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The Office of the Public Records Advocate is undertaking its second annual celebration of Sunshine Week in Oregon, March 15 to 21, 2020. Sunshine Week is a national effort to promote dialog about the importance of open government and freedom of information at all levels of government. This year’s program honors seven state and local public employees who have modeled best practices in fulfilling public records requests by working extensively to provide fair and timely access to records or proactively posting information of value to the public online and at no cost.
- Sherryll Hoar, Oregon Department of Human Services
Sherryll worked with a member of the media to understand what types of records the state kept on group homes for people with disabilities, and how the media member could make strategic requests to get the information needed in the most efficient way.
- Jake Sunderland, Oregon Department of Human Services
Jake went to great lengths maintaining dialogue with a member of the media in response to a request for records about youth in foster care residing out of state, providing the records as they became available.
- Michael Thomas, City of Amity, OR
Michael exemplified the idea of “transparency by design” by proactively posting records about an important land use decision affecting the community.
- Marjorie Taylor, Oregon Public Employees Retirement System
Marjorie rapidly disclosed voluminous records related to statutory changes that were under consideration for PERS.
- Ray Finnen, University of Oregon Police Department
Ray played a significant role assisting the University of Oregon Police Department’s (UOPD) transition to a new record management system, while also developing a spreadsheet to track response time frames and a desk manual for the records officer position.
- Jeanne Windham, Oregon Health Authority
Jeanne’s responses to public records requests in the last year has resulted in an agency public records compliance rate of 96% or better.
- Kateri Walsh, Oregon State Bar
Kateri has run the Oregon State Bar-Press Broadcasters Council for 22 years, which is a robust entity that helps the media accurately inform the public about legal happenings while also respecting civil rights. Moreover, she has played a major role in ensuring that the Oregon State Bar fulfills its interest to the public under the public records law.
The certificates of award signed by Acting Public Records Advocate Todd Albert are available on the Public Records Advocate’s website: www.oregon.gov/pra.
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