FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Marlena Villers
214.977.6658
FOIFT
to Co-Sponsor Open Government Symposium in El Paso
The
Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, in collaboration
with the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, will sponsor
the second 2006 Open Government seminar on Tuesday, April
18, in El Paso. The seminar will be held from 9:00 a.m. to
4:00 p.m. in Room 308 of the Tomás Rivera Conference Center
at the University of Texas at El Paso, Student Union Building
East, 500 W. University Avenue. Open Government 2006:
A Symposium on Access to Public Information and Open
Meetings in Texas will include video presentations
and in-depth discussions of the Texas Public Information and
Texas Open Meetings Acts.
The
seminar is divided into two sections: videotaped presentations
in the morning; and in the afternoon, a freewheeling interactive
discussion featuring cost rules, hypothetical situations and
a question and answer period.
The
morning portion (9:00 – 11:30 a.m.) fulfills the mandatory
open
government training requirement for public officials and
is free of charge.
Scheduled
presenters for the afternoon section (1:00 – 4:00 p.m.)
include Joseph R. Larsen, an attorney with the law office
of Ogden, Gibson, White, Broocks
& Longoria, L.L.P.; Kym Oltrogge, from the Opinion
Committee of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas;
Hadassah Schloss, cost rules administrator for the Office
of the Attorney General of Texas; and Thornton Wood, assistant
attorney general and public education coordinator for the
Open Records Division of the Office of the Attorney General
of Texas. The fee for the afternoon presentations is $30.
Advance
registration is required for either portion due to limited
space. To register, contact the FOIFT office at 214.977.6658,
or download a registration
form available on the FOIFT Web site at www.foift.org,
and fax or mail to FOIFT at 214.977.6666, 400 S. Record St.,
Suite 240, Dallas, TX 75202.
Open
Government 2006 is a traveling symposium designed to develop
and enhance understanding of the changing landscape of open
government. Sessions will address hot topics in public information
and open meetings laws. The symposium is directed toward the
general public, government employees, public officials and
representatives of the media.
Additional
Open Government 2006 seminars will be held in Amarillo on
June 9 and Tyler on October 20.
The
Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, a nonprofit 501(c)(3)
organization, works to encourage, sponsor and facilitate a
greater appreciation, knowledge and understanding of the First
Amendment. The FOIFT strives to preserve the freedoms necessary
in a democratic republic by educating media and legal professionals,
educators, students, public and government officials and individual
citizens about their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
For more information, call 214.977.6658, or visit our Web
site, www.foift.org.
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