One of the first things that Barack Obama did when he took office was to issue an executive order about the Federal Freedom of Information Act. Here's a copy of it, in its entirety, in case you need to quote from it some time when someone asks you why you asked for public records from any government. Plus, after the jump, a list of some of the things we're following via FOIA requests.

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Act

A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open Government. At the heart of that commitment is the idea that accountability is in the interest of the Government and the citizenry alike.

The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve. In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public.

All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.

The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.

I direct the Attorney General to issue new guidelines governing the FOIA to the heads of executive departments and agencies, reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency, and to publish such guidelines in the Federal Register. In doing so, the Attorney General should review FOIA reports produced by the agencies under Executive Order 13392 of December 14, 2005. I also direct the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to update guidance to the agencies to increase and improve information dissemination to the public, including through the use of new technologies, and to publish such guidance in the Federal Register.

This memorandum does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.


BARACK OBAMA

What's in the AnnArbor.com FOIA queue of note this week of Oct. 16, 2009. This is not a comprehensive list of queries in process.

Bridges: Yesterday's story about the East Stadium bridges and the risks to the public from "football sized" pieces of concrete generated a lot of response. I emailed in a request to the FOIA liason at the Federal Highway Administration looking for some additional information, and got a very pleasant call back from Washington, D.C. two days later, assuring me that the information I was looking for would be copied and sent via a CD in the mail at no charge. I don't know what all information they have, but if they are going to be that helpful, I'm going to keep working with them.

Public art: I'm trying to figure out how it came to be that a meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission to approve the plan for the Dreiseitl sculpture at City Hall got cancelled and rescheduled at the last moment because of concerns that the official notice of the meeting was not published in accordance with the Open Meetings Act.

Sidewalks: City Council has an agenda item about a proposed expansion of the contract for the software they are using to track and schedule repairs and ordinance code enforcement. I'm trying to pull the file and all associated correspondence for one specific property where neighbors have been complaining about a missing sidewalk for two years.

Snow, slush, and stormwater removal: Close your eyes and pretend it's February and there is a big puddle of slush between the sidewalk and the street downtown and you walk through it and your feet get soaked. I'm starting to look now to understand just how city government deals with the complex and overlapping responsibilities of snow removal from sidewalks, snow removal from streets, and stormwater handling for melted snow.

Edward Vielmetti is lead blogger for AnnArbor.com and the author of the FOIA Friday series. He completed his senior economics thesis at the University of Michigan in 1988, reading through the collected official correspondence of Henry Carter Adams during his tenure at the Interstate Commerce Commission, a collection which can be found at the Bentley Historical Library. Ed's experience with handling official electronic mail systems also dates back to the late 1980s, when he worked as a postmaster for the University of Michigan's electronic mail system. He was a contributor to the 1993 Internet standard for multimedia electronic mail, and wrote "The (R)evolution of Useful Web Services" published in IEEE Communications in 1999. He is an avid reader of concrete poetry. Contact him at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.