Teaching Public Officials About Open Government

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Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott’s push for a law requiring all state officials to take a training course in public records was about more than his support for open government. His office was being overwhelmed by open-government disputes, receiving 11,000 inquiries from public officials on the issue in 2004. That was a 44 percent increase in two years; he added nine employees to deal with the workload. His office typically issued an average of 45 open records rulings a day. The new, two-hour workshops began January 1. (1/30/06)