At a forum organized by the D.C. Open Government Coalition May 20, City Council members Mary Cheh (Ward 3) and Muriel Bowser (Ward 4) promoted their bills to make the city government more transparent.
Cheh's bill, the Open Government Act of 2010, would create an independent office to 
oversee agency compliance with the city's Freedom of Information Act, and would amend the FOI Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, and several other statutes. Bowser's bill, the Open 
Government is Good Government Act, would overhaul the city's antiquated open meetings statute, which permits the City Council and more than 60 government boards and commissions to conduct their business in secrecy, requiring open sessions only when the bodies must take formal votes.
Cheh, chair of the Government Operations Committee, will hold a hearing June 7 on her bill, and she said she will also hold a hearing on Bowser's bill, but did not set a date for that hearing.
At the program the Coalition announced results of two audits assessing D.C. agencies' compliance with the FOI Act. One determined that most agencies publish on their websites at least some information the statute requires 
them to post. But most provide far less information than they are supposed to, and often make it difficult to find the information. You can read results of the audit here.
The Coalition also tested agency compliance with a statutory requirement to make publicly available information about FOI Act requests that have been denied. Although most agencies met the deadline for complying with the Coalition's requests for this information, many provided incomplete information or none at all. Results of this ongoing project are here.
At the event the Coalition launched an initiative to make government transparency an issue in the City Council and Mayoral elections this fall. It offered a series of questions city residents can ask at candidate forums and less formal campaign events designed to draw out candidates' views on improving FOIA compliance and opening government meetings to the public. The suggested questions are here.
The D.C. Professional Chapter is a member of the Coalition, and its First Amendment/Freedom of Informaiton Chair, Bob Becker, is a member of the Coalition's board of directors