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John Gregg announces transparency initiative

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INDIANAPOLIS -- On the one-year anniversary of Governor Mike Pence's announcement ofJust IN, a (since-canceled) state-run news service, John Gregg, the Democratic candidate for governor, is calling for greater government transparency in a policy proposal announced Monday.

IndyThisWeek | Exclusive interview with John Gregg

“While this governor would have created a taxpayer funded propaganda machine to control what information reporters and the public have access to, I want to throw open the doors of state government,” Gregg said in a release.

There are four parts to Gregg's open government initiative. Those are:

  1. Mandating a 10-day turnaround on public information requests - There is no current time period that the agencies have to respond to public information requests. They just have to acknowledge the receipt of the request.
  2. Strengthening powers of public access counselor - Gregg wants to give the counselor the power to determine whether certain information should be made public if an agency wants to keep it withheld. 
  3. Creating a public transparency commission - The commission would review the laws and give recommendations on how to improve them.
  4. Creating an open data portal in Indiana - The commission would also create a searchable database for open data.

Indiana received an F in for its access to public information in a 2015 report. 

Gregg said he would issue executive orders to make these parts happen, if necessary.

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