STATE OF WYOMING TRANSPARENCY AND GOVERNMENT ACCESS
Public Meetings §16-4-401 through 408
Public Meetings Act – Attorney General Summary
Public Records §16-4-201 through 205
Fees and Costs for Obtaining Public Records
WYOMING LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
2021 Legislature Session Schedule
Legislature Committee and Council Meetings & Minutes
WY Legislature – Handbooks and Policy
Fiscal Policies and Procedures
Index of Management Council Financial Policies
Management Council Policies
Travel Regulations
LSO Fiscal Procedures
TRANSPARENCY
“Transparency is a characteristic of governments, companies, organizations and individuals that are open in the clear disclosure of information, rules, plans, processes and actions.”
In a free society, transparency is government’s obligation to share information with citizens. It is at the heart of how citizens hold their public officials accountable.
Governments exist to serve the people. Information on how officials conduct the public business and spend taxpayers’ money must be readily available and easily understood. This transparency allows good and just governance.
Government transparency is traditionally broken into three different types: proactive disclosure, requesting public records, and campaign finance disclosure.
(From Ballotpedia)
As a principle, public officials, civil servants, managers and directors of companies and organizations and board trustees have a duty to act visibly, predictably and understandably to promote participation and accountability.
Simply making information available is not sufficient to achieve transparency. Large amounts of raw information in the public domain may breed opacity rather than transparency.
Information should be managed and published so that it is:
- Relevant and accessible: Information should be presented in plain and readily comprehensible language and formats appropriate for different stakeholders. It should retain the detail and disaggregation necessary for analysis, evaluation and participation. Information should be made available in ways appropriate to different audiences.
- Timely and accurate: Information should be made available in sufficient time to permit analysis, evaluation and engagement by relevant stakeholders. This means that information needs to be provided while planning as well as during and after the implementation of policies and programs. Information should be managed so that it is up-to-date, accurate, and complete.
