In a press release, the governor’s office detailed a set of directives given to the Idaho Office of the Administrative Rules (OAR) Coordinator. They include four changes, all of which take a human-centered approach to simplifying state government rulemaking for easier consumption by the public. Of the four steps, two of them have tech at the center.
The first tech-heavy step is that Idaho will create a one-stop shop for public meeting and hearing schedules, and it will do it online.
“Online postings of notices and schedules for all negotiated rulemaking public meetings and public hearings on proposed rules used to be located only on individual agencies’ websites in places that could be hard for the public to find,” read the release from the governor’s office. “Now the OAR Coordinator’s website includes all scheduled public meetings and hearings on a single Web page, with easy-to-find information on dates, times, locations, and links to rulemaking notices and dockets.”
Interested parties can already view the schedule online, which includes a list of relevant events for July and August.
The second step that involves technology is a new subscribe feature for the Idaho Administrative Bulletin, which is published once or twice a year. Interested citizens can now sign up and get an email informing them of new publications. In the past, those same users would have had to take the initiative and go check the website for updates.
