INDIANAPOLIS -- On the one-year anniversary of Governor Mike Pence's announcement ofJust IN, a (since-canceled) state-run news service, John Gregg, the Democratic candidate for governor, is calling for greater government transparency in a policy proposal announced Monday.
IndyThisWeek | Exclusive interview with John Gregg
“While this governor would have created a taxpayer funded propaganda machine to control what information reporters and the public have access to, I want to throw open the doors of state government,” Gregg said in a release.
There are four parts to Gregg's open government initiative. Those are:
- Mandating a 10-day turnaround on public information requests - There is no current time period that the agencies have to respond to public information requests. They just have to acknowledge the receipt of the request.
- Strengthening powers of public access counselor - Gregg wants to give the counselor the power to determine whether certain information should be made public if an agency wants to keep it withheld.
- Creating a public transparency commission - The commission would review the laws and give recommendations on how to improve them.
- Creating an open data portal in Indiana - The commission would also create a searchable database for open data.
Indiana received an F in for its access to public information in a 2015 report.
Gregg said he would issue executive orders to make these parts happen, if necessary.
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