In Sunday’s Opinion section, while editorializing on the rare conviction of a public official for violating the state’s transparency laws, we called on state lawmakers to expand and strengthen the state’s Freedom of Information Law as a way to better protect citizens from government secrecy.

Lawmakers actually took a big step toward that end earlier this year when they approved the FOIL Timing bill, a bill that would help reduce the practice of what we call “delay and deny,” by which government agencies delay the release of public information indefinitely, effectively denying the citizens access to the information.

It’s a common ploy that many government bodies now practice to........

© The Leader Herald