FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Download the Press Release PDF

Date: September 26, 2023
Contact: Chelsea Carattini, Communications Director
Phone: (208) 332-2849

(Boise, Idaho) – Secretary Phil McGrane will present on campaign finance and lobbying for the second session of the Government Transparency workshop series sponsored by Idahoans for Openness in Government (IDOG), scheduled for September 27th. Secretary McGrane will focus on campaign finance and lobbying, offering insights into rules, legal compliance, and how the public can access related data.
Registration is now open at openidaho.org.

These informative sessions will be streamed online in partnership with Idaho Public Television. To watch live, please visit idahoptv.org/insession.

The workshop series kicked off on August 30th with State Controller Brandon Woolf presenting on Transparent Idaho and Townhall Idaho. The full video of this session is available now at openidaho.org.

The third session, taking place on October 25th, will feature former Idaho Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane and IDOG President Betsy Russell as lead presenters. They will discuss the Idaho Open Meeting Law. The fourth session on November 28th, again led by Kane and Russell, will focus on the Idaho Public Records Act. Kane is Idaho’s leading authority on these laws, and he, along with Russell and former Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, has conducted over 50 educational seminars on this topic since 2004.

These workshops are tailored for citizens, members of the media, local and state public officials, and their staff interested in understanding the public’s rights under Idaho law for accessing public records and meetings, the associated regulations, and methods for information retrieval.

The sessions are endorsed by the Association of Idaho Cities, the Idaho Association of Counties, Attorneys for Civic Education, and the Idaho Press Club. IDOG is a non-profit coalition for open government whose mission is to promote open government and freedom of information. It is affiliated with the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) and operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, relying solely on grants and donations for funding.

The upcoming sessions are free to attend, either in-person or virtually, but participants are asked to please register in advance at openidaho.org or by calling the State Controller’s Office at 208-334-3100, ext. 0; say you’re calling to register for an IDOG workshop. Registration is now open for all sessions. Continuing legal education credit is available for attorney participants, pending Idaho State Bar approval.

Questions from the public will be taken during each session at [email protected], and will be answered by the presenters during the sessions as time permits. Within a few days after the completion of each session, the full recording will be posted online at IDOG’s website, openidaho.org, for future public viewing.

The IDOG website also offers information and resources about public records and open meeting laws, an online “User’s Guide” to Idaho’s open government laws, and news items from around the state regarding public records, open meetings and matters involving openness in government. During the Idaho legislative session, the site features a bill tracker for legislation affecting the Idaho Open Meeting Law or the Idaho Public Records Act.

You can find more information about IDOG online here: https://openidaho.org/about-us/.

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ABOUT PHIL McGRANE
Phil McGrane was elected Idaho’s twenty-eighth Secretary of State and took office on January 2, 2023. McGrane served as elected Clerk of Ada County from 2019-2022. McGrane holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a juris doctorate, and a Master of Public Administration. As a fourth-generation Idahoan, Phil has dedicated his career to making elections in the state of Idaho accessible, secure and transparent.