How does Jeff Gahan score using these "5 Best Practices for Open Local Government"?

"Open government"?

"Culture of transparency"?

"ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS AS OPEN AS POSSIBLE"?

Deep within the bowels of the mayor's down-low bunker, they'd be laughing at these open government practices, emanating three or more years ago from the state of Utah.

But they're not giggling, because they're entirely unaware that notions like these even exist -- and that's why they need to be sent packing.

Photo credit: The article.

5 Best Practices for Open Local Government, by Noelle Knell (Government Technology; April 6, 2012)

1. Local governments should establish a dedicated open government webpage, providing a searchable repository for all public information, accessible in three clicks or less.

2. Online information needs to be collected, generated and maintained in a digital form and made available on the open government webpage in a timely way.

3. All electronic communications made with government supplied equipment, including emails and instant messages, should be considered public records.

4. Elected officials and senior administrators should post their schedules publicly, maintain open settings on social networking sites and commit to a culture of transparency.

5. Governmental bodies should make all public meetings as open as possible by posting agendas and meeting materials in advance, streaming live meeting audio or video, posting recordings within 48 hours and allowing remote participation.

As "Utah’s same-sex marriage ban falls," we hope for a Hoosier sequel.

It really couldn't happen to a better state, home to one of the classic ales in the craft beer pantheon, Polygamy Porter.

Wait; it could.

It needs to happen to Indiana. At NPR, we learn that Utah's governor has "condemned the ruling as judicial activism that overrides the will of the people."

Just like back in olden times, when the "will" of the South's inhabitants favored slavery, and this certain war had to be fought ...

Utah’s same-sex marriage ban falls, Lyle Denniston (SCOTUSblog)

Directly applying the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act to a state’s ban on same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Salt Lake City ruled Friday that Utah’s voter-approved state constitutional amendment violates the federal Constitution.

“The Constitution protects the choice of one’s partner for all citizens, regardless of their sexual identity,” U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled in a fifty-three-page opinion. He was the second federal judge to nullify a ban imposed by a state’s voters at the ballot box; the first such ruling nullified California’s “Proposition 8″ — a ruling that the Supreme Court left intact in June but without a direct ruling on it.

If Judge Shelby’s ruling withstands an appeal, it would make Utah the eighteenth state where same-sex marriages are allowed, and the seventh in which equal marriage rights were established by a court ruling.