, the list of the city’s top earners is speckled with employees, mostly police officers and firefighters, whose salaries fell below $100,000 but who collected enough overtime and other pay to boost their earnings. Of the city’s 44 six-figure earners, 29 used overtime and other pay, ranging from $1,000 to $54,000. Nashua Police Capt. John Fisher, for instance, was scheduled to collect a salary of $99,401 in 2011, according to the salary database. When he left the department last year, he cashed in unused vacation time, among other supplements that helped him build a total income of $128,860. That total placed him above Morrissey, the fire chief, who took in a total of $125,181, as well as all the police and fire deputy chiefs, and left him more than $30,000 ahead of Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, who earned $105,363 in 2011. Another officer, Kevin Landry, was due to earn $64,414 in 2011, but he was able to nearly double his salary, earning $118,194.27, according to city records. Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:56:14 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/929276-196/nashua-taxpayers-spend-thousands-for-city-employees.html NASHUA – Who is the chattiest Cathy in the city? That would be Ken Lowe, who works at the wastewater treatment facility. Texting Tommy? Well, that title changes hands month to month. But the undisputed data champion of city employees: Patricia Croocker in the city’s health department is the hands-down winner. The ubiquity of cell phones – phones both smart and of average intelligence – in daily life is mirrored by Nashua’s army of public employees. The city, including the Police Department, which has a separate wireless contract, spends around $3,000 a month on Verizon Wireless and Sprint cell phones and Blackberrys. The school department spends another $2,000-$2,500, according to a search of city and school billing records for January-April. At that rate, taxpayers would spend more than $60,000 on city-owned cell phones annually. The city spent another $16,000 in fiscal 2011 reimbursing employees who use personal phones for business purposes, according to Mayor Donnalee Lozeau. Since Lozeau uses her personal cell phone, public records don’t show who’s on her most-called list. The four months of city cell-phone bills reviewed by The Telegraph reveal who uses their phones how and how much. Lowe, the collection system foreman at the Department of Public Works wastewater treatment facility, is on the phone a lot. He topped 2,000 minutes twice – 2,011 in February and 2,265 in April – in the four months and was just below that in the other months: 1,877 in January and 1,698 in March. Despite his propensity for being on the phone, Lowe didn’t return calls seeking comment. Croocker, an emergency preparedness coordinator in the Department of Health, has two devices. She carries a Blackberry and also a wireless Internet card that allows her to access the Web anywhere there’s a cell signal. Croocker used the most kilobytes of data during each of the four months, usually around 1.3 or 1.4 million kilobytes, and 3.7 million in January. Croocker, whose position is funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the devices are more than convenient; in many ways, they’re required for someone in her position. One of the components of the grant that pays her salary is that she help establish redundant forms of communication and is capable of contacting city and state emergency officials during an emergency. Sun, 14 Aug 2011 09:17:50 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/913062-196/longevity-payouts-add-up-for-nashua.html NASHUA – With three and a half months left in the fiscal year, Nashua so far has shelled out $608,715 in longevity pay to workers. Of that amount, more than half – $343,945, to be exact – was given to 366 school department employees, an average of about $940 per person. Another $62,304 was given to 94 members of the Police Department, for an average of about $663 per person. The Department of Public Works saw $53,700 given to 73 workers, an average of about $736 per person. However, the highest average per person was at the fire department, where $148,765 in longevity pay was spread among 122 employees – an average of about $1,219. Longevity pay is given to city employees based on their years of service. It’s one of the factors that increases a city employee’s total earnings during a year. All Nashua salaries and gross pay can be searched at nashuatelegraph.com using a salary calculator posted during Sunshine Week. How the longevity pay is paid out is established in union contracts. For the last fiscal year, the city paid out $621,281. In 2009, the city gave out a total of $672,398 in longevity payments. A fiscal year begins July 1 and runs through June 30. The city currently is in fiscal 2011. Fire Department officials and firefighters earned the top 37 amounts of longevity pay. Fire Chief Brian Morrisey topped the list for 2011, pulling in $3,344.43 in longevity pay. Overall, Morrissey earned $124,732.13 in gross pay, the fourth-highest amount in the city. Morrissey was followed by the assistant chief and the four deputy chiefs. More teachers than any other category of employees received longevity pay. Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:04:27 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912965-196/anyone-can-become-a-government-watchdog.html The idea of Sunshine Week is to help people like you know what your elected officials are doing. So, why shouldn’t you be one of the people helping that happen? That’s the idea of Sunshine Review, an online publication that uses the software powering Wikipedia to let people provide information about what their state or city government is doing, and how open it is about those actions. The 2-year-old project is a user-created report that touches on everything from a state’s rating on filing the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (New Hampshire is “tardy”) to information about lawsuits filed over the state’s open-meeting laws. Its coverage is spotty, at best: It has nothing about New Hampshire open-meeting legislation or local and county officials, for example. But like Wikipedia, it can be surprising in its depth. For example, it contains a list, with considerable detail, of taxpayer-funded lobbying associations, including such little-known groups as the New Hampshire Association of Assessing Officers. Such weaknesses and strengths are typical of user-generated projects, which depend on the knowledge and interest of volunteers willing to find information and then post it, using the sometimes confusing Wiki software. “We have had a couple of volunteers that really came and made over a state’s pages,” said Kristin McMurray, Sunshine Review senior editor. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:35:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912966-196/lower-newspaper-staffing-affects-investigative-reporting.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws protecting the public’s freedom of information. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The Telegraph participates with newspapers from around the country. Across New Hampshire, newspapers that have cut heavily into their editorial staffs are looking to keep a bright spotlight on state and local governments, businesses and community groups. Last year, the Concord Monitor, which has lost six of its 15 reporters to cutbacks, took the local housing authority to court when agency officials refused to release documents relating to the proposed demolition of a historically significant department house. The New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, which has cut back on its statewide edition, is engaged in an ongoing court battle with state lawmakers over access to the names of the state’s top recipients of public pension plans. The Telegraph keeps filing Right-to-Know requests for various items – including all of Mayor Donnalee Lozeau’s e-mails, access to collective bargaining agreements in all area towns and even the settlement paid to fired Brookline Police Chief Thomas Goulden, which the town wanted to keep private. And just last month, Elizabeth Dinan, the police and courts reporter for the Portsmouth Herald, won the investigative reporting category in the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s Better Newspapers contest for her work uncovering the name of the Seabrook officer who broke state laws and police protocols, exceeding 100 mph in a 2010 police chase that injured a civilian. Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:10:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/912810-263/cant-ever-afford-to-let-our-guard.html Pennsylvanians have reason to celebrate during Sunshine Week; we’re entering the third year of the new Right-To-Know Law, which finally allowed us to look at reams of documents we pay to produce. But the law is under attack by the public officials who were used to operating in secrecy. Usually, they argue they’re protecting privacy. But the changes they suggest would actually shield them from accountability. Take House Bill 364, for example, introduced by Rep. RoseMarie Swanger, currently being reviewed by the House State Government Committee. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:03:01 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/912820-227/site-will-allow-public-to-review-state.html CONCORD – The new website of a free-market think tank will allow the public to examine the checkbook of New Hampshire state government. The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy unveiled its new program, NHOpenGov.org, that contains a half-million transactions from 2009 that consumers can search a variety of ways. “Your government’s checkbook and your personal checkbook should be equally accessible,” said Charles Arlinghaus, executive director of the group. The website is the two-year product of the group that grew out of a request of Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon under the Right to Know Law. Each year state government has about 1 million transactions. Arlinghaus said it will be much easier in the future to update this program than it was to create it. “The Administrative Services Department kind of had to invent this as we went along,” Arlinghaus said. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:27:04 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912821-196/gun-permits-more-common-in-smaller-towns.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws protecting the public’s freedom of information. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The Telegraph participates with newspapers from around the country. Roughly one in 25 people in Greater Nashua is licensed to carry a concealed gun, but it’s in the rural small towns, not the crowded city, where people are most likely to be carrying. The number of permits for concealed weapons issued in the region has increased in recent years, possibly in reaction to high-profile crimes or concern about government restrictions. Under New Hampshire law the number of people in each community who have permits to carry concealed weapons is public information, which The Telegraph obtained to coincide with Sunshine Week. Exactly who those people are is anyone’s guess, as the identities of people who have permits is not public. New Hampshire requires a permit only for a concealed weapon; and there is no similar data available about how many total firearms are owned. The data shows that gun ownership in area communities has increased in the past two years. Sat, 30 Jul 2011 07:11:28 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/912688-263/citizens-key-to-rebooting-transparency.html The promise of the developing transparency movement in this country is greater accountability of our elected officials. Embedded in that promise is a hope for more openness, greater efficiency and accountability in how lawmakers and government officials care for the public’s interests and spend taxpayer money, and combat corruption. When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis made his famous statement – “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants” – in 1913, he was focused on the corrupting influence of major corporations and monopolies in all aspects of American life. It’s now nearly a century later, and in many ways the promise of transparency is being refined, enabled by the Internet and ever-expanding troves of data. Watchdog groups and new media outlets are mixing and matching different types of information to tell the story of how our electoral system affects our public policy process and how our tax money is spent. Call it sunlight rebooted. I’m sure Brandeis would approve. But, for all the good work done over the past two decades by groups like the Center for Responsive Politics, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Project Vote Smart, the Center for Public Integrity and others, we understand that we’ve just scraped the surface of what is possible. The Center for Public Integrity’s recent work with The Wall Street Journal to examine the Medicare claims database for patterns of fraud and abuse is a glaring example of how access to basic data can save the taxpayers millions by revealing where abuses appear to be prevalent. Texas launched an expenditures database for vendors and purchases in 2007. Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:03:07 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/912702-227/ease-of-following-the-nh-money-wrong.html New Hampshire flunks when it comes to openness about government spending, according to a report released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group on Wednesday. The report, “Following the Money 2011: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data,” looked at what level of details states are providing about their spending on government websites. New Hampshire received a grade of “F” because is doesn’t provide “checkbook-level detail.” This was the organization’s second annual report. Its release was timed to coincide with Sunshine Week. “The good news is that since last year’s Following the Money report, state governments across the country have become far more transparent about where the money goes,” Phineas Baxandall, senior analyst for tax and budget policy at US PIRG, said in a statement. Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:03:24 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912708-196/sunshine-week-nashua-reviews-public-record-keeping.html NASHUA – City departments that create public records are responsible for maintaining them, disposing of them at the proper time and making sure the records are kept in a way that makes them accessible to the public. That message was made clear to roughly 45 municipal employees attending a public documents workshop Wednesday at City Hall auditorium. The workshop, which was planned to coincide with Sunshine Week, was organized by City Clerk Paul Bergeron and co-hosted by Brian Burford, the New Hampshire state archivist. While most who attended were city workers, some came from towns as far as Rindge and Sharon. One message emphasized in the workshop, which Bergeron said he hoped to make an annual Sunshine Week program, is that communities need to create a records retention policy. Such a policy will ensure that essential public records will be retained as required by law. Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:03:40 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912553-196/average-teachers-pay-shown-up-in-city.html Nashua teachers on average are making 20 percent more this year than they did five years ago, when their current contract took effect. The average teacher salary in Nashua this year is $57,268, according to a public data released by the state Department of Education. That is a 19.8 percent increase from 2006-07, when the average teacher salary was $47,818. Although the teachers contract wasn’t approved until the spring of 2008, it was retroactive to September of 2006. Teachers agreed to take no retroactive raise in the first year of the contract but got double step increases in 2008-09. The contract, approved under the duress of a threatened teachers strike after city officials had shot down several other proposals, expires at the end of this school year, on Aug. Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:10:17 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912554-196/salaries-pay-in-nashua-are-on-record.html EDITOR’S NOTE: This article includes a way to search through a database of Nashua city and school salaries. NASHUA – Some predictable names make the list of people with the highest salaries in the city of Nashua. The school superintendent, police and fire chiefs are the top three, with the Superintendent Mark Conrad pulling in the highest base salary of $135,000 in 2010. The city’s CEO, Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, just missed the list of the top 10, coming in at No. 11 with a $103,497.97 salary. She’s not the top salary-earner with an office in City Hall. Attorney James McNamee, the corporation counsel, is at No. Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:06:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/912462-227/lawmakers-out-to-improve-state-government-finances.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws protecting the public’s freedom of information. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The Telegraph participates with newspapers from around the country. CONCORD – Last year, state lawmakers ordered the creation of TransparentNH, a website devoted to state government finances, including various budget documents and a search tool for the entire state payroll. The website, nh.gov/transparentnh, launched in December, and this year, lawmakers have proposed changes to make it even more informative. “It was a good start,” Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield, said of TransparentNH. Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:03:21 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/912463-227/judge-state-pay-levels-yourself.html For a few years before he retired, Chief Justice John Broderick spoke out frequently about the court’s budget and how the state courts are starved for funds. In the past two years, Broderick’s salary rose 13 percent, from $138,451 in 2007 to $156,695 in 2009, according a 2007 state payroll spreadsheet posted on the Sunshine Review website and 2009 state payroll data on the state’s TransparentNH website. In fact, judges in the state court system are among the state’s highest paid employees, if only base pay is considered (judges are salaried and thus not eligible for overtime or other perks): every last one makes considerably more than, for instance, Gov. John Lynch, whose pay rose about 8 percent, from $109,411 in 2007 to $118,212 in 2009. Broderick was not the highest paid state official, however. That would be the chancellor of the state’s Community College System, Richard Gustafson, who made $165,671 in regular pay, plus another $31,200 in other compensation, in 2009. As for those working stiffs who get paid by the hour? The state of New Hampshire paid a grand total of $22.5 million in overtime to its employees in 2009, with the New Hampshire Hospital chief pharmacist Iphigeniah Daukopulos raking in the most overtime, at $50,321, on top of $95,166 regular pay. Scores of state employees, most in corrections and medical fields, made more than $20,000 a year in overtime in 2009, the website shows. Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:20:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/912339-263/forecast-mostly-cloudy-across-usa.html Heading into Sunshine Week, many open-government advocates across the country feel they have much more to bemoan than they have to celebrate. Even if no court or attorney general ever chastises Wisconsin’s Republican legislators for violating open meeting law notice requirements, the convoluted web of parliamentary rationalizations surrounding their vote last week is still beyond ordinary comprehension. Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has signed into law a measure that now means that fewer than half of all U.S. state legislatures hold themselves to the same levels of transparency they prescribe for others. Worse yet, open government laws in state after state, whether their reach goes to lawmakers themselves, are being damaged and weakened with increasing frequency by new exclusions, loopholes and crazy exemptions that promote more secrecy and a lot less transparency. President Barack Obama’s openness pledge has garnered a lot of attention, with advocates questioning whether it was a false promise and whether his professed belief in transparency will ever make its way through the vast federal bureaucracy. But at the state and local levels, there has been little notice of an ongoing frontal assault on open, accessible government. When viewed comprehensibly and nationally, what has been happening in state legislatures all across the land has been downright scary. David Cuillier, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Arizona whose specialty is open government, said the sweeping new changes to Utah’s Government Records Access Management Act, which goes by the folksy-sounding acronym GRAMA, will leave Utah residents with less access to information about their government than residents of Australia, Ireland, Mexico or even Albania. “I’m guessing most countries have better FOIA laws than what Utah will have,” said Cuillier, who had based the first observation on a quick, informal survey. Utah’s new law exempts virtually all electronic communications – including voice mails, instant messages, video recordings, text messages and even e-mails. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:31:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/912353-196/sick-time-bonuses-healthy-hits.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws protecting the public’s freedom of information. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The Telegraph participates with newspapers from around the country. NASHUA – If you retire as a cop, firefighter, teacher or from some other city jobs, you might be able to cash in your unused sick and vacation days for a nice parting check. That’s good for you and your family. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:15:00 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/912253-227/battle-brews-over-paying-for-burgeoning-costs.html CONCORD – The recovering stock market helped translate to nearly $600 million of investment profits for the New Hampshire Retirement System in 2009. But the high cost of benefits paid out and the historic low-balling of the actual expense meant the system was only 58.5 percent financed for the future. That cash windfall led to an improvement of just two-tenths of 1 percent. Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said that was the clarion call that real systemic reform had to occur. “We had a great year, and the funding needle barely moved. What does that tell you? We have a program going forward that is not sustainable,” said Bradley, the chief architect of a reform plan (SB 3) that has made early gains through the 2011 legislative maze. In the House of Representatives, former Finance Committee Chairman Neal Kurk, R-Weare, is moving even more aggressively to cut back or cap the state’s obligation to pay health care benefits for certain retirees (HB 231). But many organized labor leaders protest that the solutions sought in Concord would make existing employees pay heavily for a network that let public employers and their taxpaying clients off the hook for too long. Professional Fire Fighters Association President David Lang said zealots for reform over-hype the financial challenges facing the system to try to ram through changes that would break the contract of government with its workers. “In the last 10 years, the system has taken in $5.5 billion and has paid out $4.5 billion,” Lang said. “That’s not insolvency. That’s not bankruptcy.” There are many illustrations that makes the New Hampshire Retirement System stand out. For instance, Bloomberg News Service ranked it the third-worst in the country. The Pew Research Center for the States listed New Hampshire among 18 states with “serious concerns.” The report found New Hampshire’s pension obligations total $7.7 billion, while its unfunded ledger is $2.5 billion. The total contributions from employers and employees in 2009 were $189 million. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:11:16 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/912255-227/retirement-system-protects-privacy-of-pensioners-in.html At any time, state residents can see the salary of any public employee, from the governor to a mayor to a trash collector. But once public employees retire, their pensions are considered private information. Residents can’t fully review how their tax dollars supported the retirements of municipal, county and state employees. The New Hampshire Retirement System claims that pensioners have a right to privacy, and that releasing how much each individual collects doesn’t benefit the greater public. Instead, the NHRS provides separate lists of information: one with only the names of pensioners, and another with pension amounts but no matching identifications. The NHRS takes this stance while it comes under great scrutiny, as lawmakers consider revamping the criteria for receiving a pension. Legislators and others worry that the system doesn’t have enough money to meet all its future obligations, and argue that employees should work longer and retire at a later age to help stave off a collapse. The NHRS also holds the line on privacy when public employees attract attention to the system by collecting a pension, but continue to work another job funded by taxpayers. William Quigley III, for instance, has recently been criticized for drawing a pension check while being paid for a 37-hour workweek as Brookline’s police chief. Brookline selectmen and Quigley at first signed a contract describing his job as a full-time position, which violated the NHRS’ policy that a pensioner can work only part time. Any public attempt to learn information about Quigley’s pension is blocked by the NHRS. It is thus unknown how much Quigley is benefitting by, as his critics would say, “double dipping.” In fact, with the NHRS providing incomplete data on all pensioners, any thorough and objective analysis of the system isn’t possible. Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:10:27 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/912294-263/dont-turn-clock-back-on-open-government.html Here are a few things for a longtime New England newspaper editor to be thankful for this time of year: The can’t-come-soon-enough first day of spring – especially this year. The use of the word “bracket” in news stories that have nothing to do with carpentry. (Hello, March Madness.) And the arrival of Sunshine Week, the national campaign undertaken each year by the American Society of News Editors to call attention to the importance of the First Amendment and open government in a democratic society. “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,” ASNE organizers say. Did you catch that? Not “enlighten and empower” the media. But to “enlighten and empower people” – just like you – who have the same rights to access your government and its plethora of documents as we do. If you remember only one thing from Sunshine Week this year, that should be it. Like many things in life, all that is good here grew out of people trying to do something bad – in this case, Florida lawmakers, who in 2002 tried to introduce numerous exemptions to the state’s public records laws. That prompted the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors to establish Sunshine Sunday as part of a statewide effort to bring public awareness to these dubious efforts to weaken the state’s open government laws. In fact, the organization credits Sunshine Sunday – and the two that followed – with blocking roughly 300 exemptions to the state’s public record laws. When several other states began to organize Sunshine Sundays of their own, ASNE stepped up with the help of a Knight Foundation grant and established a national Sunshine Week in March 2005. Sun, 13 Mar 2011 09:03:07 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/912296-263/all-fired-up-over-right-to-know.html Today marks the beginning of Sunshine Week, a time when the media and open-government advocates across the country mark the importance of the public’s right to know what their government is doing. It’s also a good time to reflect on whether state governments are acting in a way that is consistent with the preamble to our own state’s Right-to-Know Law: “Openness in the conduct of public business is essential to a democratic society.” Unfortunately, based on some recent developments, how the public defines “openness” appears to be at odds with governors and lawmakers in statehouses around the nation. Case in point: Utah. Last Tuesday, Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill into law that makes significant changes to the state’s open records law – and not for the better. The new law exempts voice mails, instant messages and text messages; places a heavier financial burden on citizens seeking records, and permits government officials to withhold documents if they can show they might be subject to litigation. The bill-signing prompted a protest by more than 200 people inside the capitol building, the establishment of the Utah Citizens FOI Network and a stinging editorial rebuke in The Salt Lake Tribune that opens with: “Gov. Gary Herbert has sold his political soul, and sold out his constituents, by signing a dreadful bill that will eviscerate the state’s prime open government law.” Meanwhile, an Associated Press 50-state survey released last week found a mixed bag of advances and retreats as many state legislatures move to update their open government laws in keeping with the Internet Age. In doing so, however, some legislatures chose to exempt electronic messages – much like Utah did – even though the same information on a piece of paper might have been subject to disclosure under the original law. Still, the AP survey also found some success stories: Alabama Budget Committee meetings are now streamed live over the Internet. Sun, 13 Mar 2011 09:03:18 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/909461-263/deadline-today-to-nominate-sunshine-week-local.html DEADLINE TODAY TO NOMINATE SUNSHINE WEEK HERO The American Society of News Editors will recognize “Local Heroes” of open government in conjunction with Sunshine Week (March 13-19). The winner will receive an expenses-paid trip to San Diego in April to be honored at the organization’s annual convention. Second- and third-place winners will receive $500 and $250 prizes, respectively. To nominate a local hero for 2011, please visit SunshineWeek.org and fill out a nomination form. All nominations must be received by today. For more information, please visit SunshineWeek.org or contact Telegraph Editorial Page Editor Nick Pappas, New Hampshire coordinator for Sunshine Week, at npappas@nashuatelegraph.com. Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:05:32 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/678637-263/open-government-for-more-than-just-a.html Every year around this time, when media organizations mark Sunshine Week to highlight the importance of open government, the dominant public response seems to be a collective yawn. If you did a poll, most people would agree government records and meetings should be open. But when public officials keep things secret, in defiance of at least the spirit of the law, or when shortcomings of the laws are made apparent, there’s usually no public response. Aside from a few dedicated citizens, no one seems to care about a lack of sunshine until it affects them personally. I’m reminded of what happened after Crofton, Md., teenager Christopher Jones was killed last year. At a community forum, residents aired concerns about violence. Scores of people applauded when others demanded more information from the county police chief, asking him why they hadn’t known about repeated fights, a man with a gun caught in front of an elementary school and reports of gang activity. Sure, I was thinking in the audience, now you care. As I wrote in a column at the time, The Capital had been fighting police for months over their new policy of keeping all reports secret. Yet, after that column, I didn’t receive a single response from a person outraged or even concerned about the secrecy. “It’s really hard to get the public motivated,” said Jim Snider, of Severna Park, who has pushed for more openness in the county school system. The Public Information Act, the state law that makes most public documents public record, is used often by residents seeking information. But when it counts, it and other laws often fall short. The county Health Department receives about 1,800 PIA requests a year for documents like food-inspection and recreational water-quality reports, and well-water and percolation tests. About 85 percent of those requests are from everyday residents, not journalists or lawyers. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:59 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/678638-263/c-spans-archives-bring-history-to-life.html Wonks and nerds, rejoice. People with lives can play, too. C-SPAN, that faithful recorder of all things Congress and much more, has put 23 years’ worth of video programs online. That’s 160,000 hours. Searchable. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:59 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/677928-196/46-city-employees-made-100k-in-2009.html NASHUA – Nearly half the city’s top 40 salaries for 2009 went to school department employees, but once overtime and other stipends were factored in, two-thirds of the city’s top pay-earners were police officers and firefighters. City employee wages are public records and subject to the state’s Right-to-Know Law. A searchable database of all city salaries accompanies this story at www.nashuatelegraph.com. In all, 15 city employees were scheduled to earn more than $100,000 in 2009, while 46 took home $100,000 or more in pay. Based on statistics from the city’s payroll department, the city’s CEO, Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, earned a base salary of $103,494.74 at the end of the year. That was the 11th highest base salary. But her 2009 tax year earnings of $102,281.49 ranked 39th in the city. The base salaries are what employees were scheduled to earn as of Dec. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:59 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/676867-196/help-on-government-affairs-just-a-call.html Every municipality in the state contracts with the New Hampshire Municipal Association, hiring the nonprofit business to provide legal, political and fiscal assistance. This year, large cities and small towns will pay the association more than $900,000 in dues. In turn, several local officials say they receive all sorts of help on government affairs – all just a phone call away. “If they weren’t there, where would we get it?” Milford Town Administrator Guy Scaife said of NHMA’s offerings. Scaife and other officials applauded the association just as the practices of its parent organization, the Local Government Center, come into question. Last week, the state firefighters union filed a suit claiming LGC has diverted insurance premiums contributed by municipal employees to for-profit ends of the business. The suit follows a recent Supreme Court decision that ordered LGC to publicize its payroll records because it handles too many government affairs to be exclusively private. Despite the controversy, several local officials said they stand behind the work of LGC and its Municipal Association. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:58 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/676868-196/quasi-public-nonprofit-opened-up.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws that protect the public’s freedom of information and right to know. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The project is spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and includes the participation of newspapers across the country. In following the state Right-to-Know Law, municipal governments have to make most information available for public review. Allowing citizens to see how elected officials and public employees govern is the underpinning of the checks and balances system conceived by the Founding Fathers. But what happens when a nonprofit has a quasi-public function and its staff salaries are paid largely by tax dollars? Until last month, a nonprofit corporation fitting that profile had contended its salaries and other information were not for public consumption. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:58 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/675091-263/bill-would-strengthen-publics-right-to-know.html We need to strengthen New Hampshire’s Right-to-Law Law by applying it to nonprofit corporations that receive the majority of their funding from the state or local government. HB 1356, which the House will vote on this week, would let taxpayers better know how their money is being spent. As the New Hampshire Supreme Court stated in this January’s ruling on Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire v. Local Government Center: “Public scrutiny can expose corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism … Knowing how a public body is spending taxpayer money in conducting public business is essential to the transparency of government, the very purpose underlying the Right To Know Law.” The Local Government Center is a nonprofit corporation funded by taxpayers’ dollars. It took the Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire eight years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to make the LGC records open to the public under the Right-to-Law Law (RSA 91-A). Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:57 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/675447-227/right-to-know--open-records-of.html CONCORD – The records of private nonprofits who rely on taxpayer money to survive should be subject to the Right-to-Know Law, legislative advocates and state employee union leaders urged Tuesday. Opponents warn these nonprofits would have to spend scarce resources to comply with disclosure requirements at a time when private donations are declining in the midst of the recession. The House of Representatives is expected today to pass judgment on the amended bill (HB 1356) of state Rep. Rick Watrous, D-Concord, that would cover nonprofits with annual budgets of at least $100,000 that get at least half of their money from taxpayer sources. “To me, it’s common sense that public scrutiny should follow public money,” said Watrous. “I think long term this would be good for New Hampshire.” Several years ago, Watrous lost a court battle to try to get records released for the taxpayer-financed public access cable channel in Concord that had employed him. The bill would define these nonprofit groups as public agencies whose records would be subject to disclosure but the group would not have to open its meetings to the public. In addition, records on fund-raising donors, attorney-client exchanges and juvenile records for these nonprofit groups would be exempt from disclosure. Diana Lacey, chief labor negotiator for the New Hampshire State Employees Association, said her group backs the bill, given a rapid increase in private contracts while rank-and-file state employees faced layoffs over the past year. “We are building entire networks of service delivery outside of government,” Lacey said. “These agencies are doing the public’s work.” Rep. Philip Preston, D-Ashland, said these nonprofits already submit annual reports on their finances to the Charitable Trusts Division in the attorney general’s office. Further, Preston said the disclosure mandate could extend beyond services that taxpayer dollars provide to the entire mission of the nonprofit groups. “This bill would fundamentally change the Right-to-Know Law, extending its coverage to a broad spectrum of private nonprofit corporations, based not on any governmental function, but solely on their receipt of government funding.” Kevin Landrigan can be reached at 321-7040 or klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:57 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/675454-196/stimulus-puts-recently-retired-teachers-right-back.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws that protect the public’s freedom of information and right to know. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The project is spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and includes the participation of newspapers across the country. NASHUA – Stimulus money intended to create or save jobs was instead used by the school district to rehire a small group of teachers who had just retired and collected severance packages. Through a series of Right to Know requests, The Telegraph found that three teachers who retired last summer were immediately rehired to positions funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion federal stimulus package. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:57 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/673857-263/open-records-law-still-a-work-in.html It’s a pretty good law. But having a good law and having a universally good “open government” attitude across the state are two different things. Pennsylvania’s new “Right to Know Law” took effect Jan. 1, 2009, more than a year ago. Has it been successful? It depends whom you ask and how you measure success when it comes to citizens being able to keep track of what their government is doing. The new law gives everyone the right to see and copy records held by all local and state governments and agencies across the state. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/673860-263/not-much-sunshine-in-these-two-reports.html You don’t have to be a career executive to understand that just because you want something to happen means that it’s going to happen – at least as quickly as you would like. For President Barack Obama, that’s not only true of health care reform but for his desire to make the federal government more open and responsive to its citizens, too. That became apparent this week with the release of two surveys in conjunction with Sunshine Week, the national initiative championed each year by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to promote the importance of open government in a democratic society. On Sunday, the fifth in a series of annual polls conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University found that 44 percent of the 1,001 adults surveyed believe the federal government is “very secretive.” That tied for the worst showing with the final year of the George W. Bush presidency in 2008. (The best showing was 22 percent in 2006.) Then on Monday, the National Security Archive released the results of its audit into how well – or in this case, how not so well – federal agencies are responding to the president’s directive toward “a new era of open government” in the way they apply the Freedom of Information Act. Certainly, the first should come as no surprise, given the public’s longtime distrust of government in general and the federal government in particular. In fact, the Scripps Howard poll once again found that public cynicism grows the further you move away from your community – 36 percent believe their local government is “somewhat or very secretive,” 48 percent feel that way about their state government and 70 percent about Washington. The poll also found a nearly even split between those who believe there is less secrecy under the Obama administration (34 percent) and those who feel it’s about the same (38 percent) as the previous administration. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsworldnation/674317-227/agencies-slow-in-following-obamas-openness-order.html WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is having difficulty getting all federal agencies to follow his order to deliver “a new era of open government,” according to a study of how they administer the Freedom of Information Act. The National Security Archive, a private group that publishes declassified government information and uses the act and lawsuits to pry out official records, found a decidedly mixed record in an audit of how 90 agencies responded to Obama directives to open more records, and the guidelines and training sessions that followed from the Justice Department. Rescinding a Bush policy of defending any legal reason to withhold information, Obama ordered agencies to release any information whose disclosure wasn’t prohibited by law or wouldn’t cause foreseeable harm. The audit was released Sunday, the first day of Sunshine Week, an annual observance by journalism organizations to promote open government and freedom of information. The Obama administration “has clearly stated a new policy direction for open government but has not conquered the challenge of communicating and enforcing that message throughout the executive branch,” the report concluded. Among the findings the archive found most troubling were: Ancient requests still linger, and 33 of the 90 agencies now have an older unfulfilled request than they did Sept. 30, 2008. Five agencies reported releasing less and withholding more information during the 2009 budget year, which includes the first nine months of the Obama administration, than they did the previous year. 35 of the 90 agencies told the auditors they had no records of putting in place the new Obama FOIA policies. The oldest pending request the auditors found is approaching 18 years old. It was submitted Sept. 21, 1992, by the National Security Archive itself to the National Archives and Records Administration for files on nuclear arms control and test information from 1959-61. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/674320-196/city-had-powerful-requesters-too.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws that protect the public’s freedom of information and right to know. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The project is spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and includes the participation of newspapers across the country. NASHUA – Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Right-to-Know requests submitted to city officials over the past few years is that two of the world’s most powerful people are among the requesters. President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both asked for a list of city residents who requested absentee ballots in 2007, when they were candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. People ask for information all the time, but it’s fairly rare that they use the state law written specifically to outline exactly what information they have a right to, the state’s Right-to-Know Law, RSA 91:A. Figuring out who asks the city for information and then determining whether they received it is more complicated than it may seem. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/673053-196/concerns-on-illegal-vote-stopped-it.html EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws that protect the public’s freedom of information and right to know. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The project is spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and includes the participation of newspapers across the country. NASHUA – The former president of the Board of Aldermen stopped what he deemed a closed-door “vote” on whether to grant an extension to a developer. The issue surfaced in e-mails sent by Mayor Donnalee Lozeau. Through a Right-to-Know Law request, The Telegraph obtained hundreds of e-mails and memos sent by the mayor between Oct. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:56 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/671704-196/nh-rep-pushing-online.html The New Hampshire Legislature stands among a minority of states in the country requiring every bill to get a public hearing, a public committee vote of recommendation and a public vote from either the full House or Senate. House and Senate sessions are aired live on streaming audio, and the state’s Web site permits the public to examine every bill and also view the up-to-date voting records of all legislators. Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham, engineered several reforms to make state budgeting more transparent as chairman of the House Finance Committee. She took the budget committee on the road for public hearings, required agencies to put expected grants up front into the spending plan and sent performance audits about state agencies to policy committees to pour over for recommended law and regulatory changes. But some national surveys have ranked New Hampshire below average for using technology to bring state government closer to the people. This year, Smith is teaming with Rep. Norm Major, R-Atkinson, along with Senate leaders from both parties on legislation to make monthly expenditure reporting of state government available online. Smith said budget cuts caused by the recession and the slow progress of the new budget and accounting computer system known as New Hampshire First prompted them to lower expectations of what can be put online now. “We would all like to do a whole lot more than is provided for in this bill,” Smith said. “People say, ‘Oh just put it on an Excel spreadsheet.’ It’s not that easy, and we’re asking capable administrators who are already working with depleted staffs to put this information together.” While not at the finish line, the state is moving in the right direction, she said. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:55 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsworldnation/671710-227/john-q.-public-the-truth-is-still.html Public cynicism that the federal government operates in an atmosphere of secrecy is as strong as ever, despite President Barack Obama’s promises to make government information more easily available to the public. A new survey of 1,001 adult residents of the United States found that 70 percent believe the federal government is either “very secretive” or “somewhat secretive.” The largest portion of respondents, 44 percent, said it’s “very secretive.” That matches the worst rating the federal government received during the final year of George W. Bush’s presidency. The poll is part of a five-year series of studies into public attitudes toward government openness commissioned by The American Society of News Editors. It was conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University. The latest survey is being released today, the beginning of National Sunshine Week. The survey also found that people believe state and local governments tend to be much more “open and transparent” in their operations than the federal government. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:55 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/671712-227/legislators-need-to-maintain-openness.html Editor’s note: Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws that protect the public’s freedom of information and right to know. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The project is spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and includes the participation of newspapers across the country. An intrepid investigator can spend days in fruitless search for the state legislator who is an unapologetic enemy of openness in government. New Hampshire Rep. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:55 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/671740-263/information-is-not-truly-public-until-it.html Every day, the federal government releases vast amounts of useful information about every aspect of our nation and how government works. This public information has a deep impact on almost every aspect of American life. Some of it can be used to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, or have a profound effect on health, economic development and commerce. The problem is, much of this government information is too often hard to find, difficult to understand, expensive to obtain in useful formats, and available in only a few locations. There is a solution to this problem: the Internet. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:55 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/671741-263/unlocking-data-in-washington.html During the presidential campaign of 2008, it was not usual for then-candidate Barack Obama to talk about transparency and the importance of open government. So it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that on his first full day in office, the president issued a memorandum to the heads of all executive departments restoring the original presumption of disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a reversal from the previous administration. “My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government,” he said. “We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.” While there have been some broken promises along the way – posting all bills on the Internet five days before signing them and the pledge for televised health care negotiations on C-SPAN – the Obama administration has introduced a number of initiatives to, in essence, do what Toto did to the Wizard of Oz – pull back the curtain for all to see. Prime among those initiatives was the Open Government Directive, an order issued through the Office of Management and Budget to all executive departments, directing them to take steps to implement the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration in their dealings with the American public. Specifically, the Dec. 8 directive called for executive departments and agencies to: • Publish government information online. • Improve the quality of government information. • Create and institutionalize a culture of open government. • Create an enabling policy framework for open government. The directive also set specific deadlines to get some of this work done. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:55 EST http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/671744-263/we-could-really-use-a-few-troublemakers.html Several weeks ago, for four consecutive days, we published a box on our Opinion page seeking nominations for Sunshine Week “Local Heroes,” citizens who have played a role in ensuring open meetings and access to public documents in their communities. Accompanied by what should now be the familiar Sunshine Week logo – the sun shining behind a government building dome and an open file folder – the 101-word item was featured prominently Feb. 23-26 along with those days’ letters to the editor under the headline: WANTED: SUNSHINE WEEK ‘LOCAL HEROES.’ It also appeared each day in the online version of our Opinion section. In short, the note to readers explained we were joining media outlets around the country in an effort to recognize those citizens who, in our words, “have fought tirelessly for open meetings or the release of public documents.” Readers were encouraged to nominate someone – including themselves – who they felt was deserving of such recognition and to contact me with a brief note detailing why. So how many nominations do you think I received? Pick one: A) 10 B) 5 C) 1 D) 0 If you guessed D, you are correct. Zero. Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate. On Wednesday of that week, someone posting under the name Russ Richardson placed the following comment online: “I would nominate the Voters of Nashua who removed the chief thunder cloud of open government in Nashua politics, the Hon. Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:03:55 EST