Day One is here; Governor Spitzer has issued five executive orders well worth a look. Especially interesting, at least to me, are numbers two and three: "Eliminating politics from government decisionmaking" and "Promotion of Public Access to government decisionmaking".

Executive Order Two forbids campaign contributions by any state employee covered by the order to any campaign for governor or lieutenant governor, and bars state employees from running for office, both state and Federal, unless granted a leave of absence or upon resignation. The order covers employees of state agencies and public authorities like the MTA.

Executive Order Three creates a requirement for all state agencies and public authorities to submit to the secretary of the governor, by March 1st, a schedule of all meetings subject to the Open Meetings law, and to ensure that all such meetings be broadcast via the internet. While the order provides for exemptions, in

circumstances in which such webcasting is either impractical or inappropriate [...].

...it creates the requirement of openness through broadcasting as the default.

Except in those circumstances where an exemption is granted, all agency and authority meetings that are subject to the Open Meetings Law shall be broadcast on the Internet commencing no later than July 1, 2007.

That's a pretty good start.