New measures have been implemented in the City of Atlanta to promote open records compliance in the wake of a legal battle between the City and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News that began in April 2018. "Months of mediation" followed.

We reported on this controversy — which resulted from years of abuse of Georgia's open records law by former Mayor Kasim Reed and his staff — in May and July.

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One member of the former mayor's staff, Jenna Garland, is scheduled to be tried in December on criminal charges arising from conduct that included text messages instructing subordinates to "drag this [responding to open records requests] out," "be as unhelpful as possible," and "provide the information in the most confusing format possible."

On October 3, the AJC reported on the latest development, a newly unveiled city policy that, among other things, "requires that all city employees and officials receive yearly training in the state's Open Records Act, and encourages anyone who witnesses a violation to report it."

Experts question whether "the city is going to be able to build a sustainable culture of open government," and the city's transparency officer acknowledges that she cannot "prevent people from doing the wrong thing," but promises consequences for wrongdoing.

Not an altogether favorable forecast.

But ask any open government advocate and he or she will tell you: Little will change until effective training requirements are implemented and a meaningful effort to "build a sustainable culture of open government" is undertaken.

In Kentucky, this starts with an attorney general who embraces the state's open government laws, expands opportunities for training, defends the laws in court (if necessary), and fights to preserve the laws from legislative assault.

Public employees receive training on sexual harassment awareness, the evaluation process, workplace violence, Green Dot, and an ever expanding list of worthy topics.

Perhaps the time has come to consider another worthy topic, annual public official and public employee open records and meetings training, with the goal of building a sustainable culture of open government in Kentucky.