Sunshine Week—Freedom of Information Is Celebrated

Ramona Patch is participating in Sunshine Week this week by promoting and celebrating open government and freedom of information.

We aim to engage our communities in conversation about the importance of the public’s right to know and educate them about local and state freedom of information and so-called sunshine laws and the public records that are available, how to get, use and decipher them, and explain how and why journalists use them to cover and inform our communities.

First, a little background on Sunshine Week, which was launched in 2005 by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) Foundation.  Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.  

The week, March 13-19, is funded primarily by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami, along with the ASNE Foundation. There are games, proclamations and more, all brought to you by the Sunshine Week team, which we have shared with you.

You can join us at Ramona Patch and spread a little sunshine around town.

Start with a Sunshine Week Open Government Proclamation

In recognizing earlier Sunshine Weeks, many public officials around the country issued proclamations extolling openness in government. A few introduced significant open government legislation or signed executive orders. It’s time the pronouncements become actions and the few become the many.

This Sunshine Week, we urge citizens to press their public officials to do more, seeking not just broad statements of support for greater transparency but specific pledges and plans of action to enhance the public’s right to know.

Sunshine Week 2011 can be a time when you as a citizen or civic organization make a difference by identifying local or state open government shortcomings and then asking your public officials to pledge and initiate specific improvements in local or state law and practice.

To assist your efforts, the Sunshine Week team presents a sample Open Government Proclamation that you, or your group, can take to your public officials to seek a commitment about open government with specific action. Like all proclamations, it begins with a general statement of the benefits of open government at every level.

That is followed by samples of open government provisions that have brought greater transparency to local and state governments around the country. We offer these as examples of the kind of specific action that may be needed and appropriate for San Diego county. We also hope these examples will inspire ideas for other openness measures.

Let us know if you are successful by contacting the Sunshine Week team at dmk@asne.org and writing "Sunshine Week Proclamation" in the subject line. If your government’s action was reported by local media, send along the link(s). We plan an “Honor Roll” of government entities that adopt Sunshine Week open government pledges and/or take specific actions.

Here is the Sunshine Week Open Government Proclamation: http://www.sunshineweek.org/proclamation.aspx.

Play the You’re A Ray of Sunshine Game

The Sunshine Week team designed this game to challenge you, help you have some fun and learn about why open government and freedom of information in the U.S. is to be cherished and held to high standards. Play it here. https://game.sunshineweek.org/

Get Smart about the Public’s Right to Know

Read up. There are resources for teachers, including lesson plans so young people can participate at http://www.hsj.org/Services/index.cfm?menu_id=9.

There’s  also a host of resources on open government assembled by the Sunshine Week team at http://www.sunshineweek.org/ReadingRoom.aspx.

Read more about Sunshine Week at www.sunshineweek.org.

March 15

The Ramona Municipal Water District responded with this information about the public access they provide to their records.

The Ramona Municipal Water District makes information available to the public through a variety of resources. In an effort to promote transparency we provide a great deal of information on our web site at RMWD.org.  A partial list of the information available on the District’s web site includes:

       Agendas and Minutes from public meetings from 2009, 2010 and 2011

       District Information including Engineering Documents, Annual Budgets, Audited Financial Reports, Human Resource Information and schedules of rates and fees

       Ramona Municipal Water District Legislative Code

       Relevant news releases and public notices

In addition, the Ramona Municipal Water District complies with The California Public Records Act (PRA). The District requires any public information requests be made in writing and addressed to the General Manager of the Ramona Municipal Water District. There may be copy costs for some requests.

Please advise if we can provide any additional information.

Thank you

David Barnum